Amir Haddad (born Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad), mostly known professionally as Amir, is a French-Israeli singer and songwriter born in Paris of Tunisian and Spanish-Moroccan Jewish parents.
He emigrated to Israel at the age of 8 and in 2006 competed in the fourth season of Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli equivalent to the Idol franchise - the only candidate to sing French-language songs in the audition phase. He was eliminated in the fourth round of competition. After completing his obligatory service in the military, he released his debut album Vayehi in 2011. He graduated from university in 2012 with a degree in dentistry.
It was in 2008 when performing alongside Patrick Bruel at a concert in Israel in front of about 11,000 people that started to fuel Amir's dream to pursue a career in music.
In 2014, Amir returned to France to compete in the third season of the French version of The Voice, joining Team Jenifer after all four coaches turned their chairs for him during his blind audition. His performances during the season gained much praise from the coaches and earned him a massive fanbase. He reached the final, finishing in third place to eventual winner Kendji Girac.
On 29 February 2016, France 2 announced that Amir would represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm with the song J’ai cherché. He finished in 6th place in the final, giving France its best finish in 14 years and its best-scoring entry to date, breaking a 40-year points record.
His first French-language album Au coeur de moi was released on 29 April 2016. It went gold in France within 2 months of its release and spawned several hit singles. The album has since gone triple platinum in France, and was also certified gold in Switzerland and Belgium.
Post-Eurovision[]
Since Amir's success in Eurovision, he participated in the Le Grand Show d'Ouverture concert in Paris in front of over 80,000 spectators ahead of the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup embarked on a national tour with stops in Belgium and Switzerland among other TV and music-related appearances, including serving as a judge during the 2017 Miss France pageant held in December 2016. He joined Stéphane Bern and Marianne James as a commentator for France 2 at the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev. That same year, he joined the French charity troupe Les Enfoirés.
Amir's second French-language album Addictions was released on 27 October 2017, which went triple platinum in France and debuted at #3 on the French album chart. He also served as a judge for Destination Eurovision 2018, France's national final for the 2018 contest in Lisbon. In 2019, he and his wife Lital welcomed their first son Mickaël. He took a break from music after several successful tours over three years, returning in 2020 with the single "La Fête". He later released his third French-language album Ressources.
In 2021, Amir served as the president of the jury for Eurovision France - C'est vous qui décidez. Other jurors included Eurovision alums such as Marie Myriam, Natasha St-Pier and Duncan Laurence. On 15 August 2022, "J'ai cherché" was certified Diamond in France.
In 2024, he was part of the torch relay for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Amir is a 4-time winner of the Chanson de l'Année prize which is given out during the Fête de la Musique celebrations in Nîmes. He won it in 2017 (for "On dirait"), 2019 (for "Longtemps"), 2022 (for "Rétine") and 2023 (for "Ce soir", dedicating the win to the memory of his late mother), breaking the record that was co-held with Kendji Girac for most wins. He is also a 3-time winner of the MTV Europe Music Award for Best French Act (winning in 2016, 2017 and 2022), and a 3-time NRJ Music Award winner (2016 for French Breakthrough of the Year, and 2016 ("J'ai cherché") and 2017 ("On dirait") for French Song of the Year). He has also received critical acclaim for portraying French-Jewish swimmer Alfred Nakache in the play Séléctionné.
Trivia[]
- Amir is a self-professed "tech geek". He is always in search of the latest gadgets and is very active on social media.
- He is self-taught on the guitar.
- During the lead-up to the contest, he built friendships with many of the other contestants, especially Barei and Poli Genova. He was the featured performer during the opening night party at The Bar, run by Dutch representative Douwe Bob during Eurovision Week 2016.
- According to his Eurovision profile, he deals with stress by texting, tweeting, or making long phone calls.
- One of his favorite bands is American group OneRepublic. He collaborated with them on a bilingual version of their song "No Vacancy", which was released worldwide on 26 May 2017. It earned OneRepublic their first NRJ Music Award nomination for Francophone Duo/Group of the Year.
- France 2 posted videos of Amir performing acoustic covers of past Eurovision songs on their Facebook page including Euphoria, Golden Boy and Heroes.
- He was born with 50% hearing loss and can only hear from his left side, which is why he often only wears an in-ear monitor in his left ear when he performs live.