Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Leroy rose to prominence as one of several French pop figures who attained instant recognition through the amateur talent broadcast Star Academy. She entered the world on September 28, 1982, in the Breton city of St. Renan as the daughter of professional footballer Jean Luc le Magueresse. Frequent moves tied to her father's club transfers shaped her upbringing across multiple locations, after which she enrolled at Collège des Célestins in Saint-Yorre; there a music instructor prompted her to begin violin lessons. She also displayed skill in graphic arts and, at age 13, captured first prize in a nationwide drawing contest that sent her to distribute art materials in Mali.

After a short interval back in France, she joined an exchange program that placed her for a year in the United States, where she completed a two-day course at Cincinnati's Performing Arts School. The stay proved decisive in directing her toward a singing vocation, so upon returning she registered for classical vocal training at the Clermont-Ferrand Conservatoire while simultaneously pursuing law studies in anticipation of a possible career in international diplomacy. An enthusiast of the emerging series Star Academy, in 2001 she joined classes led by program judge and vocal coach Armande Altaï, who advised her to audition for the show's second season. The same night she learned she had advanced as a finalist, word arrived that she had been chosen to portray Scarlett O'Hara in Autant en Emporte le Vent, the French stage musical adaptation of the classic novel Gone with the Wind. She ultimately selected Star Academy, a choice vindicated on December 21, 2002, when viewer votes crowned her the season's champion.

Her self-titled debut album appeared in March 2003 and yielded the hit singles "Cassé" and "Suivre une Étoile." The record ascended to the top of the French chart and settled at number two in Switzerland. For the 2005 follow-up Histoires Naturelles, Leroy worked with legendary French pop composer Laurent Voulzy on a mystical, deeply romantic collection that prompted critics to recall the work of Kate Bush and Tori Amos; it reached the top three in France. She began sessions for her third album in 2007 with Teitur Lassen producing. Issued in 2009, Le Cheshire Cat & Moi became the first project on which every lyric was written by Leroy herself.

At the close of 2010 she released Bretonne, the biggest commercial success of her career. The album presented songs performed in four languages—Gaelic, French, English, and Breton—and mixed covers of traditional Celtic material with more contemporary selections. It restored Leroy to the summit of the French charts for the first time since her 2003 debut and held the position for six weeks. In 2012 Bretonne was repackaged with an altered track list for American listeners under the title Nolwenn. Her next studio album, Ô Filles de l'Eau, arrived later that year; propelled in part by the moderate hit single "Juste Pour Me Souvenir," it peaked at number five in France. A live companion recording, Ô Tour de l'Eau, followed in 2014. She returned to the French top five in 2017 with Gemme, which climbed to number three. In 2019 she issued the full-length Folk, on which she reinterpreted songs by such esteemed European singer-songwriters as Jacques Higelin, Nino Ferrer, Nicolas Peyrac, and Francis Cabrel.