Dubai, the El Dorado of reality TV influencers: "Now we're all here"

Our series “

Influencers in Dubai

” in five episodes

:

Nabilla, Jazz, Hillary… "they sell dreams in a dream setting"

"Now we are all here"

The birth of a cash machine

Dubai had it all planned

The "French bad" crispe locals and expatriates

In Dubai, the sun is already beating down on the chic and ultra-secure Damac Hills district.

At the end of February morning, the streets are deserted.

The inhabitants savor the air conditioning of their imposing villas, futuristic cubes of glass and concrete, which they only leave to join their cars parked in front of them.

It is in this neat "community" of 3000 homes, supervised by several guards, that Hillary Vanderosieren, and her little family, has just put down her suitcases.

“We've only had the keys for ten days,” smiles the pretty 29-year-old blonde.

With 2 million subscribers on Instagram, the starlet, revealed ten years ago by the W9 show "les Ch'tis", is the archetype "reality TV influencer".

In the profession, she is one of the veterans.

“I participated in 22 or 23 different programs, she calculates.

I do not get enough !

Visibly enthusiastic, she begins in the Middle East, in this apparently modern and progressive emirate, a "new life".

Beautiful villa and services galore

Raised in a modest family in northern France, a BTS in management, she arrived in this world at 19 without knowing anything about it.

With "TV", the explosive blonde discovers life, travels, meets love under the eyes of an audience that always asks for more.

The candidate "has fun".

"I got used to the idea that my life was that very early on," she admits, in a soft voice, without an accent, with a timbre far removed from the outbursts of voices which she specializes in on shows. .

600 m2 of surface area, five bedrooms, six bathrooms ... The influencer Hillary Vanderosieren has settled with her companion and their child in a luxurious house in Dubai.

LP / Fred Dugit

Three years ago, the young woman "arose" with Giovanni Bonamy, a handsome model looking like Ken, fell pregnant faster than expected and moved to the Paris region.

Her influencer status allows her to (comfortably) earn a living thanks to product placements on social networks.

His world is the image.

Today, Hillary can afford rent of around 5,000 euros per month.

“It's cheaper than in Paris.

We are lucky, repeats at will the young mother.

We have everything here: basketball courts, tennis, swimming pools, a supermarket.

”Not to mention the banks, cafes, restaurants, schools, nurseries… With 600 m2 of surface area, five bedrooms, six bathrooms and vertiginous ceilings, the house impresses.

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The living room seems a little empty despite two large sofas, a long marble table, a white grand piano and a huge television.

"All of our Paris furniture is on a ferry, we hope to receive it very soon", apologizes the hostess as she walks around the owner.

A departure assumed ... but also criticized

“For Dubai, we hesitated for a long time,” Hillary admits, looking for Giovanni's gaze behind her dapper sunglasses.

Molded in a khaki tank top to match hers, "for the pictures", her dear and tender approves.

“I was worried that Gio didn't like this place, because it's an overrated country.

A Las Vegas n ° 2 ”, continues the young woman, white pants and cropped top revealing an ultra-flat stomach.

Like all influencers who reside in Dubai, Hillary (here with her partner Giovanni) lives on income from product placements on social networks.

LP / Fred Dugit

"I am very thoroughly on questions of ecology", adds "Gio".

Hillary laughs heartily: "You're into it, but you live in Dubai!"

Their new love nest is next to a golf course of several hectares, very green, opened by Donald Trump in 2017 in the middle of the desert.

“There are always advantages and disadvantages…” he concedes.

When the couple announced their move to the Hillary "community", criticism mounted.

“Living the high life here didn't really match his image of a ch'ti, of a simple girl,” Giovanni analyzes.

They weren't expecting it, but in the end I have the impression that they are happy for us.

"

“We're going to be fine,” he anticipates.

In Paris, it had become difficult.

I needed the sun, to play sports.

"For the model with protruding muscles and an impeccable tan," this is paradise.

And if ever the two parents are busy preparing for a shoot or taking care of their body, they can entrust their little boy Milo, 7 months, to his “nanny” Simbo, an Ethiopian nanny living at home.

