"Sounds like a musical".
Enrico Macias has a tender look, this afternoon of last December, discovering "Children of the stars", the duet he has just recorded with Noa R. In front of the console of a Parisian studio, this 16-year-old Swiss takes her first steps as a singer.
But she can count on a caring “song sponsor” and more than professional connections.
Because Enrico is also a “healing godfather” for the high school student, who lives in Geneva.
Twelve years ago, his song “All the Suns of Friendship” literally brought him back to life.
Noa R. was born with four brain tumors.
"She suffered from dyspraxia (
Editor's note: childhood disease due to a dysfunction in cerebral movement control
) and suffered up to 160 epileptic seizures per day," says Nora, her mother.
Until a more serious crisis, at four years old, which plunges her into a coma.
»In his hospital room, the concern is great.
His father, Ygal, passes his favorite singer, Enrico Macias, to relax the atmosphere.
His wife asks him to stop.
And miracle.
Noa sits up on her bed, opens her eyes and talks again.
“She repeated
Papa ayik ayik
, says her mom.
She meant:
Music daddy
.
"
Noa R. was born with four brain tumors and suffered from dyspraxia.
She has been able to operate since.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
“This story is unique,” said Enrico Macias, twelve years later.
When Noa's dad told it to me with tears in his eyes, I thought it was a fan's fantasy, but I inquired and I know it's true.
It's crazy.
This song says
wake up, life is beautiful
.
Even if your heart is in trouble
.
And that's what happened to Noa.
I am very attached to her.
And I will do anything to make her dream of becoming a singer come true.
She's just starting out, but she already has an exceptional ear and memory.
It is a second miracle.
"
"Music is like a sister"
After this "miracle", Noa was able to be operated, her tumors were removed, the seizures ceased.
A new life has started.
“She still has difficulty learning at school, attention problems and fine motor skills,” says her mother.
But the music made him progress a lot.
Noa says she feels free when she sings.
It's a need, his way of expressing himself.
"Music is like a sister," adds Noa.
When my father asked me two years ago what I wanted to do with my life, I answered him without hesitation as a singer.
"
Enrico Macias invited her several times on stage, including once in the first part near her home, in Divonne-les-Bains (Ain).
They recorded two duets and he promises to write her songs.
"But I let her do her first album and then I'll take care of her," he smiles.
Because the teenager, who has been taking singing lessons for over a year, has finished recording her first album, with a dozen songs written by two big names, Christophe Cazenave and Régis Sevignac, including a text written by Marc Lavoine , " Do not go ".
What will artist Noa R.'s debut album look like?
“To me”, smiles the teenager, a delicious mix of fragility and self-confidence, lightness and gravity, her parents' tastes for Cabrel, Berger, Hallyday and Aznavour, and the tangy pop of singers of her age, Wejdene, Carla, Lou… Her record will be released, she hopes, this summer.
Before that of Enrico Macias, scheduled for October.
This will be his thirtieth in his sixty-year career.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have such a sponsor ...