(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Vanessa Paradis says hearing herself sing for the first time was awful.

The 37-year-old French actress-and-singer burst onto the world stage with her 1987 hit Joe Le Taxi when just 14. She is now considered a veteran within the industry with nine albums under her belt, but those early days still haunt her.

When I started to record, I could sing in pitch, but that was maybe about it. My uncle [Didier Pain] was like, Would you like to come see a recording studio? Maybe you'll get to meet this person. I was like, Yeah! Cool. Sure. I was 12. The composer was doing his own album a little later and maybe because of his friendship with my uncle, he invited me to sing backgrounds on it. He said, Why don't you come one day and you could get to do some oohs and ahhs in the background on two or three tracks. And I did it. I went in the booth with those headphones and I heard my voice really big, which was quite awful actually, she recounted.

Despite this experience Vanessa knew she wanted to be a singer from a very young age. She has since branched into the film industry, starring in numerous French films over the past 20 years but being a vocalist always appealed.

It's almost like I didn't have time to think about it. It was never like somebody pushed me to sing, because I wanted to do it. But I wanted to do it more like how you'd be at home with your friends and put on a show together. My friends and I would choreograph and we'd sing a song. I was singing constantly, and I'd heard people say, Oh, my gosh. She can sing in pitch. So that's a good thing to have, you know, she concluded. (C) Cover Media