During her blind audition at The Voice France, 16-year-old Lebanese Lara Bou Abdo absolutely blew the judges away with her performance that aired on Saturday.
She is the latest of many Lebanese talents who have graced the stage of The Voice France throughout the years.
In 2012, Johnny Maalouf took the stage and a year later, Anthony Touma turned heads, followed by Aline Lahoud in 2014, Hiba Tawaji in 2015, and Marc Hatem in 2016.
Last year’s season had two Lebanese in participation: Enzo Sabbagha and Matteo El Khodr. Now, Lara is there from Lebanon to claim her place in the competition as the season’s youngest participant.
The young singer has been singing for 4 years when the show reached out to her through Instagram, hearing the few singing videos had posted.
“For me, it was like a dream coming true. I seized the opportunity and went through endless online auditions to reach the blind auditions,” she told The961.
As an emotional tribute to her city Beirut, Lara performed Fairouz’s Li Beirut, the Rahbani Brothers’ version of the famous second movement from the classical guitar concerto ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo.
“Singing Li Beirut, I wanted to give a voice to Lebanon and highlight the national tragedy that took place on the 4th of August,” she said.
“It impacted me for my whole life, as I am sure it impacted all Lebanese. It was a challenge for me because it was my first time singing in Arabic.”
But as we see in the video, that might have worked to her advantage. Entranced by the foreign language and Lara’s deep, raspy voice, coaches Amal Bent and Florent Pagny both pressed their buttons in extreme approval.
Talking about her overall experience, Lara said, “The experience was exciting and challenging at all levels, and especially that this season of The Voice was without an audience, due to COVID-19. I was so emotional singing for a cause.”
Watch her amaze the judges below:
