PRIME The duos Clara-Julien and Marie-Maud-Héléna were in the hot seat on Saturday evening for the fourth prime of the TF1 talent show
This new season of Star Acadamy is continuing its course. The fourth bonus took place on Saturday evening, at the end of a week of tension marked by the duo evaluations. If the duo formed by Candice and Pierre did well, Julien and Clara as well as Marie-Maud and Héléna were in the hot seat and played their place at the castle on Saturday evening.
During this bonus, the nominated duos had several opportunities to convince the public. More than expected since a new event, the secret battle, has been added to the program. Each duo prepared two songs, one for a vocal performance and the other to “ambience” the set, said Michael Goldman, director of Star Ac.
In the end, it was the Clara-Julien duo who came out best in the eyes of the public. All that remained was to decide between Marie-Maud and Hélèna. A difficult task that fell to the other students in the class. It was Marie-Maud who paid the price and did not return to the castle at the end of the evening.
“Star Academy”: Favorite place and new play, Karima Charni took us on a tour of the castle sets
BEHIND THE SCENES As the new season of TF1 telecrochet begins this Saturday, “20 Minutes” was invited to a visit to the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys at the end of October. Co-host Karima Charni took the opportunity to share memories and anecdotes with us.
TF1 is launching a new season of “Star Academy” this Saturday, November 4, at 9:10 p.m. Star Academy
At the end of October, Karima Charni, co-host (with Nikos Aliagas) of the telecrochet, who will provide voice-overs for the daily newspapers, took a handful of people to visit the sets of the Château des Vives-Eaux in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne). of journalists.
A new room awaits the candidates, that of “the public”.
Karima Charni’s favorite place at the Château des Vives-Eaux in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne)? She points at him. It’s this little corner, on the highest step of the exterior staircase, against the right pillar when you have the large entrance door at your back.
When she was a candidate for season 4 of “Star Academy”, nineteen years ago, she liked to sit here, letting her thoughts wander while observing the park and its green expanse. She captured this view for her memory, saying to herself “Look at what you are experiencing” so that she could, later, summon the image and let the memories come back. “This porch is the place that sums up my entire Star Ac. What things have happened here! We talked, we consoled each other, we sat there while waiting for the teachers to arrive…” she says.
Karima Charni made her return to these places last year, with the resumption of the show on TF1, but this time as co-host. After each bonus, she made – and will do again this year – the bus trip with the students from the plateaus of the Saint-Denis plain (Seine-Saint-Denis), collected their impressions, played the role of a caring “big sister”. and, once the vehicle arrived at the castle gates, turned back, not without greeting the star academicians and asking them to hand over their microphones.
For this new season, launched this Saturday at 9:10 p.m., her duties are expanding: she will be the voice-over for the daily newspapers and will launch calls for votes, from the director’s office, after each nomination on Wednesday. “I am a program guide, I am not in contact with the teaching staff,” she explains.
“There are minute thieves”Star Academy
On this Thursday morning at the end of October Karima Charni plays the guide for around ten journalists who have come to discover the new settings. She demonstrates her gift of omniscience. She talks about what she experienced here in 2004 – we no longer remembered that the promotion of the edition won by Grégory Lemarchal did not sleep in the castle but in dormitories set up in an outbuilding – and proves, evocation of anecdotes, that she perfectly followed everything that happened last year.
Back on the porch, she orders us to look into the distance: “Do you see this pontoon? » We can actually see a small wooden platform overlooking a watercourse. “Well, regularly, a woman came to do her yoga sessions there. The students were waving at her and trying to get her attention but she never noticed them. Maybe she was a fan of the show and she never knew anything about it,” she smiles.
Star Academy: We enter the castle. The large staircase faces us, the famous red telephone is at its foot. As usual, each student will have one minute per day to call a loved one. “There are minute thieves,” warns the regular who explains the procedure to follow. We pick up the receiver, we then have someone from production online who we tell who we want to contact and they put us in touch. There is hold music. In my day, it was Let Me Dance, which was the anthem of our season. When the song changed, it was a sign that another of our singles (En chantant, then Farewell, Mr. Professor) was being exploited. »
We enter the first room on the right, the kitchen. “It’s a real place of life where star academy pass more than three times a day,” comments Karima Charni. There, they will have everything to prepare their meals. » We notice jars of pasta on which each label indicates the cooking time. 4 minutes for shells, 9 for gluten-free spaghetti. “We must not forget that most of the students are very young and have never cooked,” underlines our guide. On one of the walls, a gigantic schedule awaits residents to remind them that they are not here on vacation. “They will have their first lessons at 7 a.m. and, at midnight, it’s lights out,” she explains.
61 cameras, rather discreet
Head to the living room with its petrol blue walls. “It’s THE room, where the students discover the most things. This is where they learn who the nominees of the week are, where they follow the weekly debriefs, where the main announcements are made,” recalls Karima Charni. We notice neon lights evoking the works of Keith Harring, a type of lighting that we will find in other rooms. Same thing for the sort of four-color rainbow, a pattern that runs along the wall of several rooms.
The room opens onto a terrace to which students will have access, but smokers will have to go a little further below to satisfy their nicotine needs away from the cameras. Speaking of cameras: the device has 61, rather discreet. “There is no one-way window. Unlike my season, where all the openings to the outside were obscured, they will be able to take advantage of the natural light and see what is happening outside. Star Academy
Upstairs are the bedrooms. The girls’ one oscillates between pale pink and cream. The boys’ one is eyeing the rust color. In 2004, a season when the students slept elsewhere, the first was dedicated to styling and the second to photo shoots, the host tells us. In a corridor we spot a mirror adorned with “Paris Latino” neon – one of the many nods to the show’s history scattered throughout the decor.
Messages left in the toilet
We also take a look in the toilets which, of course, remain hidden from the cameras. Star Academy On the walls, all the star academicians left little words that have never been erased. The class of 2022 has fulfilled the tradition. “Never give up. Keep going! », Wrote the winner, Anisha. “Thank you for everything, I am leaving with a heart filled with hope and dreams,” Enola gushed when Louis greeted with “Thank you for this adventure that has grown and changed me.”