Introducing...STROMAE

If you mention the name Stromae, the average American might not know whom you’re even talking about. If you have heard of him, pat yourself on the back. You may only know him from Kanye’s remix of ‘Alors on Danse’, Stromae’s worldwide single that hit the US in 2011. However, this was years after the original song was released. "The single was originally released in September 2009 in Belgium and in February 2010 in the rest of Europe. The song reached number one in Belgium, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Turkey, and also reached number one on the European Hot 100 Singles. The song also became a success in North America, as on 1 April 2010, "Alors on danse" was released in Canada, receiving airplay in Québec from NRJ Radio stations throughout the province, as well as CKOI-FM. Four months after the European release, almost 1 million copies worldwide were sold."

This 30 year old trendsetter is far beyond his years. Apart from having countless hits, Stromae also launched a clothing line in 2014. After less than a week, almost the whole entire collection was sold out. "The unisex collection is exclusively sold at Hunting & Collecting in Brussels Belgium. Stromae, whose real name is Paul Venter, launched in cooperation with Coralie Barbier and graphic design agency Boldatwork, the label Mosaert. Mosaert is an anagram of his stage name, Stromae was another anagram of the word ‘maestro‘. The collection consists of colorful Polo shirts and socks with African prints, the garments that Stromae likes to wear on stage."

After watching the music video for ‘Papaoutai’, I was blown away by his creativity and theatrical mind. With a montage of phenomenal dance performances and Stromae staying in the manikin dad character throughout the majority of the video, it’s safe to say this video was ground breaking for a Belgium artist (for any artist for that matter, but being from Belgium makes it that much more dope). You see him never breaking character in his ‘Formidable’ video as well. In this one he marauds around a train stop drunk as shit and doesn’t let the pedestrians, fans or even the police break his character throughout the entirety of the film. You’re a Millennial Stromae. I remember seeing a couple hundred thousand views on your youtube videos and now there are hundreds of millions. Congrats on your success man! Check this dude out!