Nouvelle Star

Nouvelle Star is the French version of the popular Idol series shown in many countries around the world. Contestants sing, or attempt to sing, in front of a panel of 4 judges who comment on their performances. In the early shows, the judeges decide who will go through to the next round but in the later episodes, it’s the public who decides by voting using SMS.

This year, the competition is being led by 3 guys, Julien Dore, Pierre Darmon, and Tigane. Julien is a great performer who intreprets every song in his own unique manner. Pierre is technically great but is less entertaining than Julien. Tigane is very popular with the judges and is doing well with the public too but he isn’t that interesting in his performances, if you ask me. It’s clearly pointless asking me though because he is very popular and could easily win season 5 of the Nouvelle Star.

The girls left in the competition are Julie, Raphaelle Dess, and Gaetane Abrial. Julie is a cute little singer who tries really hard but who doesn’t really have the voice to be a success in the music business. Raphaelle is technically great but is possibly a little bland in her interpretations and performances. She is popular with the public though. Gaetane is popular with the guys more than anything else because she is kinda pretty (not beautiful by any means) but she does sing quite well. Not well enough to beat any of the guys though.

Time will tell if I’m right or not. Check out the weekly round up at the Nouvelle Star blog.

Natural and Organic Food

Why eat natural and organic food? Organic products are produced without the use of artificial fertilisers, pesticides, growth hormones or routine antibiotics. Organic farming relies on crop rotation, improving soils by adding animal and plant manures, hand weeding, and organic pest control. Organic food is grown slowly, as nature intended, resulting in more vitamins and minerals and more flavour.

Although the quantity of pesticides absorbed from eating non-organic food is very small, they do accumulate over time. Pesticides absorbed from food are linked to many health problems including cancer, birth defects, genetic mutation, asthma, and nerve damage.

If you are going to buy natural and organic fruit and vegetables then you will probably want to buy what is currently in season. That way you’ll get the freshest and best quality produce at reasonable prices. If you choose produce which is in season you can buy locally, meaning less transport costs which is, of course, better for the environment, as well as supporting local farmers.

Julien Dore

Julien Dore is one fo the most popular contestants on the French version of American Idol, known as Nouvelle Star. He is competeting in season 5 and has so far made it to the top 6. Julien is a unique performer who likes to take risks by performing each song in his own way, in a way never seen before. While at first I thought he woudn’t appeal to the general public, he is in fact more popular than any of the other contestants. So he could actually win. His peformances, which have been uploaded to YouTube, have been viewed more than twice as often as all the other contestants. Is that an indicator that he is more popular and that more people will vote for him? Who knows. I hope so because he really offers something different, something much more exciting and entertaining than the regular ‘beige’ singers found in ‘beige’ France.

Pierre Darmon

Pierre Darmon is one fo the most popular contestants on the French version of American Idol, known as Nouvelle Star. He is competeting in season 5 and has so far made it to the top 6. He has a great voice and performs well week after week. The judges seem to love him, mostly giving him 4 blues and that’s understandable seeing he sings technically well. The question is, does he have the personality to win the competition? He doesn’t do anything too adventureous and just ’sings well’. I think he needs to be more of a performer to win.

Pierre has already done fairly well outside of Nouvelle Star so it’s likely he will have a career in music even if he does win.