“It made us feel weird at first, but it's like that here.

She seems happy to be with us, ”observes Giovanni.

Be careful, "this is not her second mother!"

Hillary swears.

Hillary and her companion Giovanni hesitated to settle in Dubai, fearing its "overrated" side.

LP / Fred Dugit

Perched on her balcony, the influencer praises her clear horizon on the golf course.

Then points to a garden with a swimming pool, two houses from her home.

“Right there, it's at Maddy Burciaga”, another influencer with an equally extensive television career: “Who wants to marry my son?

"," The Villa of broken hearts "," the Marseillais vs the rest of the world "," the Angels ", etc.

A very small world.

This other star of the screens is in a relationship with Benjamin Samat, umpteenth candidate of the flagship show of W9 "the Marseillais".

The two lovebirds met… in Dubai some time after coming on their own, in the fall.

These reality TV people evolve "in a vacuum"

"Actually, we're all here now…" Hillary blurted out.

“We” is the microcosm of reality TV, an environment that “operates in a vacuum”, according to Nathalie Nadaud-Albertini, media sociologist.

And the vase today is Dubai.

The exile of this small troop in the Middle East began three years ago, initiated by two first couples: Jessica Thivenin and Thibault Garcia, pillars of the “Marseillais”, as well as Jazz Correia and her husband Laurent, of the “JLC Family ”, a TFX program which chronicles the adventures of this family, like the Kardashians in the United States.

The two families have contracts with rival channels, M6 and TF1, and do not mix in the Emirates.

Regularly, TV friends visit them.

“We came three times in two years.

Once on vacation, then for filming, says Hillary, who is friends with Jazz.

We realized that we could work here too.

“By discovering the city-state, its security and its fiscal largesse, the idea germinates, slowly.

Thus, Nabilla Benattia, the most famous of French influencers, flew to the Arab-Persian Gulf with her 6 million “followers”, her husband and her son in winter 2019. The Covid-19 crisis in 2020 precipitated the movement.

As in France, Dubai has confined itself to spring.

But since the summer, most places of life have reopened.

When Caroline Receveur (4 million subscribers) and her husband Hugo Philip move in turn in the fall, the world of reality television is racing.

“New adventure that begins here,” wrote Milla Jasmine, in the caption of a photo of her on a sparkling terrace in the emirate at the end of December.

“I put my bags down in Dubai.

Not very original, some might say, but I feel good there, ”post Sarah Lopez, sitting on the plane at the end of January.

The community already has about thirty influencers

“These announcements are no longer even surprising, loose Sam Zirah, content producer on YouTube, who regularly invites reality TV personalities.

It's a phenomenon of mimicry:

The recipe works for others, why not me?

"

Milla Jasmine, seen in "The Princes and Princesses of Love" on W9, set down in Dubai, in December 2020. LP / Fred Dugit

On site, there are now around thirty French influencers.

The consequences are tangible.

"I started to be overwhelmed in October", remembers Chahrazed Aggoun, sales manager at District One, the most prestigious community in the city, where the cheapest villa costs 2 million euros. .

“The influencers have done a lot of advertising, observes the French, resident of Dubai for nine years.

Before, I had 10% of French customers.

Now it's 70%.

Businessmen, celebrities, doctors, entrepreneurs… All have bought a property.

"

In Damac Hills too, requests are increasing.

At least four families from the same background have found their happiness there.

Hillary and Giovanni are the last on the list.

“We know how lucky we are to be able to come and live here,” says Hillary.

We just seized the opportunity.

" Until when ?

The little family allows themselves three years to test the Dubai “experience”.

"And then, if we don't like it, we are not in prison, we will come back ..."

Read episode 3

:

The birth of a cash machine

They are young, beautiful, popular… and many today call themselves “millionaires”.

How much are influencers, who sometimes line up dozens of reality TV shows on their CVs, paid by the brands that rely on them to sell their products?

Who is Magali Berdah, this former insurance broker who made their business take off?