In 2011, Marthe Mercadier participated in the first season of Dance with the Stars with, as partner, Grégoire Lyonnet. Aged 82, she will occupy the stage for 3 weeks before leaving.
Faced with David Ginola, Jean-Marie Bigard, Adriana Karembeu, or even Mr. Pokora – who will win this first edition of the TF1 dance competition – Marthe Mercadier amazed viewers with her boundless energy during her outings on the floor. As in this frenzied cha-cha, and full of humor, on the track Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.
But what is a former glory of theater and television, who debuted at the age of 5 on the lap of Josephine Baker, and who was part of the Resistance during her teenage years during the WWII, did you get into this mess? “At first I was like, ‘What am I doing here? But 82 years old is the age when you can afford little whims, try out, ”she confides quite simply to Laurent Ruquier in the program On n’est pas couché, at the time. .
Marthe Mercadier saw André Manoukian and Rossy de Palma be eliminated before her in this first season of Dancing with the Stars. But during the third bonus, the one who remains the oldest candidate of the show is thanked by the jurors despite a very inspired dance with Grégoire Lyonnet, on the song My Heart Will Go On by Céline Dion.
“The upper body follows Grégoire very well but the legs do not follow”, “your trip is in danger”, “your boat is taking water”, say the members of the jury. Despite the harshness of the words, all are moved by the performance of the octogenarian. Marthe Mercadier, too, has misty eyes when saying goodbye to viewers. His “little whim” has just ended. But we say to ourselves, then, that she did well to agree.