On écoute…Zaho de Sagazan

Audience members and television viewers alike experienced a truly jaw-dropping performance at the glitzy opening ceremony of this year’s Cannes Film festival. Mesmerising those in attendance, including jury president and Barbie director Great Gerwig, was the singer Zaho, aka 24-year-old Nantes-born electropop chanteuse Zaho Le Moniès de Sagazan. Her choice of cover version to perform-David Bowie’s Modern Love-was no accident, since Gerwig herself had her own breakout moment when running through the streets to Bowie’s song in a now famous scene from Noah Baumbach’s 2012 comedy Frances Ha.

Zaho’s electric, supremely confident performance, which featured vocal invention and pitch shifts that lent the song a truly fresh identity, plus some cool choreographed moves, was a dazzling moment that saw her profile go through the roof. Not that the singer was exactly unknown in France she had already stormed into the public’s consciousness in 2023 with her debut album, La Symphonie des éclairs, an LP rewarded with many prizes, including best song and best album, at this year’s Victoires de la Musique awards.

From France Today Magazine