French Singer Malou Oheix Wins Herbie Hancock Institute Jazz Vocals Competition in Paris

Malou Oheix, a 27-year-old singer from France, has won the 2026 Herbie Hancock Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition. The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz announced the results after the finals on Sunday, Oct. 11, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. It was the first time in the competition's nearly four-decade history that it was held outside the United States, the institute said.

Oheix, who is from Nantes according to the institute's list of semifinalists, received the $50,000 first-place scholarship. Georgia Heers, from Greenville, South Carolina, placed second, and Lucy-Anne Daniels, from Leeds in the United Kingdom, placed third. The competition's rules set the second prize at $25,000 and the third at $10,000. The contest was open to musicians aged 30 and under.

According to the institute, a jury of Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roberta Gambarini, Angélique Kidjo, Gretchen Parlato and Gregory Porter chose the three finalists on Saturday from 11 semifinalists. Six of the 11 came from outside the U.S., which the institute called the most internationally diverse group of semifinalists since the competition began in 1987.

In the final, Oheix sang "I'm Glad There Is You" and Michael Brecker's "Madame Toulouse." Heers performed "Moon Don't Come Out Tonight" and "Thou Swell," and Daniels sang an Afro-Cuban arrangement of "Nature Boy" and "Old Devil Moon," according to the institute's results announcement. The finalists were accompanied by pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Kendrick Scott.

The competition has a track record of spotting vocal talent. The institute lists Jazzmeia Horn, Jane Monheit, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gretchen Parlato and Veronica Swift among its past vocal winners. Saxophonists Joshua Redman and Melissa Aldana and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire are among the instrumentalists it helped launch.

The finals were followed by a gala hosted by actor Jeremy Irons. Herbie Hancock presented trumpeter Arturo Sandoval with the institute's Maria Fisher Founder's Award, and Sandoval performed Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel led a tribute to the late architect Frank Gehry, a longtime board member of the institute who designed the Fondation Louis Vuitton building. The tribute ended with the premiere of The Ever-Changing World, a two-movement piece by pianist Danilo Pérez commissioned by the institute in Gehry's honor.

Hancock and Akinmusire, the institute's 2007 trumpet competition winner, played "So What" to mark the centennials of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and Gregory Porter closed the evening with "April in Paris," the institute said. The weekend was streamed on FLV Play, medici.tv and YouTube.