Christophe Willem delivered without filter. Guest of the program A Sunday in the countryside, broadcast on November 20, 2022 on France 2, the artist confided in his difficult past alongside Julie de Bona and Jean-Pierre Elkabbach.
This November 20, 2022, Christophe Willem was the guest of the show Sunday in the countryside alongside Julie de Bona and Jean-Pierre Elkabbach. The opportunity for the winner of the Nouvelle Star to confide in his difficult adolescence at the microphone of France 2. The young man grew up in Deuil-la-Barre in the Val d’Oise where he was raised by parents who hold a driving school.
And if his voice is his livelihood today, it has made life difficult for those who have already confided in having been the subject of insults in the past. Arrived at college, his particular voice does not fail to attract attention and ridicule. Events of which the artist still bears the stigmata today.
“Adolescence is horror. Because I was very stigmatized. My voice was already much higher than it is today, so it was already very high pitched”, he explains in the France 2 broadcast. A detail that will push some children to make him live a real hell for several years during his schooling.
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Christophe Willem: “At 11 you are accused of being a dirty fag”
“I was pointed out. I had a lot of bullying at school. I had a high-pitched voice, I was already mannered. You can’t say I’m Rambo”, he says on the show. If the artist has always been perfectly in tune with his feminine side, this personality trait does not seem to have been accepted at the time. “At 11 you are called a ‘dirty fag’, a whole lot of words, when you have no sexuality”he recalls bitterly.
At the time, the young man unfortunately finds no support from the supervisors and therefore decides to hide the hell he is going through. “When you get insulted, beaten up… I arrived at my house, I said that I had fallen to the sport. You carry the weight of the shame. I remember really violent scenes where I went to see supervisors and they told me said ‘at the same time it’s true that you are effeminate’, the artist wonders. It is in music and shows that the teenager takes refuge when he decides to join a gospel troupe. Fortunately for Christophe Willem, the high school years are a better memory. “I met a more adult world, less stupid on these questions too”, he says. Despite his difficult adolescence, Christophe Willem managed to get through the hardships and remain optimistic.