Cyndi Almouzni
Encyclopedia
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
.
Career
When she was 14, Cyndi won a local talent contest and entered the national televised contest finals held in Paris. This was the start of her professional singing career. She has performed in many countries, including France, the UK and the US. She signed a worldwide recording contract in the US while continuing her studies. In 2004, Cyndi released a self-titled album under the name "Cherie" while signed to Lava records, which featured the leadoff single "I'm Ready". This song sampled the bassline from Foreigner's "Urgent" and made decent headway on the US charts. Follow-up single "Older Than My Years" charted at Adult Contemporary radio. Aside from one holiday track that was sent to radio ("Merry Christmas Darling") Cherie seemingly disappeared altogether, until resurfacing in the 2007 BBC selection for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Interestingly, no mention was made of "Cherie" again as Cyndi reverted to her family name.Steve Allen, A&R at Sony BMG first discovered Cyndi after hearing her powerful vocals on a dance track recorded when she was just 14 years old. Allen was behind two previous eurovision entries, Gina G with ‘Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit’ [7th in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest or 8th once a mistake had been noticed after the broadcast] and the 1997 UK winning entry in Dublin with Katrina & the Waves.
Eurovision attempt
On 17 March 2007 Cyndi competed in the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up
Making Your Mind Up (TV series)
Eurovision: Your Country Needs You was a BBC TV show broadcast annually to select the United Kingdom's entry into the Eurovision Song Contest...
contest to decide who would represent the United Kingdom at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland. She sang the song "I’ll Leave My Heart", which had been produced by renowned Grammy award winning producer Brian Rawling. Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
announced the winner to be Cyndi while, simultaneously, co-host Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton is an English television and radio presenter who is known for presenting a number of popular TV programmes such as Top of the Pops and the Red Nose Day telethon. In 2007, she became the first regular female presenter of BBC Radio 1's Chart Show...
revealed the winner to be Scooch. After several seconds of confusion from both contestants, it was revealed that Scooch
Scooch
Scooch are a British bubblegum dance group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer.Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag ", finishing 23rd out of 24 entries after...
were the true winners. It was later revealed by the BBC that Cyndi had received 47% of the vote to Scooch's 53%.
Her song was entered into the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2007 competition, and it came 2nd.
Cyndi was last known to be working on album material which was due for release in 2009.