He won the first season of Nouvelle Star (the French edition of Pop Idol) in 2003 and represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

In March 2006, it was confirmed his next single was to be "Ne m'en veux pas" which appeared on La Preuve du contraire as a duet with Ophélie Cassy.

In February 2007, a year after his latest single "Ruban noir" (from La Preuve du contraire) became a major download hit without any specific promotion.

In July 2007, he signed up to the Sellaband website aiming to find "believers" willing to buy "parts" (funding) the recording of his third album.

Regularly appearing in the top three of Sellaband's charts, he managed to collect $25,000 (half of the required $50,000), before deciding to leave the website in October 2007.

In January 2018, Cerrada released an Indonesian single entitled "Lelaki Lain Di Hati", written by Valiant Budi Yogi or well known as Vabyo.