I thought the 4th season of The Voice France (La Plus Belle Voix) passed by without us noticing because there wasn’t a Lebanese candidate there.

The first season of the show had Johnny Maalouf, who received the least media attention in this home country even though he reached very advanced stages on the show; the second one had Anthony Touma, who reached the semi-finals before losing to the eventual runner up of that season; and last year’s season had Aline Lahoud, daughter of Lebanese late singer Salwa Al Katrib, who auditioned with one of her mother’s most famous songs and made it to the battle stages of the show.

According to LeFigaro, LBC and up and coming Lebanese blog Sharbel Faraj, Hiba Tawaji is set to be the opening talent of the 4th season of The Voice France, set to debut on January 10th, 2015. Judging by the hype that even TF1 is making for her, she has obviously made it through.

TF1 had shared an instagram video 3 days ago for a talent they called Hiba, singing a-capella for the press conference announcing the show. The talent in question starts off singing “Les Moulins De Mon Coeur” before – and you can barely hear this at the end of the video – moves into لا بداية ولا نهاية, Hiba’s Lebanese take on the song.

They also tweeted about it on December 17th, but few have failed to notice in this part of the world, as well as posted a vine of a shorter portion of the instagram video you see above:

I’m sure Hiba Tawaji will do remarkably well on the show. She has the pipes for it. While I’m not a big fan of her music, I can’t but appreciate the magnitude of professionalism and the sheer caliber of her pipes. I daresay, The Voice France has probably never had a singer as talented as she is and they ought to make sure everyone knows that, although I have to wonder if French audiences aren’t sick of having a Lebanese candidate on their show every year.

What I’m less sure of, however, is the need for Hiba Tawaji to go on such a show. She’s already a household name in Lebanon – much more known that last year’s Aline Lahoud. She already has two best-selling albums out, has been in multiple Rahbani plays and can sell out concerts quite easily with the following she has amassed, dedicated to listen to her pristine vocals.

Perhaps the confines of this country have become too narrow and limited for such a talent, perhaps she wants more for herself than to be pigeon-holded into the very narrow-frames that our culture places on female singers. Perhaps she has bigger dreams in mind than selling out Casino Du Liban for a couple of nights.

Good luck to her although I’m sure she doesn’t need it. I mean, can you imagine how gaga those judges and audiences will go if she sings my favorite songs of her?

Or: