Samir-André Lajoié

Infobox actor
name = Samir


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caption = Samir in Noumea, 2008
birthname = Samir-André Yousef Jonatan Al-Ajani Lajoié de Francois
birthdate = 22nd of November, 1987
birthplace = Beirut, Lebanon
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othername = (French) Samir Frances, (Arabic) Samir Hijazi, (Kanak) Bada Kalamanataiya
occupation = Actor, Model, Singer
yearsactive = 1997 - 2006
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children =
parents = Samir Al-Ajani, Singer
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awards = Best New Young Talent - iTV Choice Awards

Samir-André Yousef Jonatan Al-Ajani Lajoié de Francois (born November 22, 1987 in Beirut, Lebanon) and raised in New Caledonia, also known as Samir Frances or simply as Samir, is a French model and actor. After gaining fame for winning a French talent quest and playing the role of Jonatan Dupree in the television show Amor et Perte, Samir went on to have a small television, film and modelling career. He was mostly popular in his home-country of New Caledonia, mainland China and Japan.

Samir has expanded his repertoire into pop music, having released two Japanese-language singles to coincide with a campaign for Japanese clothing giant B-day and an unreleased cover of an Arabic song originally performed by his father. While initially picked up by Avex Trax in 2005 to record an album, he was dropped when he returned to Australia to continue his education.

Aside from his native Kanak dialect and French, Samir also speaks fluent English, Japanese, and conversational Arabic. He has also appeared on Chinese television although he is not a speaker of the language itself.

So far Samir has starred in commercials for Lipton, Honda, Calpis, Lotte, Tokyo Disneyland, Olympus, B-day, G-Star Raw, FCUK and Nintendo. In most commercials Samir speaks in the language of the target ethnicity, and very rarely filmed a commercial in English.

Early life

Samir was born in Beirut, Lebanon on November 22, 1987. He is the second child of Diane Francois (née Lajoié), a nurse, and the late Arabic singer Samir Al-Ajani. He has an elder brother, Benjamin. Samir was trained from a young age in classical Arabic singing, contemporary dance and acting. Samir is of Corsican, French-melanesian, Lebanese, Chinese and Kanak ancestry.

He is the grandson of the Patawa (Queen) of his Kanak people called Pelu, making him a Kemme (Prince), although the title holds no official standing in the country, is purely ceremonial and is limited to his village.

His family claim they are descendants of Napoleon I on his grandfather's side.

When he was seven years old, he was selected to star in two Japanese commercials for Calpis and the Honda Fair with the ASIMO robot after surprising judges at an audition with his fluent Japanese. While initially selected to start in commercials for both brands for a further four years, both companies felt that his age and impending puberty would take its toll and ended their contracts.

Television Career and modelling

When Samir was fourteen years old, he auditioned along with friends at the Noumea auditions for the television talent quest "Le prochain Star", which pitted young actors against one another in a competition to take on a role on the iFrancoTELE soap opera Amor et Perte. Samir was picked after nearly 15,000 auditions to compete with five others for six weeks and ultimately won the competition by a landslide at the series finale, despite an apparent lack of the ability to speak traditional French and criticism for his heavy Caldoche accent.

The role of Jonatan Dupree, who is the long-lost son of character Aldin Lefou, was written for Samir and iFrancoTELE invested a large amount of money advertising his appearance, which was dragged out by the fact that his character was in a coma for the first two weeks of his appearance. While this was initially explained as a way to draw viewers and build excitement for what was to come next, Samir later confirmed it was because he required lessons to learn to speak with an acceptable French accent and correct pronunciation, and so his character was left without lines until he was deemed understandable.

Samir played the role of Jonatan Dupree for two years until leaving the show suddenly in 2003. He did not issue a reason but announced he had signed with European talent company Valenti Entertainment and would work with them as a model.

Samir went on to star in several commercials, print campaigns, two short films and made several guest appearances of television programs, mostly in East Asia. Samir was represented by Avex for his endevours outside of Europe.

Samir also has recorded but not released a cover of a song originally performed by his father for middle-eastern record company giant Rotana, which has not been released due to royalty conflicts.

As of 2005, Samir has stated he will not record any music and does not plan to.

Samir's contracts with both Valenti and Avex ended in 2006 and he has since returned permanently to Australia to study and work. He has not confirmed that he will return to modelling, but Avex announced in 2007 that they have offered Samir an undisclosed sum to re-sign with them.