500 followers!!!!

From the bottom of my heart a BIG THANK YOU, you have no idea how proud I am for achieving this milestone!

Since I joined the 28th ofDecember 2017, I never expected in a million years having any form of success as I have never been a social media guru, my Youtube Channel subscriber count is stuck at 27 since 2011, and It's the same for Facebook.

So if someone ask me what am I doing different this time around, I have sincerely no idea, I think it all comes down to @dsound support and yours too , and without it I would have kept on failing.So thank you @prc, you made all of this happened!!

Special thanks to you guys for your support:
@opaulo @roelandp @tontin @princepr @darqub @dmiton @jeffandhisguitar @kryptoe @lionmom @heaterville @cryptomatters @danieldyemusic @grant-vegra @arhaynez @extraterrestrial @warudo @onenecha @afrinsultana @darqub @heaterville

Unreal TV

10 years ago I was part of a Reality TV show on french television, and I had the chance to sing and meet a lot of"Musicians & Stars" it was a one of a life time opportunity , and it defined my career and life as this is one of the reason I am today in South Africa.

As you notice I don't talk very often about it , probably because I have mixed emotions on my experience even a whole lot of years later.

On one hand it propelled me to stardom, but on the other hand I lost connection with a lot of friends, and eventually hated the"Ransom of Success" , the price for glory.

I felt at the time that this celebrity was totally undeserved as i was just a candidate of a TV show who didn't prove anything yet, didn't even release a single.
I eventually went to South Africa to record my first album and never went back to France...As simple as that ...I wanted to be forgotten, and take my time to tell the story the way I wanted to tell it, and not being a gimmick, a shallow cliche.

I don't know if I will even tell the whole story from beginning to end, because it would take me months to compile these info, and because I don't want to use this past as a mean to success.

I know it sounds completely absurd, you do a show like this in the first place because you wanted to be seen/watched and noticed, for eventually have a chance to make it in the sea of other artists out there.

So why was I so against my own success?

Well it all come down to the 3 months of show in itself. You see, it's a mix between big brother and the voice, so you are basically being filmed 24/7 , with hidden cameras, a huge production team taking care of everyday maintenance, and countless hours of interviews, sometimes up until 2 or 3am, while living on a TV set, sleeping under projectors...

You are not allowed to see your family, your girlfriend, your friends, and you are completely cut from the outside world. You are just allowed to sing and perform, go to rehearsals, while all of this is being filmed.
People can purchase the 24/7 channel on demand and watch you brushing your teeth like in the True man show.

I remember the first few days inside the studio, we didn't take the whole "game" very seriously and still had some lucidity and force of conviction that you we will all eventually lose a month or two later.

Every one can be broken

It happened to me after a month of beein on the show, I started losing my shit for being filmed all the time, not seeing my girlfriend at the time, and really starting regretting being a part of an Orwellian TvV nightmare!

I remember starting crying for no reason and hide behind a piano to do so . They obviously found an angle to film the whole sequence, with subtitles of course...

Did I forgot to mention that you are not allowed to read?But Why?

I later on learnt that all these techniques are being used during interrogation process in camps. It just ways to break down a prisoner and "reshape" them to your taste.

Maybe the best for me is to explain to you one interview that I remember particularly:

You can never seen the Interviewer, there is always a big bright light right in your face, and the voice always changes. Sometimes you can recognize a familiar voice, but most of the time it's a very neutral voice asking questions.

You are supposed to repeat the question in your answers so they can edit you and get "The right answer"

And that's pretty much what it boils down to. It sounds pretty harmless doesn't it?

Well wait until it's 2am and your get woken up in the middle of the night by a voice in the speaker, then go through an extensive interview when the person will ask the same question OVER AND OVER AGAIN until they get what they want.

This is NLP 101

For those that are not familiar with this term, it's called Neuro-linguistic programming and even if considered dubious by a whole part of the science community, it is still being used everyday by your politicians, your journalists, yours lawyers, your advertisements agencies.

