The Oscars has it. The SAG Awards has it. And as IFF’s Frederic Pignault experienced last Friday, so does the CEW Beauty Insider Awards. The “it” being a signal, typically a musical cue, that awards shows employ to keep an event moving along and ending on time. But once in a very rare while, a technical difficulty cuts off a speaker prematurely. And that’s where Frederic enters the scene. Just 10 seconds into his acceptance speech for Perfumer for Men’s Scent, Yves Saint Laurent L’Homme Ultime, a blast of music came on and abruptly—and rudely—ended his speech, startling not just him but many in the audience. The CEW events team tried to get the venue’s A/V back on track, but it was too late and Frederic left the stage.

So, what would Frederic have said if this had not happened? Here, the speech he had planned.

Good afternoon. I am Frederic Pignault, head of Sales for Luxury Fragrances at IFF. L’Homme Ultime wouldn’t have been possible without the continuous creative minds of Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Juliette Karagueuzoglou, whom unfortunately could not be here today.

As the eighth Opus of L’Homme – a constant Top 15 best seller in Europe a decade later – L’Homme Ultime is powerful, wild and yet delicate. Juliette and Anne had the beautiful idea of reinventing L’Homme with outstanding LMR naturals, around rose, geranium and sage, creating a new audacious blend and a distinctive signature. We’re very proud of L’Homme Ultime and we’d like to thank Karyn Lebret at L’Oréal Luxe and Stéphane Bezy at YSL for their partnership, and also Alexandre Choueiri for this incredible honor! Merci beaucoup!