Stromae

"Tu sais dans la vie, y'a ni méchant ni gentil." -Stromae, 2013

Paul Van Haver, most commonly known under his stage name Stromae is a francophone Belgian author-composer-interpret. He was given birth to by his Rwandan father and Belgian mother in Etterbeek, Belgium. He has three brothers and one sister. His father died in April 1994, but he only learned the news when he was 12 years old. His father was rarely here for him, so he did not cry. He grew up in Laeken, a town in the Brussels province in the street Stéphanie-Bockstael. At the age of 11 years old, Paul found an interest in music, his mother catching him playing the drums on frying pans. He was signed up for the musical academy of Jette where he studied music theory and drums. He starts his secondary school at "l'école du Sacré Cœur de Jette", but he is sent to a catholic boarding school in Godinne.

Rap Career (2000-2008)
In 2000, Paul chooses to name himself "Opsmaestro" to start off in the world of rap. He says that french rapper Booba influenced him heavily. His name was similar to another artist's, so he changes it to Stromae (Maestro backwards). In 2005, Paul forms a group with rapper J.E.D.I. called "Suspicion" and they make the clip and song Faut que t'arrêtes le rap. J.E.D.I. however quits the duo, marking the start of Paul's solo career. He participates in the "Hip Hop Family" in 2006 and "Juste debout Benelux" in 2007. He starts working for french fast-food brand Quick to finance his studies in a cinematography school. He did not gain enough money from his job at Quick, so he works as the head of sound engineers in the cinema section of INRACI. He gains enough money to release his first EP containing four tracks: Juste un cerveau, un flow, un fond et un mic. He has a collaboration with many artists such as BdBanx and Beretta on the compilation "Dès le départ" or with Kery James. In 2008 he signs in an edition with Because Music and Kilomaître for four years. He composes the single Cette fois (interpreted by Melissa M.), makes four compositions on the album "À l'ombre du show business" of Kery James, and collaborates with artists from his city such as Akro, James Deano or Shadow Loowwee.

Mixture Elecstro & Cheese (2009-2011)
In 2009, he has a stage in NRJ in Brussels. Pushed by Julie, the animator of the emission NRJ Mashup, Stromae begins a series on his YouTube channel "dapastudios" called "Les leçons de Stromae" where he shows how to compose his songs.

Paul creates his own music company Mosaert (anagram of Stromae) in 2010 and signs under the license of Universal Music France the same year for promotion and distribution. Paul releases two singles in 2009: Up saw liz and Alors on danse, and releases four more singles for his album Cheese in 2010: Te Quiero, House'llelujah, Je cours and Peace or Violence. Before releasing his album, Paul releases another EP called "Mixture Elecstro" with DJ Psar in 2009. In 2010, Paul releases the rest of his album Cheese, breaking records in France and the Benelux and gaining many awards as a result. He goes on a tour in 2011 covering many European countries other than Belgium and France where he sings songs from his album. A mini-movie called "The Cheap Team" is released where we are shown Stromae's daily life during the tour along with his manager Dimitri Borrey & Jean-Michel (last name unknown). Little did Paul know, what his second album would do next...

Racine Carrée (2012-2015)
In 2012, Stromae releases the lesson for a song that will be in his new album: Humain à l'eau. We learn that Stromae has gained so much money from Cheese he had enough to buy a supermarket in this lesson. As soon as Paul starts releasing singles, they instantly become hits: Papaoutai, Formidable, Tous les mêmes, Ta fête, Ave Cesaria, Carmen and Quand c'est? are among Stromae's most popular songs. Papaoutai becomes his most popular song, with american rapper Angel Haze remixing it, making it to the anglophone version of the album. Racine Carrée was a success all across Europe and even did its thing in North America and other countries. Paul started the clips of every single from 2013-2015 and did a tour at the same time across the United States called "Stromae takes over America". Another mini-movie is released by Mosaert in 2015 showing the concert in Montreal, Canada which included all songs from Racine Carrée (except avf, due to it being a collaboration with Maître Gims & Orelsan) along with hit songs from Cheese (Alors on danse, Te Quiero, Peace or Violence, Silence and Je cours to be exact). This was the last time Paul would do a concert before his break.

The Break (2016-????)
Paul gained severe depression from the success, most likely due to the topics of his songs that he had to sing about and make people dance on. Thanks to his brother, Paul did not commit suicide, and instead decided to come back to the scene. In 2017 to announce a clothesline from his company Mosaert he released a single called "Repetto x Mosaert", an instrumental made for the clothes. In 2018, Paul had a child with his wife Coraline, and released a single showing the end of his break: "Défiler". Paul did a few collaborations with other artists in the mean time like Orelsan ("La pluie"), Coldplay ("Arabesque"), Callabero & JeanJass ("Dégueulasse") along with a cancelled collaboration with Julian Perretta in 2020. Paul announced on his social media that he was working on music everyday, and that a new album was on the way.