Kenji Girac is a young singer from France, who gained wide popularity thanks to the French version of the vocal competition The Voice (“Voice”) on TF1. He is currently actively recording solo material.
Kenji Girac family
Of considerable interest among connoisseurs of Kenji's work is his origin. His parents are Catalan gypsies who lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Kenji's family lived permanently in the same place for only six months. After that, at the beginning of summer, the boy, along with his family and camp, left for six months to roam the territory of France.
This lifestyle greatly influenced the upbringing of the boy, and at the age of 16 Zhirak left school to earn money with his father. They worked as delimbers on felled trees.
With all this, Zhirak received a fairly good education. He speaks several languages, including Spanish. As a child, Kenji's grandfather taught his grandson to play the guitar, which to this day is the basis of the young man's repertoire.
Of course, the lifestyle of the family left a serious mark on the work of the musician. Kenji uses the guitar to play gypsy tunes. He also plays flamenco.
He combines such traditional melodies with modern technologies and popular musical trends, which makes his work equally interesting for both the younger generation and the older one.
The beginning of the creative path
Becoming a singer is a distant dream of a musician, which gradually began to come true in 2013. At that time, the boy (at that time he was 16 years old) took the song of the rapper Maitre Gims Bella and made his own guitar cover.
At the same time, he not only sang it, but added traditional gypsy motifs to it. Originality was appreciated, so the YouTube video was widely shared in France.
In 2014, after successfully passing the qualifying tests, Kenji got on the show "Voice" (France). Mika, a singer who had already received world fame at that time, became the mentor of the novice musician on the project.
At that time, the video with a cover version of the Bella song was already very popular on the YouTube service and gained almost 5 million views even before Kenji passed the qualifying tests.
It was this video that attracted the attention of Mika and convinced him to become a mentor to the young artist. By May 2014, the 17-year-old singer became the undisputed winner of the third season of the TV project.
51% of viewers voted for him, which was an absolute record for the show. Such a victory gave an excellent start to the career of an aspiring musician.
The boy enjoyed great popularity, gained the first fans who were looking forward to his solo release.
In September 2014, Kendji's first solo studio album was released, which can be called a success. It hit the top charts for 2014 album sales in France.
Over 68 thousand copies of the album were sold in a week, which is more than a successful result for France. To date, the disc has a double "platinum" status, and the Andalous hit is widely recognized throughout the world.
Creativity Kendji Girac
It was the song Andalous that brought Kenji significant attention from famous producers and popular artists.
So, in 2015, just four months after the release of the debut album, the composition One Last Time was published - a duet with the world-famous singer Ariana Grande.
Kenji's version, recorded in French, reached numerous European charts. One Last Time was a great "warm-up" for the second solo album of the Ensemble musician.
The album turned out to be Kenji's already familiar "signature" sound, was filled with experiments with traditional gypsy and modern pop music.
The album was warmly received by critics and also showed excellent sales in France. The song Conmigo broke the records of many charts, and the author himself received an award for it at the NRJ Music Awards in 2015 in the nomination "Best Song of the Year in French".
Both records have songs in both their native French and Spanish. More than 5 years have passed since the release of the second album.
According to the musician, he is preparing a third album. Such a long pause is explained by the fact that the singer dreams of entering the international arena, having gained popularity outside his native France.
It is quite possible that on the next disc we will hear compositions not only in French and Spanish, but also in English.
The musician said that he would like to record at least one English-language composition, however, in his own opinion, this will be a very difficult task (Kenji does not speak English, unlike French and Spanish).
In a recent interview, Kenji admitted that he dreams of getting even more famous. Now the young man is actively touring, but all concerts are held mostly in France.
It is the third disc that should expand the geography of Kenji's listeners. The singer's third album is expected at the end of 2020 at the beginning of 2021.
