The Swedish-French national was invited to compete in a series of pre-selection stages for “The Voice Kids” in early 2017. He wowed the jury to reach the nerve-wracking blind audition where he sang a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and was chosen by two artists.

“The first was Jenifer, she turned after the second verse, and then Patrick Fiori pressed the button after the second chorus,” Ernoult told Delano. “It’s not like when you see it on TV. When you’re playing, you don’t hear anything. You just see the light going on and the seat start turning. I was like ‘whoah!’ I had been waiting for hours in a big room and was really stressed. Then the pressure was lifted.”

Ernoult traces his passion for music back to his father who, when he was a child in Sweden, played him songs by French artists like Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg to help him learn
the language. He was inspired to learn guitar when, at the tender age of 4, he saw the movie “Cars”, and heard Sheryl Crow’s ‘Real Gone’. “My parents looked all over for a teacher, but no one wanted to take me, they thought I would drop it after a few months,” he says. Ernoult finally began lessons at the age of 6 and a few months later performed his first ever concert.

His father also began learning guitar and the two progressed over time. “At the beginning, he was better than me, but now, I’ve overtaken him,” Ernoult laughs. He went on to study jazz guitar at the Conservatoire and pick up other instruments: bass, drums, keyboard and trumpet. And, along with his father, younger brother and sister, he has played concerts in local venues including Bosso, Scott's Pub and Rocas.

Prior to “The Voice”, Ernoult’s biggest musical break came when he was 12. “I played with Marcus Miller, Miles Davis’ bass player, in the Rockhal,” he says, explaining that he met the musician at a master class. “We jammed for half an hour together. Then he invited me to meet his guitarist the day of the concert at the sound check.” Ernoult met the entire band and ended up performing one of his own compositions during the gig with Miller.

The budding artist says it’s always been his dream to pursue a career in music. So, he was over the moon when scouts from “The Voice Kids” found him on Facebook. The teenager and his family went back and forth to Paris over five months up to January 2018 for the various stages of the contest. After joining Patrick Fiori’s team at the blind audition, Ernoult went on to play the battle stage where his journey with “The Voice” came to an end.

“Everything that happened after the blind auditions was a bonus,” he says without a hint of disappointment.

Ernoult reckons the experience has given him many useful skills to progress, not to mention the exposure. “In this industry, you have to be seen by people. It’s really hard to make it on your own without a springboard. It’s really a big step because there were 4.5m viewers the first night I was on the show.”

While Ernoult says he’ll give competitions a break, his dream to make a career out of music remains unchanged.

This article was originally published in the Winter 2019 edition of Delano Magazine.