Her name has been coming up repeatedly for months, so it makes sense that it is she who wins the prize for female artist of the year at the last Victoires de la Musique. But before her career as a singer, Charlotte Cardin started in another field.
“So touched and moved and proud!!!!“, proclaimed Charlotte Cardin on her Instagram account after winning her award at the Victoires de la Musique 2026. The young Quebec singer aged 31, to whom we owe the hit Feel Goodis now leading a successful career in singing after her first steps in modeling. An area of which she has fond memories.
“A financial freedom that I devoted to music”
Recently interviewed by our colleagues from Madame FigaroCharlotte Cardin looked back on her beginnings in fashion, a universe unlike the one in which she grew up since her parents are both scientists (father a biologist and mother an epidemiologist). “I was a model from 15 to 19 years old. Apart from a few Fashion Weeks in Paris and London, it remained an occasional occupation. Modeling allowed me financial freedom which I devoted to music“, she told the magazine.
If she doesn’t spit in the soup, Charlotte Cardin also doesn’t hold back from denouncing the legendary toxicity of this environment. For decades, the modeling world has continued to dissect women’s bodies without gloves or tweezers…”CIt was also a very bad experience for me (…) Without going into details, I experienced extremely humiliating situations, in which I was demeaned in front of many people, and where I heard people talk about my body and my appearance in such an inappropriate way that I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.“, she revealed. A trauma that is still present and which makes her say that “this surely leaves after-effects“.
Charlotte Cardin and her singing career: “I took back control“
The young woman, who has shared her life for around ten years now with the actor Alyocha Schneider (notably seen in the series Greek salad on Amazon Prime Video), only had this first career briefly. “At 19, I took back control by focusing on music. When I released my first EP, I didn’t want to be seen as a doll doing music as a hobby, because that wasn’t the case. But be careful, I find fashion very inspiring and I respect the modeling profession“, she wants to clarify.
If she is now successful in the music industry and is on cloud nine, it took time. In 2013, she was a candidate in The Voicethe Quebec version of tele-hook The Voice. “I am grateful, but feel no giddiness because I feel that my career has evolved gradually and organically. Before Feel Goodthe more discreet success of my first album gave me time to adapt. I’ve been touring for more than ten years: each time I return to a city in France or abroad, the room is a little bigger and fuller than the previous one.“, she added. And it seems set to last.
