Léa Salamé

Hala Salamé, known as Léa Salamé, (born October 27, 1979) in Beirut, is a French-Lebanese journalist. She was a commentator on the television talkshow On n'est pas couché. She is an interviewer on France Inter's morning radio program.

Early life

Hala Salamé is the daughter of Ghassan Salamé, former Lebanese Minister of Culture and former Special advisor to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan;^[1] her mother, Mary Boghossian, of Armenian descent, is the sister of diamond dealers Jean and Albert Boghossian.^[2] She escaped war in Lebanon with her family, settled in Paris at age 5^[3] and obtained French nationality at age 11.^[4]

Léa Salamé studied law at Panthéon-Assas University, Sciences Po Paris^[5] and spent a year at New York University (she was injured in the 9/11 attacks^[6]).

Career

Salamé began her career as an intern on La Chaîne parlementaire with Jean-Pierre Elkabbach.^[7] In September 2006, she started working for newly created French international news TV channel France 24.^[8]

Salamé joined i>Télé in late 2010 and hosted a political show in the context of the 2012 French presidential election. Starting in September 2011, she hosted the evening news with Marc Fauvelle and in September 2012, a political debate program. The next year, she hosted Ça se dispute, with Éric Zemmour and Nicolas Domenach as commentators.^[9]

In August 2014, Salamé succeeded Natacha Polony^[10] in the duo of commentators which she formed with Aymeric Caron,^[11] then with Yann Moix, in Laurent Ruquier's show, On n'est pas couché, aired on France 2. In May 2016, she announced that she would leave to host a political show with David Pujadas starting in September 2016, in the context of the 2017 French presidential election.^[12]

Since August 2014, Salamé hosts the 7.50 AM interview in France Inter's morning show.^[13] Since December 2015, she also conducts high-profile interviews in the French edition of GQ.

On April 14, 2016, as she interviewed French President François Hollande with David Pujadas in the program Dialogues citoyens on France 2, Léa Salamé replied to the President, who was making a comment on the refugees : "Are you joking?". This triggered many reactions on social media.^[14]

Awards

• "Woman of the year 2014" by the French edition of GQ.^[15]
• "Best interviewer of the year 2015" (prix Philippe-Caloni^[16]).

References