New York Times waxes poetic over Stromae

The Brussels dance and hip-hop singer Paul Van Haver, better known as Stromae, has never been more popular in Europe than he is now, with the recent release of his second album and its smash hit “Formidable”. Now the 28-year-old has had a glorious write-up in The New York Times.

“Paul Van Haver is a musician for his time,” wrote Scott Sayare of the newspaper’s Paris bureau, “a gravel-voiced, mixed-race performer whose melancholic French-language dance pop has channelled, to popular acclaim, the grey that currently hangs over Europe.”

Sayare goes on to quote other media as well as interview the musician, who grew up in Brussels with a Flemish mother and a Rwandan father. Stromae’s father did not live with the family and was killed in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide.

“The music is often playful but almost always cut through with a darker strain,” said Sayare, “a reflection of the disillusionment and restlessness that have supplanted the self-assurance of an earlier generation in Europe.”

Stromae heads out on tour next month across France. His upcoming concerts in Antwerp and Brussels have long been sold out.