Violette Wautier[a] (born 10 October 1993) is a Thai singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as the "Queen of Alternative Pop",[by whom?] she achieved national recognition when she audition on the season 2 of the television talent show The Voice Thailand in 2013, then started off her career in both singing and acting. She has starred in the films Heart Attack, A Gift, and Die Tomorrow. She has won multiple awards for her acting including the Suphannahong National Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Thailand (2016)
Violette is also the most-streamed English language Thai artist. Her track "Smoke" was the number-one song on the Apple charts in multiple Southeast Asian countries. She released her first English album Glitter and Smoke in 2020.
Early life and education
Violette Wautier was born on 10 October 1993 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.[2] Her father, François Wautier, is Belgian and worked as a software engineer. Her mother, Associate Professor Dr. Ruchira Taprap, was a professor at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang's Department of Agro-Industry.[3] She has one younger brother, Khan.[2]
Wautier grew up in Thailand, as her family moved there from Japan when she was two years old.[2] As a kid, she watched Disney movies and Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, which inspired her to become a storyteller. When she was 14, she authored a fiction novel.[4]
Violette attended Marialai School, remaining there until 2009, before transferring to Debsirinromklao School. She was also an AFS exchange student in Canada. She was then inspired by Taylor Swift to become a songwriter and she started performing at her high school and listened to more English songs.[4][2]
Career
2013-2018: The Voice and career beginnings
Violette first appeared on a music video of the band C-Quint.[5] She then joined season 2 of the singing competition The Voice Thailand in 2013, when she was 19 years old. She auditioned with the song "Leaving On a Jet Plane", and got all four coaches to turn their chairs for her and chose the team of Joey Boy.[6][4] She didn't make it through the Knockout round.[6]
After The Voice, she got her first acting role in the horror film The Swimmers, for which she received harsh criticism for her performance.[6][7] She went on to record more songs for several films and television series, some of which she also acted in. She appeared in productions with studio GTH/GDH, winning the Suphannahong Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Heart Attack (2015) and co-starring in A Gift (2016).[7] In 2017, she also starred in the indie movie Die Tomorrow, which was directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.[8] While acting, she also released the pop single "Gor Kai Mai Me Chan (Just Without Me)" and was also for a time, a radio DJ for Cat Radio.[9] After several years under Universal Music Thailand, she left to become an independent artist and launched her own record label in 2018, The Wautier Record.[6][10]
2018–2019: Success as an independent artist, Endless Love
In 2018, Violette released her first English-language single, "Drive". She released it with a music video directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya.[6] She followed up on the success of the hit with a second track named "Smoke" in the same year. "Smoke" went on to break the record for most views for an English song performed by a Thai artist on YouTube with over 90 million views as of August 2024, and making her the most-streamed English language Thai artist in history.[10][11] The single also ranked No. 1 in 8 countries, including Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.[4] That year, she also starred in Club Friday The Series 10: Ruk Rao Mai Tao Garn.[7]
In 2019, Wautier played the lead role in the Thai remake of the Taiwanese drama series Endless Love.[4]
2020–2021: Glitter and Smoke
Followed the success of "Smoke" and reunited with Universal Music Thailand after more than a year away from the recording studio, Violette released her long-awaited third single in March 2020. Named after a small town in the south of France, "Brassac" is an alternative pop anthem inspired by Violette's own short-lived summer romance which what she called a "Call Me By Your Name" vibe.[10] Her single "I'd Do it Again", an anthemic electro-pop which reminisces about her past love was set to be the lead single for her debut all-English album Glitter and Smoke, dropped on June 19, 2020.[4] It was an album she co-produced with all nine tracks written by her.[12]Glitter and Smoke was chosen by NME Asia as one of the top 10 albums from Southeast Asian artists for 2020.[13]
Wautier was then seen in the film One for the Road, which won an award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.[13] On August 19, 2021, she released the music video for her new single "This Time". Earlier that month, she collaborated with Suppasit Jongcheveevat for the track "Love Hate".[14] She then collaborated with Indonesian electronic music trio Weird Genius for the single "Future Ghost".[15]
2022–present: Your Girl and CALL ME DRAMATIC
On October 31, 2022, Wautier released her second album "Your Girl".[16] Her first Thai language album, it contained 10 tracks about her experiences with love as she grew up.[17][18] A day later, she released the music video for ‘ระวังเสียใจ (Warning)’.[16] She closed out 2022 as one of Thailand's Top 5 Female Artists on Spotify Wrapped and performed at CentralWorld's New Year's Eve countdown celebration.[19][20]
On June 24, 2023, Wautier staged her first concert, "YOU BETTER LOVE ME".[17][21] On October 11, 2023, she released "Turn Back Time", her collaboration with Filipino singer Zack Tabudlo in which she wrote the second verse.[22][23] A music video was then released that featured them and Thai actor Vachirawit Chivaaree.[22]
In 2024, Wautier performed at the 555 Thai Music Festival, the first-ever all-Thai artists event held in Singapore.[24] In May of that year, she released her comeback single "Dancing on a Graveyard".[25] On August 8, 2024, she released another international single "Favorite Mistake".[26] Later that year, she released another international EP, "CALL ME DRAMATIC".[27] It features seven songs based on different film genres.[28]
Artistry
Influences
Taylor Swift is one of Wautier's first inspirations to become a songwriter.[4] When she was younger, she was influenced by Thai singer Sarunrat Deane.[2] Other songwriting influences include Lana del Rey and Lauv.[4]
Musical style
Vogue Thailand once described her style as "appealing for hipster teenagers".[29]
When writing songs, she focuses on her experiences.[6] She prefers writing in English to cater to an international audience and to express herself better.[10] She has also written songs in her native Thai and French.[9][10]
Personal life
Wautier is a luk khrueng, meaning her parents are of different nationalities.[10] She is Thai-Belgian; her father is Belgian while her mother is Thai.[7][30]
When Wautier was 14, she was diagnosed with scoliosis, which required surgery, and has since been vocal about her experiences with the disease.[10][31] She has also been mocked for her height, as she is 158 cm tall (5 ft 2 inches).[2]
In 2015, Wautier graduated from Chulalongkorn University with a Faculty of Communication Arts degree in Motion Pictures and Still Photography.[4]
Wautier is currently dating Jirayu La-ongmanee, an actor and lead singer of the band Retrospect.[32] They started dating in 2019.[33]
Awards and nominations
Popular Female Thai Pop Singer Award from Siam Dara Stars Awards 2015
25th Suphannahong National Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress from Heart Attack[29]
6th Thai Film Directors Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress from Heart Attack[29]
The 13th Kom Chad Luek Awards for Best Supporting Actress from the movie Heart Attack[29]
Thai Film Awards, 24th Entertainment Critics' Association, Best Supporting Actress category, from the movie Heart Attack[29]
^ abSumatchaya, Khwankaew (August 5, 2017). "My space". Bangkok Post/Student Weekly. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
