Stromae: a Pause in the Melody
We often hear that artists cancel their tours due to their state of health. Belgian musical sensation Stromae did this with his ‘Multitude Tour’, which was supposed to start in spring 2023. From achievements towards health setbacks, this past year have been a roller-coaster for the acclaimed artist.
Stromae, born Paul Van Haver, is a Belgium musician and producer. His start in the music industry was with 18 years when he founded with the rapper J.E.D.I. a rap group named Suspicion. However, J.E.D.I left the group, so Paul started his own musical carrier. The artist’s breakthrough was in 2009 and came with the hit single Alors on danse. With this song he reached more than one billion views on YouTube and got him recognize to the international music scene.
The following debut album Cheese and Racine Carrée got the artist more and more success. The second album Racine Carrée hit the charts worldwide and earned much appreciation. In the tracks Papaoutai and Formidable Stromae takes up social issues and the inner search for his father, which setting him up as an artist with substance, style and profound comprehension for emotional topics.
Cultural icon
The artist ascension brought him many awards and nomination, including MTV Europe Music Awards, a Grammy nomination and a World Music Award. Stromae became a cultural icon, influencing fashion and spoke about societal issues. With his fashion style he attracted a lot of attention, so he founded his own clothing line Mosaert, which is as well active in the music and audiovisual sector. The Brussel based creative line is working with Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa or Major Lazer.
Health problems
In 2015 Stromae has to cancel his tour through Africa, because a preventive medication for malaria caused him anxiety and depression. However, his health situation did not become better told the artist in an interview and it was not clear if he will ever continue to produce music. The single Santé which he released in his 7-year break, was dedicated to all the workers, as vender, nurses, cleaning staff, who are easily forgotten, but gained more recognition in the pandemic.
After a pause, he started again to working on a new album which was released in January 2022. A track of the album is L’enfer, which is about depression, performed Stromae on the French broadcaster TF1 and was certainly seen as a “cheek”, because a different song performance was agreed with the TF1. Unfortunately, Stromae had to cancel the planned tournee with the new Album Multitude due to health reasons.
Stromae’s impact on the music industry and popular culture cannot be forgotten. The story of Stromae shows that very successful humans who earn much fame and appreciation have to deal with mental health issues. Regrettably various artists have to deal with health issues like that and it makes it even more difficult to contrive with when the person is famous and stands in the public eye. The story of Stromae is one of thriumphs, challenges and above all the enduring power of music to inspire and connect us all.
