On the eve of the release of Mi vida at Flammarion, Kendji Girac delivers, from Biscarrosse to Paris, a musical autobiography of fall and recovery. On September 30, 2025, on Quotidien, he revisits the night of April 21, 2024: a shot to the chest, alcohol, fear, no suicidal intent. On October 1, 2025, the book is published, to explain, take responsibility, and place music back at the center.
A long-awaited book, a voice that tells its story
The publication of Mi vida at Flammarion on October 1, 2025 places Kendji Girac, twenty-nine years old, in a territory rarely explored by French pop stars: that of a first-person narrative that navigates between popular fervor, intimate wounds, and the desire to get back on track. 256 pages recount a confession held without tremor, written with journalist Pauline Faure. Indeed, you can hear the guitar even before turning the pages. The text exudes the rumba that has inhabited the artist since childhood.
It must be said that the singer’s trajectory, revealed by The Voice in 2014, resembles a sunny fable. The child of the road was raised in a caravan and then rooted in Dordogne. He conquered the stages with Iberian rhythms and bursts of warm voice. The success was immediate, massive, sometimes too large for his shoulders. Mi vida does not only dwell on the ascent. It also reopens the dark hours, up to the night in Biscarrosse where everything could have stopped.
Biscarrosse, a night that splits a life
The book revisits the gunshot wound of April 21, 2024, at the Biscarrosse reception area. It also addresses the harshness of the days following this tragic event. The singer details a spiral made of high-dose alcohol and broken sleep. The tension of an already shaken couple is also mentioned, as well as the recent purchase of an old weapon. He says he did not realize the dangerous presence of this weapon in his hands. The shot, to the chest, left only a groove in the flesh and a chilling phrase. According to the artist, the bullet passed close to the heart at a minimal distance. He wavered long enough to consider the possibility of not getting up.
Throughout the pages, the man who sings "the riches of the heart" admits to an old drift. Alcohol consumption would have started very young, more out of bravado than pleasure, before turning into a habit. The book does not seek to evade. It names. It explains. It repeats that he did not want to die or scare anyone. He speaks of a confused gesture, executed in a second state, without suicidal intent. Kendji Girac maintains this line and reaffirmed it on television during his appearance on Quotidien on September 30, 2025, on the eve of the bookstore release.
Justice, facts, chronology
The judicial procedure, opened the day after the drama, delivered its outcome on June 24, 2024. The Mont-de-Marsan prosecutor’s office closed the case after ruling out the hypothesis of a shot by a third party. It acknowledged a gesture committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Investigators noted a very high blood alcohol level. Additionally, they found traces of cocaine and the presence of a weapon. This had been acquired a few days earlier. The singer settled the administrative consequences of these offenses and committed to health monitoring. These elements, essential to understanding the book, form a factual backdrop that Mi vida does not shy away from.
A crucial point remains, explained clearly: Kendji Girac‘s public account diverges from the initial thesis mentioned in the early days by the prosecutor, that of a simulated suicide intended to scare his partner. The person concerned acknowledges a panic but refuses the idea of blackmail. He describes a moment of confusion and an unfinished study of the weapon. Moreover, he speaks of a gesture whose madness and futility he now measures. Personal literature here does not aim to contradict justice. It allows for engaging with what was experienced, in confusion and pain, then stitched together in the long time of convalescence.
From the caravan to the stages, rumba as a mother tongue
Mi vida opens to the great outdoors. Childhood circulates between Dordogne and roads. Moreover, it evolves in the musicality of a world where the guitar is passed on at the vigil. There are names, influences, a cluster of melodies that will nourish the signature: Catalan rumba, echoes of the Gipsy Kings, a way of striking the strings that raises the party and emotion in the same breath. From 2014, the victory at The Voice propels the teenager to the forefront. Followed by titles that become shared refrains: Color Gitano, Andalouse, Habibi, then the album Amigo. The halls fill up, the tours follow one another, the fervor overflows and invites itself into family conversations.
What the book reminds us of is the flip side of this frenzy. Days tied up by promotion. Nights too long. The impossibility of protecting oneself from a celebrity that, in moments of weakness, finds you everywhere. Again, the voice that tells the story does not accuse anyone. It thanks many. It admits its delusions. It acknowledges excesses. It feels fallible and now wants to hold its line: live, sing, love, without exhausting itself.
