Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Chloe Temtchine Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Eden Gold
Be yourself: When I was younger, I was afraid to be myself. I was a weird little kid and I looked like a boy, so I always wanted to be anyone but me. I wasted so much time trying to be someone other than myself. Life is so much more enjoyable when we are who we are. I learned to be true to myself, and I think that’s a major part of success. My definition of success in this case is about being happy with ourselves at the core, with who we are behind closed doors. It’s not about what everyone else thinks of us.
As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Chloe Temtchine.
Chloe Temtchine is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and speaker, and the creator of “Super Brave,” a series spotlighting both kids and adults facing life’s most difficult health challenges. After five years of misdiagnoses, Chloe was finally diagnosed in March 2013, with severe Pulmonary Hypertension and PVOD (Pulmonary Veno Occlusive Disease) and was given days to live. Seven years later, on August 5, 2020, after suffering a cardiac arrest, being in a coma for four days, and on life support (ECMO) for almost a month, Chloe received a life-saving, double-lung transplant.
Currently working on her fifth album dedicated to her lung donor, she has collaborated with Grammy-winning songwriters and has been acknowledged with numerous awards. Post-transplant, Chloe’s mission has expanded to promote organ-donation awareness. Her dedication includes The Chloe Temtchine Foundation (TCTF) which supports those living with PAH and other serious conditions. Through TCTF, she spearheads initiatives like Super Brave Kids and The Smile Tour, uplifting pediatric patients and their families across the U.S. Highly respected in the music industry, Chloe has worked with notable talents like Toby Gad (John Legend, Beyoncé), Guy Roche (Christina Aguilera), and Sasha Skarbek (James Blunt), to name a few. Her appearances include “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Doctors,” Hallmark’s “Home & Family,” Fox 5 News, CNN, and KTLA, and her story has been spotlighted in renowned publications such
as the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, LA Weekly, and New York Post, to name a few. Her original songs have been featured in films, TV shows, and commercials. Chloe is also trilingual; she speaks French, Spanish, and English fluently.
As a speaker, Chloe’s mission is to inspire hope, emphasizing the power of perspective, gratitude, and resilience.
In her own words: “I was told I only had days to live. That was 16 years ago. A double-lung transplant gave me a second chance at life. One of the many lessons I’ve learned along the way is that we do not need a near-death experience to value our limited time here on Earth; no matter what we’re going through, each one of us has the power to create our own second chance.”
Renowned globally, Chloe is engaged by top brands, pharmaceutical giants such as Johnson & Johnson, and hired for exclusive events to share both her empowering story and her inspiring music.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I technically haven’t yet grown up, hee hee. I was born and raised in New York City. I have family all over the world and have had the great fortune of being able to travel a lot and spend quite a bit of time in other countries. I have the greatest parents on earth. I was raised in a fundamentally European household: my father is French and grew up in Paris; my mother, who was born and raised in the Philippines, is American and has spent a lot of time in Europe. I went to the Lycée Français de New York and grew up with French as my primary language for the most part.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
At the age of about six, on Sundays, my father would bring me to a Baptist Church in Harlem, NY, where I would listen to hours of Gospel music. I was mesmerized and truly moved by the music and became so familiar with the songs that I started singing on stage in that church. That’s where I believe music started for me.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
This story may be a little more disturbing than interesting, but here we go…. I had a show at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC and was performing for all the people that “mattered” in the music industry. I was sitting at the piano; it was my time to shine, and when I went for my high note, instead of a melody, a cough came out. Little did I know my entire life was about to change. I tried hard to make a joke out of it and went back to the piano to continue, and sure enough…another cough, eventually leading to a coughing fit on stage. Not something you ever want to have happen on stage.
That cough led to five grueling years of misdiagnoses by top doctors and finally a fatal prognosis: Pulmonary Hypertension and PVOD. When I was finally diagnosed, I was in heart failure and was given days to live. I ended up not dying (thank God) and lived for seven more years on oxygen 24/7, until the day my heart couldn’t take it anymore.
