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CULTURE

Stromae: 5 things to know about one of France’s best-loved artists

He's one of France's best-loved artists, despite being Belgian, but is less well known in the anglophone world. As his releases his first album in nine years, here's why you might like to know more about Stromae.

Published: 4 March 2022 12:29 CET
Stromae: 5 things to know about one of France's best-loved artists
Stromae at the 37th Victoires de la Musique, the annual French music awards ceremony, earlier this year. (Photo: Bertrand Guay / AFP)

1 Multitude is his first album in nine years

Stromae’s mix of dancey beats, quirky style and hard-edged rap lyrics took him to the top of the charts in more than a dozen countries in the mid-2010s.

But then the Belgian-Rwandan star, real name Paul Van Haver, all but disappeared from the limelight – after suffering crippling burnout towards the end of a gruelling world tour in 2015. 

It has been nine years since his last album, but he returned on Friday with Multitude. 

The album has already garnered rave reviews. 

2 He has struggled with severe depression

In January, when he started promoting the album’s first single, L’enfer (Hell), he was praised by the director general of the World Health Organisation,  Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for raising the subject of depression and suicide.

“Thank you @stromae for raising the difficult topic of #suicide on your latest album. So important to reach out for help if you are struggling and to support those who need help,” Dr Tedros wrote on Twitter.

The single is an unflinching examination of his experiences with depression and his battle with suicidal thoughts – “If it helps some people want to get help, that’s great,” the singer said in an interview with AFP.

But the album’s opening track Invaincu (Undefeated) demonstrates that he’s now revelling in his reborn ambition.

3 His 2013 hit Papaoutai was the most-watched music video on YouTube that year

It was watched 161 million times that year in France alone. But, like L’enfer, and many of his other tracks it has a harder, more emotional side.

The song (Papa, where are you) references the Belgian-born singer’s struggles growing up without his architect father, who was killed in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994.

In his latest album, Riez (Laugh) compares the fame-and-fortune dreams of a singer, with a migrant’s dreams of papers and a square meal, while in Fils de joie (Son of joy) he imagines life as a prostitute’s son, confronting a client, a police officer and a pimp.

“The subjects that have nothing to do with you are sometimes easier to talk about,” he told AFP. “[Fils de joie] came from watching a TV show about the children of sex-workers. I was really moved by the violence they experienced.”

And there’s the very personal ode to his three-year-old son, Rien que du bonheur (Nothing but happiness)… It’s less about unconditional love, and more about having to mop up vomit.

4 His name is verlan

In 2001, he appeared as a rapper called Opmaestro, though he later changed his stage name to Stromae, which is “Maestro” with the syllables switched around in the French slang known as verlan.

READ ALSO Verlan: France’s backwards language you need to learn

In fact, “verlan” itself is an example of verlan, as it’s the French word “L’envers” (reverse) in reverse.

His first hit, as Stromae, Alors on danse (So We Dance) became a hit while he was working at radio station NRJ in Brussels in 2008. The station’s music manager was so impressed he broadcast it, and it caught the public imagination – with celebrities including Anna Wintour and then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted fans.

He signed with Vertigo Records, a label of Mercury Records France (Universal Music Group), soon after. By May 2010 Alors on danse had reached number one in Belgium, France, Sweden, Greece, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Romania and the Czech Republic.

5 Next stop: America

He has his eyes set on one challenging goal: breaking America.

A major test comes next month when he headlines the Coachella festival in California.

“It wasn’t my ambition in the early days to sing in French in a place like the US, which isn’t used to listening to music in another language,” he said.

“But I’ve always listened to songs in English – not always understanding them but still being moved. I told myself it might work in the other direction.”

Coachella, he admitted, will be a challenge: “I’m crossing my fingers, we are trying to be fairly ambitious with the show. There are some robotic arms involved: too much wind and we won’t be able to use them.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much.” 

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FOOD AND DRINK

Paris bakers attempt world’s longest baguette

A dozen French bakers have set their minds to beating the world record for the world's longest baguette - hoping to join a long list of French records from stretchiest aligot to biggest tarte tatin.

Published: 3 May 2024 13:36 CEST
Paris bakers attempt world's longest baguette

On Sunday, 12 Paris bakers will attempt to beat the world record for the longest baguette, as part of the Suresnes Baguette Show, which was organised by the French confederation of bakers and pastry chefs. 

The current record is held by Italian bakers, who in 2019 baked a 132.6 m long baguette – roughly the height of the Great Pyramid at Giza (which is now about 138.5 metres tall). 

By contrast, the standard French baguette is between 60 and 70 centimetres long, and roughly 5-7cm in diametre.

The French boulangers will have some challenges – they’ll need to knead all of the dough and then put it together on site. The only ingredients allowed are flour, water, yeast and salt. In order to count, the bread will have to be at least 5cm thick across its entire length.

According to the press release for the event, cooking the giant baguette will take at least eight hours.

Once it’s prepared, it will be up to the judges from the Guinness Book of World Records to determine if the record was beaten or not.

Then, the baguette will be cut up and Nutella will be spread across it, with part of it shared with the public and the other part handed out to homeless people.

What about other French world records?

There are official competitions every year to mark the best croissant and baguette, plus plenty of bizarre festivals in towns across France.

The French also like to try their hand at world records. 

Stretchiest aligot – If you haven’t come across aligot before, it’s basically a superior form of cheesy mash – it’s made by mixing mashed potato with butter, garlic, cream and cheese.

The traditional cheese used is Laguiole but you can also use tomme or any cheese that goes stringy when stretched. That stretchiness is very important – it makes aligot is a popular dish for world records. 

In 2020, three brothers managed to stretch the aligot 6.2m, and apparently in 2021 they broke that record too (though unofficially), by adding an extra metre.

READ MORE: 5 things to know about aligot – France’s cheesy winter dish

And in 2023, in Albi in southern France, local media reported that a man had made the world’s largest aligot (not the stretchiest). He reportedly used 200kg of potatoes and 100kg of Aubrac tomme cheese. 

Cheesy pizza – A Lyon-based pizza maker, Benoît Bruel, won a spot in the 2023 Guinness Book of World Records for creating a pizza with 1,001 cheeses on top of it. 

 
 
 
 
 
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Biggest raclette – In March, the city of Saint-Etienne in France claimed the world record for the ‘largest raclette’.

There were 2,236 people who participated, and the raclette involved 620 kg of cheese, 350 kg of cold meat and one tonne of potatoes. 

Largest omelette – Unfortunately, France does not hold this title anymore, though it did in 1994, when the town of Montourtier in the département of Mayenne cooked up an omelette on a giant pan with a 13.11m diameter. 

Currently, the title is held by Portugal, according to Guinness. In 2012, the town of Santarém cooked an omelette weighing 7.466 tonnes.

Still, France cooks giant omelettes all the time. Every Easter, the ‘Brotherhood of the Giant Omelette’ cooks up one, cracking thousands of eggs and passing out portions to the people in the town of Bessières.

Largest tarte tatin – The French town of Lamotte-Beuvron also beat a world record in 2019 for making the largest tarte tatin, which weighed 308kg. 

This isn’t the first time the French have experimented with gigantic apple pies. In 2000, the country made history (and the Guinness Book of World Records) for creating an apple pie that measured 15.2m in diameter. It used 13,500 apples and required a crane to be lifted (as shown below).

(Photo by MICHEL HERMANS / AFP)
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