Rihanna isn't the only Super Bowl superstar.
Sunday, February 12, DJ Snake will provide the show before the start of the final of the American football championship, the most watched sporting event in the United States.
Everything, or almost, on this Frenchman with billions of streams.
Before being one of the biggest headliners in world music, DJ Snake is William Grigahcine, his real name.
Born in Paris of an Algerian mother and a French father, - whom he hardly knew - he grew up in the Val-d'Oise, in the Paris region in a modest environment.
Very early on, he fell in love with music.
It was with
The Hatred
, the film by Mathieu Kassovitz, released in 1995, that he honed his passion, recognizing himself in the DJ character of Cut Killer.
For several years, he chained odd jobs to buy turntables.
“I got up at 6 a.m. and went back there for noon to recharge everything.
One hundred francs earned per market”
, he explained in an interview with
Le Monde
in 2019. Once his turntables were acquired, he was launched.
Exit William, make way for DJ Snake.
The snake, a metaphor for his younger years, when he dodged the police after doing graffiti.
Taken over by Michelle Obama
He stopped school at 17 to devote himself to music, with the financial help of his mother.
At the same time, he hosts a radio show and mixes in Parisian clubs, without managing to earn a living.
Things accelerated in the course of the 2010s, when he managed to put his name on American star hits:
Shut it Down
in 2009 by Pitbull and Akon or
Government Hooker
present on the album
Born This Way
, which propelled Lady Gaga.
A small-handed experience that left him with a bitter taste.
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In 2012, he gave himself two months to succeed.
“If nothing succeeds, I move on, I find a job and I will work like all the French, fill my fridge, pay my rent and music will remain a hobby (…) I will be a Sunday artist”
, he said in May 2022 in the program
“C à vous”
on France 5. A determination that pays off since in a few weeks, the sound
Turn Down for What
, in duet with Lil Jon, imposes itself as a global phenomenon.
Final consecration.
It is even hijacked by Michelle Obama, then First Lady of the United States, in a campaign clip to promote healthy eating.
37 billion streams
Encore
, his first solo album, was released in August 2016. It was an immediate success.
There are collaborations with American rap star Travis Scott or pop star Justin Bieber.
Three years later,
Carte Blanche
, her second album, was released.
Here again, collaborations are on the agenda: from huge American stars Cardi B or Selena Gomez (the tube
Taki taki
, 2.4 billion views) to Latino pop stars Ozuna or even J Balvin (
Lean on
, another megatube).
Each time,
"Snake"
mixes genres, goes from electro to pop without forgetting more Latin tones.
Read alsoDJ Snake climbs his Arc de Triomphe for his big comeback in Paris
Essential, the artist, rarely seen without his sunglasses, has accumulated more than 37 billion plays on streaming platforms.
In June 2022, he set the Parc des Princes on fire in front of 60,000 people.
His latest project Disco Maghreb - named after the emblematic record company of Oran, the Algerian city of raï - is a tribute to this music and to the country of his mother.
For the occasion, the artist hums a few words in dialectal Arabic.
Cantor of a multicultural France, the 36-year-old artist has often claimed his chauvinism:
“We have a small country which has a huge impact on the world, on many levels.
We are not proud enough
, ”he said on France Inter in 2021.
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ALSO
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