In 2020, after going into cardiac arrest, being in a coma for four days, and on ECMO (life support) for 21 days, I received a life-saving, double-lung transplant. I now sing with someone else’s lungs. I could not be more grateful to be alive. This experience woke me up and has allowed me to appreciate every single moment that I have here on earth.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There are so many, I hardly know where to begin! Let’s go with the time I forgot how to play a song right in the middle of performing it. I was at a packed venue in NYC, and as I went to play the chorus of my new song on the piano, my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t remember the chords at all!
So, I started playing random chords and made up new lyrics on the spot about forgetting the music. The audience quickly caught on and started laughing, turning the whole thing into a comedy show instead of a musical performance.
The lesson here isn’t just to play the right chords — kidding! The real lesson I learned was not to worry so much about creating a perfect experience. We’re all human, and we all mess up. In fact, I think the audience enjoyed the performance even more because of the unexpected improvisation. It reminded me that sometimes, it’s the imperfections that make moments memorable and enjoyable.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mama. She is the world’s greatest human being and the greatest mother. The only mother I could have had! Not only has she been there for me every step of the way through all my health challenges, life challenges, and love challenges, but she also has a surprisingly great musical ear even though she knows absolutely nothing about music. We call her Simon Cowell because she knows what she’s talking about and is as straightforward and honest as they come, which I really appreciate. When she says something is good, then you know it’s good. So while everybody else is saying, “Good job! Sounds and looks great!” when I send them a video or song, I can always count on my mama to tell it to me like it is. I’ll hear something like, “Not quite right. You can do better”; or “Sounds off”; or “Hmm…a bit amateurish.” And so, after five seconds of resistance, I go back to work and make it better. My mother and I are both believers in putting in the time to get things as right as we possibly can.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Nearly dying is a great reminder that as long as those we love are happy and healthy, nothing is all that serious. If we fail, we fail. It’s part of the game. Ideally, we use failure to our advantage, to learn the lesson it’s trying to teach us, and we get back up and keep going.
I have learned the value of staying true to myself and pursuing what I am truly passionate about versus what I feel I’m supposed to pursue to make others happy. Having been on my deathbed, it’s clear to me that we’re better off failing at what we love to do than failing at something we didn’t even want to do, having never given ourselves a fair shot at going for what we really wanted. As long as we maintain perspective and a sense of humor, we can enjoy the process rather than fear it.
Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?
The music industry, in my opinion, is in an interesting place. I don’t know enough to truly comment since I’ve been primarily in a hybrid of the music/health industry versus the traditional music industry, but I do believe that the principles of today make sense. As I see it, the only way to cut through the noise is to be insanely good at what you do or insanely unique. It’s like one of my favorite Steve Martin quotes: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” To me, that’s what the industry is all about today, and I think that makes sense. It requires significant out-of-the-box thinking and putting in the actual work (aka getting creative). Creativity is, in my opinion, one of the most important characteristics a person can have.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
Thank you 🙂 I’m currently working on an album, a tour that involves performing for kids in hospitals throughout the US, and a short film dedicated to my donor, the mysterious and incredible person who selflessly gifted me her lungs and saved my life. I’m on a mission to use my music and story to bring massive awareness to the importance of organ donation while making people aware of Pulmonary Hypertension, a disease with a life expectancy of 2.8 years.
In addition to raising awareness, I find great fulfillment in serving as a reminder to those going through life’s greatest challenges that as long as we are breathing, there is hope and that the impossible can, in fact, become possible.
My transplant surgeon (aka the remarkable man who saved my life), Dr. Abbas Ardehali, came into my hospital room in the ICU and asked me if, when I left the hospital, I would help bring awareness to the importance of organ donation. It was such an inspiring question because he asked me this while I was basically on my deathbed, knowing that the question alone would fuel my inspiration and give me the strength I needed to find my way out of the hospital. I said “Yes,” and I take that “yes” very seriously. Fulfilling my promise of bringing massive awareness to the cause is a very large part of what fuels my mission.
We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?
