Stromae soars high

Electro-house phenomenon

Paris 

16/09/2010 - 

Stromae is an astounding electro-house and hip-hop phenomenon, and he’s francophone. His first single, Alors on danse, has topped the national charts in twenty European countries. Better still, the whole of Britain has adopted this anthem from the first album Cheese, the single is climbing up the UK top ten, and the champion of hip-hop, Kanye West, is busy preparing a remix version. Belgian compatriots Plastic Bertrand and 2Many DJs never did so well on the other side of the Channel.

Stromae, anagram of Maestro, turned summer dance floors upside down with Alors on danse, a solid gold hit brewed up with a synthesizer and a music software program. Although the song that has sent Stromae soaring so high paints the depressing sociological portrait of a man confronted with the serious stuff of modern life, it’s hard to imagine a more uplifting musical beat. With a monochord tone, the insistent voice of singer-producer Paul Van Haver delivers dexterous lyrics that hit the spot with their striking realism. They stick in your mind because they are so simple and well written.

Te quiero, his second single already being played everywhere in Belgium, takes up the same formula. The ultra-dynamic rhythm enwraps serious words about eternal love. The two words of the title are hammered out like a slogan in response to an outpouring of dark, slowly delivered sentiments. The sound becomes hypnotic and the hoarse laughter at the end of the song is a reminder that Stromae, whose father is from Rwanda, has listened to the best of Belgian, French and African music, from Jacques Brel to Papa Wemba via Gaëtan Roussel.

Truly individual style

Stromae’s schmooze is pure and his rap accentless. He likes pared-down sounds, and cultivates his hip-hop electro style by adding an omnipresent bass guitar to his keyboard productions and tagging on house gimmicks like Benni Benassi and Arman Van Helden. In recent weeks, the 25-year-old French-speaking Belgian has been received in Britain a bit like Vanessa Paradise and Desireless were in 1987 – French aliens whose tunes were perfectly intelligible to an audience frequently bombarded with all kinds of pop.

The danger is that the world will end up losing the very essence of a house poetry that describes the hassles of a responsibility-filled life with such derision and black humour. A few clever clogs have had fun translating Alors on danse into English, with a style that lacks polish and is nowhere near as good as the original. Even Kanye West’s version smacks of cliché, shamelessly toning down the frank simplicity of the original lyrics. Yet despite this dumbing down, Alors on danse has become a bilingual anthem, taking on the title And then we skank in its less successful version and And then we dance in the better of the English remixes. Who can claim, after releasing a first maxi, to have been mixed with some of the most prominent US DJ-producers, David Guetta and Pharell Williams to drop a few names? Only Stromae.

Stomae Cheese (Vertigo/Mercury) 2010

Joseph  Tréflèze

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper