STROMAE ‘Alors On Danse’ out Monday 9th August 2010
Half Rwandan and half Belgium Stromae produced European Billboard no.1 hit ‘Alors On Danse’ on his computer at home with a desktop mic. Even more remarkable, he created his buzz when filming homemade ‘lessons in how to make a hit’ for his Youtube channel, starting in January 2009 (‘Les Leçon De Stromae’ or ‘Stromae’s Lessons’). Lesson no. 8 ‘Alors On Dance’ became a viral sensation and then a real hit on Europe’s radio airwaves, getting to no.1 across the continent and running up 7 million Youtube plays. It started when the internet excitement from his music production Youtube shows caught the attention of DJ Julie on the dance specialist NRJ Mash Up Show of France’s biggest radio station in June 2009. Getting rave reactions on the specialist show it was moved to playlist rotation proper and from there it shot to no.1 in both France and Germany. French language blog Fluo Kids described ‘Alors on Danse’ as like ‘Calabria X tranxene’. ‘Calabria’ referring to Alex Gaudino’s 2007 dance hit and tranxene referring to the anti-depressant pills proscribed for anxiety. Stromae (born Paul Van Haver) fits his smart stream of consciousness lyrics into dance music. He has re-imagined the sound of his native Belgium’s late 80’s New Beat. Groups like Snap! And Technotronic produced worldwide hit records by retooling Chicago house with European je ne sais quoi. Stromae’s has had the first #1 single in Germany in the French language since 1988. With English speaking clubs and blogs worldwide already heating up for ‘Alors On Danse’ this product of global list of influences could end up sitting on a global hit.
‘ALORS ON DANSE’ Lyrics English translation
‘So we dance,
Who says study says work,
Who says work says cash,
Who says money says spend,
Who says credit says debt
Who says debt says bailiff
Who says ‘you’re in the shit’,
Who says love says kids,
Said always and said divorce,
Who says relatives says mourning,
Because problems come in pairs
Who says crisis says ‘world’,
Says famine says Third World,
Who says exhaustion says wake up,
Still deaf from last night,
So we go out to forget all our problems,
So we dance.
Then you tell yourself that it’s over,
Because the only thing worse than this would be death,
When you finally think you’ve found a way out and there’s nothing left,
There’s more to come,
It’s the music or the problems,
Problems or the music,
It sends you tripping, does your head in,
And then you pray for it to stop,
But it’s your body, it’s not God,
So you don’t block your ears anymore,
And then you scream even louder but it goes on,
And so you sing…
And then only when it’s over
We dance’
STROMAE ‘Alors On Danse’ released on Island Records Monday 9th August 2010
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
‘Its blend of French flow, trance stabs, ravey sax and la-la-la vocals offer no less than four melodies perfect for drunken chanting…so it's going to be massive. And yet, it's about the awfulness of existence.’ Guardian.co.uk
LINKS
http://www.stromae.net/blog/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9yzoTHP9HY
http://www.youtube.com/user/Dapastudio#p/a/u/0/J9yzoTHP9HY
http://www.dailymotion.com/DaPastudio
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