A rare public word, a moral contract with the public
The appearance on the Quotidien set is important. Beyond the media exercise, Kendji Girac puts sober words on what he is going through. He speaks of his returned sobriety, his daily vigilance, the support of his loved ones and his team. He thanks those who waited for him. He asks that the book be listened to, that we especially hear what it tries to put back in order. The act of writing, he notes, served as a springboard for clarification. Indeed, it allows for responding to a simple expectation: understanding, without reducing a man to his worst night.
The moral contract is read in the most sensitive pages. They speak of shame, fear, the weight of looks, concern for his loved ones. They also express the necessity of not replaying the drama. Moreover, it is important not to romanticize alcohol. It is necessary to avoid turning addiction into a motif of art. Sobriety, claimed for more than a year, is chosen as a way of life. It becomes a condition for the music to come.
What Mi vida reveals without giving everything away
The book is not a dossier. It is a narrative. We discover the child and the adolescent pruner. Then, the young man is noticed by a video. Then, he launches himself on a television set and wins a country. We read precise, often tender scenes that illuminate the fabric of a popular artist. We assess along the way the debt to his own and the importance of the mother. Moreover, brotherhood serves as a safeguard. Furthermore, the road plays a structuring role and is very present in the songs. We perceive the studio work and the hesitations to integrate Latin sounds into French pop. Moreover, there is a desire to remain readable for all, from children to grandparents. This is particularly evident during a summer concert.
The section devoted to the night in Biscarrosse is brief and straightforward. It does not sugarcoat. It does not pity. It draws attention to the lessons learned. Do not replay violence. Do not succumb to overbidding. Do not take refuge in the night. Above all, do not confuse sincerity with exhibitionism. The singer measures his words and refuses to sacrifice the intimate. He delivers his share, no more, no less. The rest, he warns, belongs to his family.
The artist, his music, and the ordeal as a turning point
One might think that the accident relegated music to the background. It is the opposite. Since his convalescence, Kendji Girac writes again, trains, regains his tessitura, rethinks his arrangements. His rumba, mixed with pop, regains its breath. It refines, abandons certain conveniences, gains a deep tone, sometimes less danceable, more direct. In the studios, those around him praise this returned calm. On stage, he promises tighter concerts and orchestrations that let the grain of a voice pass through. This voice has been too quickly labeled as smooth. We watch for this discreet inflection, which marks a deeper transformation than a simple return.
The work itself is not a press release. It confronts the shadowy areas and questions the intoxication of fame. It recalls the element of chance in a career and the element of obstinacy. It also looks to the future. New songs will appear, a possible prelude to a new album. They will bear the seal of the ordeal, without making it a banner.
Why this book matters today
Because it puts music back at the center, first. Because it provides keys to those who grew up with these refrains, who dance to Andalouse and hum Color Gitano, and who were worried in the spring of 2024. Since it reminds, without insistence, that fame does not immunize against cracks. It assumes a share of responsibility and acknowledges the hard courage of reconstructions. These are not spectacular.
It also matters for what it expresses of a popular France. This France has chosen this boy as a symbol of simple joy. The road that saw him born, the Gypsy traditions that shaped his musicality, prepared him to hold on. Mi vida is not a manifesto. It is a book of gratitude coupled with a story of vigilance. It offers an inner rhythm to an audience that has often made a body with him.
In bookstores, a promise of conversation
From this October 1, 2025, Mi vida circulates on the shelves. The volume fits well in hand and the cover displays a familiar face. The tone of the text, clear, maintains the cadence of a confession without pathos. We close the pages with the desire to listen to the songs differently. The ballads take on new depth. The hits regain the lightness expected of them, but with a backdrop of gravity. This is the mark of useful stories: they complicate without lecturing, they soothe without masking.
To those who hoped for a batch of secrets, the book responds with modesty. To those who doubted, it offers facts and apologies. To all, it extends a hand. The rest will play out in the studio and on stage. The writer of circumstance has fulfilled his part. The singer can resume his.