Some words can trigger certain emotions, so they basically try to manipulate your thought process until they get what they want.
You will know when they are pleased, because the voice just stops asking the same damn question...

I remember one day losing my temper , It was the day after crying behind the piano, and my glare was just blank, like a MK ultra patient.

I just said to them " Tell me what you want me to say, I will repeat it word for word"

And the voice was surprised at first but decided it was maybe best for this time to just tell that poor kid "what to say"

As you can imagine I didn't win the show. I left after 3 months of it , we were 6 candidates left out of 21, and I was so happy to finally regain my freedom than nothing else really mattered for a while.

I was completely changed... Not because I learnt some special skill, or because I have grown. But the very opposite...

Here is a list of the "people" I remember meeting while being on the show: Rihanna, Tom Jones, Keziah Jones, Al Jarreau, Chris Brown, Madcon, Seal, Shaggy , jason Mraz, Craig David, Leona Lewis, Katie Perry, Akon, Lenny Kravitz, Britney Spears, Scorpions, and I am forgetting half of the others.

You see all these superstars came on the show to sing with one of the candidates, it was a nice way for them to promote their latest song and cash in. (Salary for Britney was 1 million USD for 1 song)

I realized that most (I say most because there are exceptions) of these so called celebrities just happened to be where they are today by complete accident, and with very little talent involved.

I will keep a fond memory of Al Jarreau, Keziah Jones, Tom Jones and Akon , as they behaved really respectfully and professionally.

But for all the rest, I realized that the so called "show business" was probably not for me, at least not in this form, and that most of today's celebrities are just are just empty shells that are being told were to sit, what to say, what to eat or what to think.

It broke the mirror for me, and I decided that I will have to take a different route if I ever want to be happy in living with my music.
Endemol and universal offered me a contract for an EP when I finally got out , with an advance, but I turned it down as they wanted to write and compose the album for me, in french.

I didn't want to sing in french , I wanted to sing soul music in English and compose my own music.

I found a production company that believed in me and I decided to go as far away as I could from France, to record my album.

And it was set on South Africa, I am not really sure why . probably because you literally can't go further south.
The production company didn't enjoy the album and fired me, but it doesn't matter for the sake of our story.

Each and everyone one of your actions have consequences.I wouldn't have met my wife today if I didn't go to South Africa, and we wouldn't have two beautiful children, I wouldn't have become the person that i am today without her, that's for sure.For this I am being very grateful that my younger self decided to be a part of a TV show.

So today, this Mr Lonely by Akon feat. Ed Privat, it was recorded in 2008 on french TV.

I was through a month in the competition and was just about to get eliminated. Somehow they only gave me weird songs to sing, so I was happy to sing "Mr Lonely" with Akon , as it was quite a soulful song.

We had a day of rehearsal the day before the prime time, and he was very respectful , and quite the humble type.

He shook my hand amicably before we started the first rehearsal on stage. While they're setting us up on a big elevator, i asked him what he was working on at the time, and told me that he was writing an album for Michael Jackson and he was delighted about it .

The night of the show was one of my worst performance, I think I made mistake with the teleprompter at the beginning of the song and it threw me off guards in front of an audience of 10 millions people. Nice one Ed!

Later on in a interview, the french newspaper asked Akon if he enjoyed being on the show and he said yes and the "students were awesome" , and when the newspaper asked him if he remembered the name of the student , he admitted that he didn't.
He added that he doesn't like Paris because it's cold

I don't know why it was sooo important for that newspaper to mention the fact that he doesn't remember me, just a wink to remind me that I will stay forgotten even after the show. French newspapers love failure, and won't miss a chance to quote anyone ready to say something terrible about reality tv candidates.

I don't blame Akon for not remembering me , he was a busy dude at the peak of his career and I was a minnow trying to figure out who I was.

As it is a singing competition, we never got paid for the 3 months of the show but I had some fun and other embarrassing moments, as it's been 10 years now it's time to let go!

Ok... let's do this...Cringe time

LISTEN TO MR LONELY BY AKON FEAT. ED PRIVAT ON DSOUND