In memory, we had never seen a tour of such magnitude come to an end so abruptly as that of the Belgian singer, Stromae. On May 9, in a pithy statement, the star explains that he must give up all his performances scheduled by December 2023. "A few months ago, I felt a deterioration in my health that led me to give up some first dates in France and then in Europe," he explains, referring to a first salvo of cancellations, announced at the end of March, which concerned the dates until the end of May. Before adding: "I have to accept that this time of rest and remission will be longer than I imagined. It is therefore with great regret that I will not be able to honor my promise and that I announce the end of the Multitude Tour today.
»A turner too greedy?
This is not the first time that this very popular artist has declared forfeit. In 2015, at the end of the Racine carré tour, the young man had to forfeit, under the blow of depression aggravated by the side effects of an antimalarial treatment.
After two years of almost uninterrupted concerts, he had appeared quite recently in a very worrying state to his relatives and collaborators. Very emaciated, the complexion grayish, he had been forced to cancel several days of promotion in order to honor the dates planned by his turner Auguri. It's hard to give up a financial windfall that represents the tour of an artist to immense success when you are a producer of shows. Would the Auguri company have been too greedy?
This new relapse, despite a protocol put in place to ward off possible health problems of the singer, shows that the precautions may not have been sufficiently respected. With a European warm-up tour last year, followed by an American trip last summer and an itinerary passing through the largest venues since the beginning of 2023, this new world tour has not exactly been designed to preserve the artist and his physical and moral health. It is difficult to do so with the constraints and imperatives of multiple trips and successive accommodation imposed by such a marathon. Would the "Multitude Tour" live up to its name too well?
This relapse is in any case very worrying. It openly raises the question of the very possibility of Stromae being able to exercise his profession under the same conditions in the future. Only 39 years old, he will be three years older when it comes time to think about a possible new lap.
Above all, since his forced stop between 2015 and 2021, man has learned to live differently. In addition to the Mosaert collection he designed with his wife, he has multiplied prestigious collaborations without having to travel too much. And the arrival of a little boy in his home allows him to glimpse a new rhythm of life without giving up his artistic activity. And to get out of the infernal cycle to which the density of his public career has forced him. The stage beast is on the ground but the artist has probably not said his last word.