Lorie

Laure Pester (born May 2, 1982), known professionally as simply Lorie, is a French pop singer, often referred to as the "Britney Spears" of France (although her image is somewhat more w

Laure Pester (born May 2, 1982), known professionally as simply Lorie, is a French pop singer, often referred to as the "Britney Spears" of France (although her image is somewhat more wholesome and family-friendly). In the space of three years she released three albums, working with producer, songwriter and composer Johnny Williams (grandson of 'musette' accordion star André Verchuren) and her father manager André Pester (a former studio manager at French radio station RTL).

Despite early dreams of becoming a skater, she turned her attention to music in childhood. Her lightning rise to fame began after her first single, Près de moi, was released on peoplesound.com, a free online distributor of unpublished music. Her success with Internet fans led to Lorie scoring a lucrative record deal with Sony. Her first album was Près de Toi (2001), followed by Tendrement (2002) and the live recording special Live Tour (2003). Attitudes (2004) sold 300,000 copies within the first two weeks of its release.