Amandine Bourgeois was born on the 12th of June, 1979 in Angoulême, in the western part of France. Her mother was a nurse, her father a guitarist, so I guess you could say she was born with music coursing through her veins. She grew up with a step father who playes bass guitar and already by the age of seven she had taken her first tentative steps into the world of music by studying music theory. Already at the age of nine she was studying to play the flute at Nice Conservatory. Growing up, she had Whitney Houston as her idol.
After studying hospitality, music was put on the back burner for a while; it wasn’t paying the bills and so Amandine worked as a waitress at luxury hotels in both England and on the Balearics. She originally intended to work her way up theough the industry and end up as manager of a hotel, but soon found out that the lifestyle wasn’t for her. It was her real passion music that drew her back to Tournefeuille, aged just 22.
She played various gigs together with pop rock group Tess and the funk-soul group Zia in the Toulouse area, and in 2003, her dream of working in the music industry full time finally came a step closer, as she lands a job as backing singer for Hélène Rollès who was busy recoirding an album in Toulouse at the time. Following that, she served as warm up act for the group Gold and from there landed roles in the musicals Le Casting and The Wall in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Amandine’s currency was on the way up, and she continued to perform regularly with Zia and was also involved in a music project called Tous Des Stars.
Her career took a turn for the better when in 2007 Amandine was contacted by the producers of a the TV talent show Nouvelle Star in 2007. She sailed through the casting, and the rest, as they say, is history. She went on to win the show in the summer of 2008, and as a result landed a recording contract with Sony Records for the production of her first album. Fresh from the success of her victory, she toured France as part of a roadshow with a series of concerts arranged by France 2 and NRJ.
Her debut single, L’homme de la Situation appeared in April 2009, heralding her forthcoming album 20 m², released the follwing month. The single met with moderate success, her album faring slightly better, reaching number five on the French charts and number 8 on the Walloon charts. The album was very well received by the French media, going on to sell 60,000 copies and earning her a gold disc by the summer. A follow up single appeared, Tant De Moi, but was not backed by her record label. Amandine returned to the spotlight in January 2010, when the single Du Temps was given a proper release by her record company. She plugged it a number of times on TV which led to renewed interest for her album. She began touring to promote her album, opening to rave reviews and was on the road until the end of 2010. 2010 also saw Amandine dip her toe for the first time into the pool of film music, performing the track Bijou, Bijou from the film Remets-lui Johnny Kid. In 2011, she even made a guest appearance alongside the Scorpions on their album Comeblack, performing the duet with them Still Loving You / Je t’aime Encore.
In mid March 2012, her second album appeared, Sans Amour, Mon Amour (Without Love, My Love). The album was partly recorded in England, under the watchful eye of Ian Capple and the same team who were behind the success of Amy Winehouse. Her newest offering takes a slightly different musical direction, with an altogether vintage feel to it, parts of the tracks having been recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Despite all of the right connections, the difficult second album surprisingly failed to make any impact.
