Paris (AFP)

Calling her album "Phoenix" owes nothing to chance: Charlotte Cardin, ex-model revealed in a musical TV show in Quebec, reduced to ashes some intimate wounds and spreads her wings of a beautiful soul with pop plumage.

The verb "liberate" and the word "therapy" will come very quickly to the artist, who responds to AFP in video from his home in Montreal, the day of the release (Friday) of this first real disc.

But "Phoenix" (released by Parlophone / Warner) has nothing weighty and even has songs with clear club inclinations, like "Passive aggressive", "Meaningless", already delivered as a single, or "Sex to me", pretty surprise from the album.

In twelve titles in English and one in French, she balances the toxic relationships of her personal life and the creeping sexism of the professional world.

"Misogyny is omnipresent, recurring, I have lived it in two different industries (modeling and music, editor's note), it is a theme that is close to my heart", she begins, launched on the subject.

"Women have been dispossessed of so much, for so long. It's positive that we are talking about it more and more, and it makes you realize that there is still a long way to go, in any field. ".

From the top of her quarter of a century, she notes a beginning of change in music by looking at "the posters of festivals, awards gala, before we did not ask the question, there were 90% of male artists ; now there is a sharper conscience and more women present ".

- "Further" -

We are far from her first somewhat calibrated songs - "I was looking before what might appeal to people", she admits - tested in mini-albums.

Where did the trigger come from?

"After a few months of writing (she spent nearly three years on the album, editor's note) where I waited as usual for inspiration to fall on me, with my guitar or on the piano, I was going zero I have surrounded myself with a team that pushes me further ".

One of his best friends, Jason Brando, also his multi-function manager, co-directed and co-wrote the record.

This ally allowed the young woman "to go to meet certain wounds".

What to spare yourself a passage on the couch of the shrink?

"I went there too, the two complemented each other," she smiles.

In a year 2021 blessed for the revival of soul, Charlotte Cardin is among the new voices to be reckoned with, just like Londoner Arlo Parks.

If she listened to "Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, Dusty Springfield, Bill Withers" for this register, the eclectic arrangements of her opus come to her from a discotheque without borders, ranging from Frank Ocean to jazz.

Did she ever think of having to make a choice between the carpets of the parades attended before the majority and the stages behind a microphone?

"No, music has always been a priority; model was the chance to have financial freedom, to buy instruments."

- "In front of six people" -

Passed by the box "The voice", one of the offspring of the musical reality TV franchise "The voice", she then rubbed shoulders with ungrateful tours.

"+ The voice + gave me visibility in Quebec, with access to large venues, but I also played abroad, in bars in front of six people, which is also stimulating".

And when we ask him about Celine Dion, his famous compatriot, the answer bursts.

"Musically, my tastes have evolved, but it's true that it's partly thanks to her that I became a singer, when I was little I was a mega-fan, and she made me want to sing in French".

Does the only title in French, "I leave", placed in the last position, suggest that the next album will make more room for this language?

"It wasn't to give a taste of the next album, which we started writing, I wanted to give it a symbolic place, but most likely, there will be more songs in French on the next".

© 2021 AFP