It seems I was the last to know that a Lebanese would be competing again on France’s The Voice, but I daresay the Lebanese candidate this year is probably the best so far with Salwa el Katrib’s daughter, Aline Lahoud.
I was on hospital duty last night so I couldn’t watch her blind audition as it happened but Twitter was abuzz with her performance. Lebanese people were surprised that she sang a song they all knew, in her mother tongue. French people were bewitched by her good looks and charisma. The judges were all fighting to get ahold of her. She ended up choosing Florent Pagny, contrary to what everyone expected her to do by going with Mika, who’s of Lebanese origins.
Aline Lahoud sang her mother’s most famous song “Khedni Maak” and she did a great job at it, as you can see from the following video:
I guess it was a big risk for her to sing a style that none of the judges was familiar with, in a language that they didn’t understand, but it paid off big time with her as Aline Lahoud’s audition quickly became the most discussed The Voice audition this year with about 5000 tweets/minute.
It’s sad that a talent like Aline Lahoud has to leave Lebanon in order to find a proper place for her talent. I guess she’s not the only talent the country is losing with its current downward spiral. Either way, she made me proud yesterday and I hope you felt the same way about her representation. I can’t wait to see what she brings next.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
To me, personally, it seemed more of a stunt for her to start off somewhere where she won’t live in her mother’s shadows. I get that local talents may find it hard to have a break here, but being who she is (daughter of Salwa el-Katrib and Romeo Lahoud, and a well established artist herself), aline could have the record deal that she wants! Her appearance on The Voice just didn’t make sense.
Plus, I’ve seen her sing that particular song way better live, with a less than optimal sound set up during a tribute concert to her mother at Balamand!
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Romeo Lahoud is her uncle :p
and true she usually sings much better. The only thing I still don’t get is why she’s competing in a talent program. I’m sure there were other ways she could’ve started off in France.
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Michelle, you are correct, her father is Nahi Lahoud. But several competitors in the talent shows (even in the US) are already established or have previously released albums and they benefit from the major spotlight to reposition their careers to new target audiences or international stardom (Lahoud, for all her merits, was singing in a restaurant during the weekend and her TV performance was not enough to secure her a major breakthrough).
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…when a country as old as Lebanon with achievers rooming the globe worthy of being uncovered…it’s “kind” of sad and indicative to see how a “known singer” that makes it to be part of a glorified karaoke show in…france (a popular show nonetheless) , gets THAT much attention..AND worthy of starting the news with “…once again Lebanon prove that he is bla bla bla)…really? is that the measure of success? Karaoke Queen gets to represent our “hope”…7aram libnen how much he does not deserve this culture of amateurism that claim to be at the “level” of other countries amateurs.
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