Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Le Magueresse (born 28 September 1982), known by her stage name Nolwenn Leroy, is a French singer-songwriter, musician, and actress.

Leroy was born in Saint-Renan in 1982.

Leroy's parents left Saint-Renan (Finistère) when she was four years old.

After living in Paris, Lille, and Guingamp, her mother, Muriel Leroy, and her younger sister, Kay, settled with Leroy's grandparents in Saint-Yorre.

Her mother divorced from her father, professional footballer Jean-Luc Le Magueresse, in 1993.

Nolwenn studied at the "Collège des Célestins" in Vichy.

When Leroy was eleven, her music teacher noticed her musical talents and encouraged her to learn the violin.

At the age of thirteen she won "Les écoles du désert", a contest sponsored by the Cora supermarket chain, which allowed her to travel with a humanitarian mission from Gao to Timbuktu, Mali; she later claimed this had a profound influence on her.

In July 1998, Leroy was awarded a scholarship by the Vichy Rotary Club to travel to Hamilton, Ohio, United States, as an exchange student.

While attending Hamilton High School, she took music lessons at the Performing Arts School and became fluent in English.

When she returned to France, she began classical singing classes at the Vichy music conservatory.

In 2001, she enrolled in the University of Clermont-Ferrand to study law for a potential alternative career to music.

After watching the first season of Star Academy broadcast on TF1 in 2001, Leroy was impressed by Armande Altaï, a singing teacher and one of the show's judges.

She subsequently joined Altaï's singing classes in Paris for over six months.

Originally classically trained (violin and opera singing), she rose to fame after winning the second season of the French television music competition Star Academy in 2002.

She has since recorded eight studio albums and scored two number one singles, "Cassé" and "Nolwenn Ohwo!", on the French charts.

In 2002, Nolwenn was selected for the second season of Star Academy, but she was also given the part of Scarlett O'Hara in the French stage musical Autant en emporte le vent (Gone with the Wind) by Gérard Presgurvic.

Leroy ended up choosing Star Academy over the musical.

As a contestant on the show, Leroy spent four months in a castle located in Dammarie-lès-Lys, and followed acting, dancing and singing classes.

On 21 December 2002, she was declared the winner ahead of fellow finalist, Houcine Camara.

Leroy's first album, Nolwenn, was released in March 2003 and was certified platinum by November for sales exceeding 300,000 copies.

Leroy went on her first solo tour in France, Belgium and Switzerland in late 2003 to promote songs from the album.

Leroy's second album, Histoires Naturelles, was released on 5 December 2005.

It was produced by Laurent Voulzy and Frank Eulry.

The album's lead single "Nolwenn Ohwo!", co-written by Alain Souchon, Voulzy and Leroy herself, topped the French charts one week after its release.

The second single was the title track, "Histoire Naturelle".

Music videos were made for both songs; the video for "Histoire Naturelle" expressed the main theme of the album with Leroy being portrayed as natural history museum exhibits.

Of the other single releases, "Mon Ange" was distributed digitally while "J'aimais tant l'aimer" and "Reste Encore" were promotional-only.

The album reached platinum status with sales exceeding 400,000 copies.

In 2006, the album was certified two times platinum by the Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique (SNEP) for more than 600,000 copies sold.

Both the album and the first single "Cassé" topped the charts in France and Belgium.

Three other songs from the album were released as singles: "Une Femme cachée", "Suivre une étoile" and "Inévitablement".

Leroy performed songs from both Histoires Naturelles and Nolwenn on her second solo tour, which started in September 2006.

Leroy's first live album, Histoires Naturelles Tour, was subsequently released in late October 2007.

In 2012, her album Bretonne was certified two times diamond for sales exceeding one million copies.

Leroy is fluent in English, having spent a year in the US as an exchange student.

She sings in many languages, including French, Breton, English and Irish.

Leroy has received numerous awards and nominations.

In January 2015, she was ranked 17th on Le Journal du Dimanche's 50 Most Loved Celebrities in France, making her the top female singer on the list since December 2012.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 2021.