Ambre

Paris, the Antilles and a memo marked Victoria

Ambre Berger was born on 29 March 2007 in the 12th arrondissement of Paris and spent parts of her childhood in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Marrakech before the family settled back in the capital. Her mother, Nabila Belaidouni, practises business and tax law at the Paris Bar; her father was largely absent through her childhood and adolescence. She sat her baccalauréat in 2025, a few months before the audition that reorganised her year.

There was no conservatoire behind her. She taught herself to sing, accompanies herself at the piano, trained in dance and Thai boxing, draws, and has worked as a dubbing actor — hers is the French voice of Zoé Neuman in The Boys. She had auditioned for The Voice Kids earlier, though the tape was never broadcast. The influences she names pull in opposite directions: Céline Dion and Patricia Kaas on one side, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and MC Solaar on the other, with the performance artist Marina Abramović cited as a reference point for the record she has just announced. The result, as described by the people around the album, is French-language pop that leans pop-rock and sometimes electro-pop rather than the piano-ballad default of talent-show winners.

Seventeen candidates, 59 per cent

She entered the Star Academy château on 18 October 2025 as one of seventeen candidates on the TF1 programme's thirteenth season, opening with Patricia Kaas's Entrer dans la lumière. Thirteen days later she was on the NRJ Music Awards stage singing Vivo per lei with Kendji Girac. The final, on 7 February 2026, came down to her and Léa Doffey; she took 59 per cent of the public vote, a prize of €100,000 and a recording contract with Sony Music France and RCA. She was eighteen for most of the run and nineteen soon after it. Her records are credited to the single name Ambre, though she is also listed under the professional name Amber Jadah.

Seventy-five nights, sometimes two in a day

Nine of the season's cast were carried into the Star Academy tour — Ambre, Léa, Victor, Sarah, Bastiaan, Anouk, Théo P., Mélissa and Jeanne — which opened on 27 February 2026 and ran to roughly 75 dates across France, Switzerland and Belgium inside three months, including days with two full shows.

The production was built in six acts plus an encore, with the winner given the heaviest load. Her solo slots ran from Johnny Hallyday's Ma gueule and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance through Entrer dans la lumière to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, alongside four duets: Take Me to Church with Victor, Total Eclipse of the Heart with Sarah, Le Blues du Businessman with Léa and I Love Rock 'N Roll with Jeanne. She also took the ensemble numbers, among them The Greatest Show and APT.

TF1 broadcast the Zénith de Toulon date live on 6 June 2026, where she sang her first single the night after its release. The broadcast triggered claims that the cast were partly miming, which she rejected flatly: Y'a pas de playback, non. Zéro playback! Her explanation was that backing harmonies sit under every professional arrangement and are routinely mistaken for lip-syncing. She conceded the fatigue was real. Six weeks before the broadcast, on 29 April 2026, she had appeared as a surprise guest on Amel Bent's Accor Arena show.

Two singles, twelve songs, 4 December

J'me demande arrived on 5 June 2026, a pop-rock track she had a hand in writing, and has since passed three million plays on Spotify; a revised version was serviced to French radio over the summer.

J'laisse parler followed at midnight on 29 September 2026, with a video directed by Eva Wang published hours later. The production is sharper than the debut and the film is organised around movement and departure. Where the first single sat in uncertainty, the second takes a more settled position. The same day she confirmed the album: Victoria, out 4 December 2026 on Sony Music France, around twelve tracks, written and composed with her involvement and mostly in French. Victoria is her second forename. She has described finding a three-year-old phone memo saved under that title, something she called a little mysterious, and a version of herself she had always kept at the back of her mind. Her announcement ran: Je suis tellement heureuse de vous annoncer la sortie de mon premier album Victoria le 4 décembre.

Where it stands in October 2026

Seven and a half months separated the final from the album announcement, a gap she has framed as a deliberate decision to build something that reflected her rather than cash in the weeks immediately after the broadcast. On 16 September 2026 she was named in the Révélation féminine francophone category at the NRJ Music Awards, against Oria, Manon Lisa, Estl and Zélie; the 28th edition takes place at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes on 23 October 2026, with the winner decided by public vote.

The useful measure of her position is her own cohort rather than the chart. Jeanne, a fellow season-thirteen finalist, has taken Respire fort past ten million Spotify plays and a gold single and released the seven-track EP Naïri on 11 September 2026, yet was left off the NRJ shortlist. Ambre's three million is the smaller number; the win, the major-label deal and the nomination are hers. Her album also lands into the December release window, where a talent-show debut has to hold its own against the year's biggest campaigns.

Eighteen rooms, February to April 2027

Her first solo tour was announced in July 2026, ahead of any album: 18 dates in France and Belgium, with a presale on Thursday 9 July 2026 at midday and general sale from midday the following day. The run opens on 11 February 2027 at Forges-les-Eaux, reaches the Cirque Royal in Brussels on 21 February, Salle Pleyel in Paris on 8 March and Le Cepac Silo in Marseille on 26 March at 8pm, and closes on 2 April 2027 at the Arcadium in Annecy. Bordeaux, Limoges, Tours and Le Havre are also on the route. Marseille seats are priced between €44 and €65, with comparable bands elsewhere.

These are seated halls, opera houses and congress centres rather than Zéniths — a scale set to one album rather than to the arena numbers the Star Academy brand pulls collectively.