My three reasons would be:
1. People can look up to those that look like they do.
2. Our world is all about diversity, so we should absolutely be representing that truth on screen.
3. Although I’m all for diversity and celebrating differences — I love when a diverse cast is represented in TV or film — I strongly believe that everything should be done for the right reason. Everyone, regardless of race or color, should be given a fair shot, but ultimately, people should be cast in roles because of their talent, not because of their ethnicity or the color of their skin.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1. Be yourself: When I was younger, I was afraid to be myself. I was a weird little kid and I looked like a boy, so I always wanted to be anyone but me. I wasted so much time trying to be someone other than myself. Life is so much more enjoyable when we are who we are. I learned to be true to myself, and I think that’s a major part of success. My definition of success in this case is about being happy with ourselves at the core, with who we are behind closed doors. It’s not about what everyone else thinks of us.
2. Do what you can with what you have: Having faced one part of my body falling apart after another, I have been given every reason to stop doing what I love. But giving up wasn’t and isn’t an option. It was all about getting creative and finding a way. For example, I was told I would never sing again due to permanent vocal paralysis, but I decided to get creative and change that story to: if I can speak, I can surely find a way to sing again. Maybe it wouldn’t be the voice of my dreams, but it would be what I could do with what I had. There will always be another challenge. The idea for me is to focus on HOW to do it, not IF it can be done.
3. Release the worry: I worry that I worry too much 🙂 I have always been a compulsive worrier, and it sounds crazy, but I actually believe — or used to believe! — that if we worry enough about something, we can prevent it from happening. It’s like worrying while our plane is trying to land amidst a lot of turbulence. Once that plane lands, somewhere inside us we are convinced that our worrying made that plane land. So the next time we’re on a plane, in order to keep all of the passengers safe, we’re going to worry until it lands. That worrying strips the joy out of our living those moments; also, our rational minds know that what will happen will happen whether we worry or not. I have chosen to no longer waste my beautiful moments by worrying. I now cultivate a non-worry habit. Still working on this one!
4. Live now: There’s no such thing as someday. I learned the hard way that nothing is promised, so let’s not miss what’s going on right now.
5. Enjoy and maximize the moments in your life: I equate this to having fun in a grocery store. Going to the grocery, in my opinion, should be just as much fun as doing something that would typically be considered fun. It’s never about what we’re doing, it’s about how we’re doing it. Life is happening now. To me it’s about the moments in between, not just the moments we strive to attain.
Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices, or treatments that you do to help your body, mind, or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.
Spend time doing what you love: If you can, spend time doing what you love; if you can’t, then find the blessings in whatever it is that you have to do. The gift of being alive is something I cherish every day. Everything else is an added bonus. This perspective helps me stay positive and grateful, no matter the circumstances.
Stay away from sugar: Sugar is the enemy. If possible, cut back or greatly reduce sugar.
Sleep: This is a tough one for me, but it’s something I try to make myself do. When I sleep, perspective comes back and everything suddenly appears possible again.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” — Thomas Edison. I was told over and over that everything (singing, even just surviving…) was impossible. I have learned that with hard work and dedication, the impossible can become possible.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
A gratitude movement. So often, we forget to be grateful for simply being able to breathe. I used to have a dream of standing on stage accepting a Grammy. That dream quickly turned into one of just being able to stand up again at all. In my opinion, gratitude trumps all other feelings such as fear, anxiety, and worry.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
It would be great to have lunch with Steve Martin. I was on oxygen 24/7 for seven years; my oxygen tank was named Steve Martin, and he always performed by my side in a bowtie. I actually met Steve Martin briefly during that period. It would be great to sit down and laugh with the human version of Steve Martin, knowing that, God willing, I never need to see the tank version again 🙂
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I am:
Instagram @chloetemtchine
Youtube: Www.youtube.com/chloetemtchine
Tik tok: ChloeQTemtchine
Foundation www.TheChloeTemtchineFoundation.org
Website www.ChloeTemtchine.com
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Thank you so much!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold.
Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Chloe Temtchine Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.