Stromae is Belgium’s Beyoncé. He is a versatile musician who is adored almost universally by audiences and critics. He creates highly effective pop music, which hopscotches across a wide host of genres and traditions. His each and every move is documented and analyzed by the (Francophone) press. Yet, he is also a perfectionist who seems to be in total control of his image—from his strikingly colorful outfits to his tightly orchestrated live shows and TV performances. And he can sing, dance, and put on a show like it’s nobody’s business.
Stromae is the guise under which Paul Van Haver bundles his different persona—be it gender-bending, taking two sides of a bickering couple’s argument in the electro-swing of "Tous Les Mêmes," playing a stumbling drunk in the break-up anthem "Formidable," or toying around with techno and afropop in "Papaoutai," a little boy’s heart-rending cri de coeur for his absent father. That last one seemingly unites the worlds of Stromae and Paul Van Haver, who was born to a Flemish mother and Rwandan father who died in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Van Haver earned his stripes in Brussels’ underground hip-hop scene, before composing “Alors On Dance” in his bedroom at his mother’s house. The song became a worldwide hit (even Kanye West jumped on a remix). His first album Cheese sold over 200,000 copies in the world, and the rest is history.
With the release of his sophomore album Racine Carre in 2013, Stromae solidified his status as a superstar. In the French-speaking world, he is now arguably even Bigger Than Beyonce: he has sold more than three million copies of his album, outselling even Daft Punk in France, and when he performed at a festival in Morocco, 180,000 people showed up to see him—leaving other acts like Rihanna and Justin Timberlake in his wake. While he might not have reached that status in the US (yet), he did just play two Terminal 5 shows that sold out months in advance. We dusted off our French vocabulaire and caught up with him at the Universal offices in New York.
PIETER COLPAERT: Bonjour Stromae! You have been on tour almost non-stop this year. How are you feeling now?
STROMAE: I am feeling good, ‘cause I had some rest. It’s the paradox of being human—having ambition is great, and if I don’t play a lot of shows I get unhappy, but at a certain point you just realize you are really tired. I felt that my body couldn’t take it anymore, so I took some holidays.
In an earlier interview with Complex, you mentioned wanting to take a break—maybe three or four years. That caused some uproar; it was all over the newspapers back in Belgium…
You know, I have been talking about taking a break for a long time and I am definitely planning on it. I wouldn’t even call it taking a break—people expect me to be making music non-stop, but between the first and second album, there was a pause of three or four years as well. Back then, I also said: "I need some time to work, to rest, and to live a bit so I have things to talk about" Back then, no one cared. It’s the paradox of success: you’ll say things that are perfectly normal in life, and then you’ll see newspapers, say
Stromae is the guise under which Paul Van Haver bundles his different persona—be it gender-bending, taking two sides of a bickering couple’s argument in the electro-swing of "Tous Les Mêmes," playing a stumbling drunk in the break-up anthem "Formidable," or toying around with techno and afropop in "Papaoutai," a little boy’s heart-rending cri de coeur for his absent father. That last one seemingly unites the worlds of Stromae and Paul Van Haver, who was born to a Flemish mother and Rwandan father who died in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Van Haver earned his stripes in Brussels’ underground hip-hop scene, before composing “Alors On Dance” in his bedroom at his mother’s house. The song became a worldwide hit (even Kanye West jumped on a remix). His first album Cheese sold over 200,000 copies in the world, and the rest is history.
With the release of his sophomore album Racine Carre in 2013, Stromae solidified his status as a superstar. In the French-speaking world, he is now arguably even Bigger Than Beyonce: he has sold more than three million copies of his album, outselling even Daft Punk in France, and when he performed at a festival in Morocco, 180,000 people showed up to see him—leaving other acts like Rihanna and Justin Timberlake in his wake. While he might not have reached that status in the US (yet), he did just play two Terminal 5 shows that sold out months in advance. We dusted off our French vocabulaire and caught up with him at the Universal offices in New York.
PIETER COLPAERT: Bonjour Stromae! You have been on tour almost non-stop this year. How are you feeling now?
STROMAE: I am feeling good, ‘cause I had some rest. It’s the paradox of being human—having ambition is great, and if I don’t play a lot of shows I get unhappy, but at a certain point you just realize you are really tired. I felt that my body couldn’t take it anymore, so I took some holidays.
In an earlier interview with Complex, you mentioned wanting to take a break—maybe three or four years. That caused some uproar; it was all over the newspapers back in Belgium…
You know, I have been talking about taking a break for a long time and I am definitely planning on it. I wouldn’t even call it taking a break—people expect me to be making music non-stop, but between the first and second album, there was a pause of three or four years as well. Back then, I also said: "I need some time to work, to rest, and to live a bit so I have things to talk about" Back then, no one cared. It’s the paradox of success: you’ll say things that are perfectly normal in life, and then you’ll see newspapers, say