Ben L'Oncle Soul

Ben l'Oncle Soul emerged as a French soul performer embracing a vintage aesthetic, achieving his breakthrough when the self-titled album reached the top five upon its release in 2010. Born Benjamin Duterde in 1984 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France, he drew both his stage name and visual presentation from Uncle Ben, the fictional elderly African-American figure wearing a bow tie who functions as the brand icon for Uncle Ben's Rice. He selected the name Ben l'Oncle Soul instead of Uncle Ben specifically to steer clear of potential trademark violations. Long before adopting that persona, Duterde launched his career by serving as a vocalist in the Fitiavana Gospel Choir after joining the ensemble in 2004. The Tours-based group issued its first album, I Have a Dream (2009), which gathered English-language soul classics including "Killing Me Softly," "Lean on Me," and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." That exposure directly led to a solo contract offer from the French arm of Motown Records. Performing under the Ben l'Oncle Soul name, he entered the solo market with the Soul Wash EP (2009). The six-track release consists of cover songs, most delivered in English, and delivers them in a retro manner shaped by the Motown and Stax recordings of the 1960s. Its single was a rendition of the Gnarls Barkley smash "Crazy." Roughly six months afterward, Duterde delivered his first full-length project, the self-titled Ben l'Oncle Soul (2010). Guillaume Poncelet and Gabin Lesieur handled production on an album built from original songs along with the Soul Wash EP's cover of the White Stripes hit "Seven Nation Army." Issued as the lead single, "Seven Nation Army" helped drive Ben l'Oncle Soul to a top-five position on the French albums chart.