Before Ed Sheeran there was Axelle Red
How to fight for your dreams
It was her music, not the colour of her hair that made her stand out. And yet. She was only a small town girl from Hasselt, who did not meet the stereotype of a sparkling blonde singer girl with blue eyes. But she fought hard to make her musical dreams come true. Her striking fysical characteristic bedame a marketing tool. And she emphasized it in her stage name.
Nothing really predestined the soul music singer, Axelle Red to become what she is today, a famous and recognised person in the world, more particularly in the French culture. Indeed, she was born in a small lost city in Belgium called Hasselt. The young girl Axelle Red, whose real name is Fabienne Demal, was born on 15 February 1968 in Hasselt. Daughter of a lawyer and a pianist, the little girl was a studious and passionate student of music from an early age.
Although her mother is a pianist and the young girl has a strong inclination for music, she devoted a lot of time to her studies. It was only after she obtained her law degree at the University of Brussels that she devoted herself fully to music. In those days, the differences in the world of famous people were much less present than they are today. We remained very close to the stereotypes of blonde singers babes. But this red-headed person will therefore make her stand out from the others. The young artist starts to make herself known and decides to surf on the wave of this criterion to change her name to Axelle Red, an allusion to her hair.
Immediate success
At the age of 25 it was a turning point for the singer when she released her first album. Named Sans plus attendre and immediately met with success. The titles Sensualité and Je t’attends become hits. The album goes to the top of the sales charts and the French public discovers the young Belgian singer.
The year 1993 will therefore mark the beginning of her career. Although she collaborated with songwriters Daniel and Richard Seff in 1989 and created the song Kennedy Boulevard in 1989.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until 1993 that the singer entered to the spotlight of popularity. Her second album, À tâtons was released three years later and sold a million copies in Europe. Always very inspired by the Soul music of her childhood, Axelle Red is growing in popularity.
The success immediately goes beyond the borders of Belgium and gives it a great notoriety in Europe and in Quebec. Then begins the time of the tours and the first encounters with an enthusiastic audience.
In spite of this very fast popularity the singer tries to keep her feet on the ground and not to take the big head. Staying close to her family keeps her from going crazy.
In 1998, Axelle Red fulfilled one of her dearest dreams by performing on the stage of the Palais des Congrès in Paris. She sang at the Stade de France, in a duet with Youssou N’Dour, during the opening ceremony of the Football World Cup.
Many collaborations
Our singer Axelle Red has therefore been very successful very quickly because of her music and her voice but also because of her numerous collaborations with well-known personalities who have only contributed to her success.
In September 2002, Axelle Red reappeared at the side of the singer Renaud to interpret Manhattan Kabul, a remembrance of the tragedy of September 11th in New York. She presented the album Face A, Face B, from which the first track J’me fâche was taken.
In the course of her new original songs Axelle Red also unveils several collaborations with some of the most beautiful feathers of the current French music scene. The result is a collection of 12 original songs composed by Axelle Red, with lyrics by Christophe Miossec, Florent Marchet, Gérard Manset, Ben Mazué and of course Axelle Red. The album includes two duets with Christophe Miossec and Stephan Eicher.
A life not always pink
Although Axelle Red’s life in general is a success, she has also had some difficult moments in her life. Indeed, on November 5, 2019, Axelle Red announced some very sad news on her Facebook account: the death of her father, Roland, at the age of 88. To pay a final tribute to him, she wrote a very tender text on the social network. “I had been spared the greatest sorrows until now, but now life has had me,” she wrote.
In addition, Axelle Red is also a very committed artist as she supports many humanitarian causes and carries out many missions abroad. She has been an ambassador for UNICEF since 1997 and supports the associations Oxfam International and Agir Ici which campaign for fair trade. In December 2007, King Albert II of Belgium awarded her the honorary distinction of Commander of the Order of the Crown for her involvement.
About the future
In recent years the singer has become rarer but she has never let go of her microphone, regularly presenting opus to her fans. After a compilation of acoustic covers, The Songs (Acoustic), released in 2015, Axelle Red made her big comeback in France in 2018 with Exil, a ninth album released in her 50th birthday year, notably featuring the single Who’s Gonna Help You. “Today, as she is about to blow out her 52 candles, the artist will soon present a new project…
