Biography

[on her training at the National Institute of Sport (Insep)] It had never been a childhood dream, but I competed across France. It was my first access to the outside world.

In New York, I was told that my voice was sexy. It no longer sounded like an anomaly, but as a peculiarity.

My parents met in the Comoros during the colonial era. When my father entered the Air Force, he was transferred to a base in France. My mother was the only survivor of her family. All my uncles and aunts died at birth, and she wanted to recreate her own tribe in France, she recalls. As we were a large family and air tickets were extremely expensive, we only went to the Comoros every five years.

[on her low voice just earning her sneers from the boys at her school] They thought my voice was an anomaly. I hummed on the way to the bakery because it was the only place where nobody could hear me.

Dad listened to records by Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. Mom was in love with French variety and Joe Dassin.