Stromae has influenced a generation of artists, like Pierre de Maere: the Belgian nugget, who has nothing of a follower, is inspired by his elder for the mastery of the image and the production process. .
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In the years 1990-2000, guitar groups singing in English put Belgium back on the map of contemporary music.
And in the 2010s, Stromae became the new standard-bearer, with his Jacques Brel-style writing bathed in electro open to the globe.
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“Stromae has made francophone song cool. For a long time, I thought it was old-fashioned because, in the 2000s, we got a little lost. A little anecdote became a song and came to him with societal subjects, the grandiose, the ambitious and a whole generation followed
, ”says Pierre de Maere.
At the age of 20, he released
Un jour, je
this year , his first noticed mini-album which earned him a show at La Cigale in Paris in May.
Well-crafted visual effects
“The influence of Stromae on young artists is not so much in the music as in the way of communicating it. Every moment at Stromae is thought out upstream”
, deciphers Christophe Gendreau, speaker at the Chantiers des Francos, support structure for emerging talents at the French Francofolies festival.
“And young artists are aware that the image they want to convey must come from them.
Previously, they let the media do their thing and they followed.
Change, for this generation, Stromae has inspired it”
, continues Christophe Gendreau.
Pierre de Maere emphasizes that
"every visual aspect is worked down to the last detail"
, when Stromae emerges with
Racine Carrée
, an album rich in hits that will change its dimension.
"It's been a long time in French-speaking song, since the Rita Mitsouko, that such importance had not been given to the image, it's hyper-inspiring"
, analyzes the young Belgian artist.
Pierre de Maere learned the lesson.
For his first single
Potins absurdes
, he had posters printed where we see him lying, vintage telephone in hand, in a bathtub on a pink background.
With this catchy slogan:
“Take this poster, make me famous, resell it.”
Keeping control of the creation of a record, from A to Z, by limiting contributors, is Stromae's other great legacy to the current new wave.
“
Artists who are products of labels, it's over;
Stromae, he is not the only one
,
but he counted for us, by proving that we could do everything ourselves”
, insists Pierre de Maere.
"
Iliona (another emerging Belgian artist) or me, we write, we compose, we produce, it gives ultra-authentic, coherent, spontaneous, more than if 50-year-old guys told us what to do"
, he unfolds.
Stromae also uninhibits French-speaking artists with a declared ambition.
"It's a very Anglo-Saxon approach, among the Belgians, more assumed, Stromae leaves with objectives"
, summarizes Christophe Gendreau.
Stromae appeared in Jimmy Fallon's American TV show in December, clearly targeting an audience to conquer in the United States.
Pierre de Maere does not aim so high, but always tumbles into an interview claiming his
"desire to be a star"
.
An ambition that he does not hesitate to proclaim, but always with as much humor as humility:
"A desire that I have always had, it's not a marketing argument (laughs), I want to sell dreams .
Beyond the rhinestone and glitter aspect, in recognition there is a side of accomplishment, that my music resonates with an audience.
Pierre de Maere sings
Regrets
