It was a storybook win for a 19-year-old songstress from Dieppe, New Brunswick.
On Sunday, Josiane Comeau realized her dream and was crowned the winner of 8th season of La Voix singing competition in Montreal.
“It is like, unbelievable. You can’t imagine something like that until it really happens,” said Comeau.
Reaction from her biggest fan, her father Jacques Comeau, was exactly what people from their home province expected.
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The father, who had to watch the show on TV from a nearby hotel in Montreal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, broke down in tears at the sight of his daughter’s win.
“Not giving up shows how strong of a person she is and it shows other people that if they want something in life, they can do it, too,” he said.
Their journey together played out like a father and daughter fairytale.
Last February, she and her musician dad both unexpectedly competed on the show together. Comeau said he was there to cheer on his daughter and ended up competing himself.
When the chairs turned for him but not his daughter, he said, “that feeling of guilt was there”.
Comeau made it to the semi-finals last year but Josiane said her father taught her to never to give up.
“You don’t have to stay on the ground, you have to get up and fight for more,” she said.
When Josiane hit the stage again this year, a little older and wiser, it was as though she had come into her own, said her father.
She didn’t just win, she owned the stage and the competition, winning 59 per cent of the votes.
When the confetti fell, her father, sitting in that hotel, could not have been more proud.
“I almost hugged the TV,” he said.