# I'm a Belgian...like Stromae



## PabloElFlamenco (Jun 5, 2014)

...and now that I've probably turned most of you off, I may safely put in a good word for a musician I particularly appreciate without being accused of rash plugging: Stromae is the good man's name (Maestro spelled by switching the order of syllables from the original word).

He sings in the french language, which he manipulates to excellent effect. This song 



 is "Papaoutai" (papa où t'ès, daddy wheyou?). His dad was Rwandan. In this song he sings things like "everybody's talkin'" 'bout how to make babies but nobody's teachin' 'bout how to make' daddies". In another song he sings about the little blue bird twitting away hashtag this hashtag that... or, yet, "why I even have an Aryan friend" which, in French, could be interpreted as "why I even have a worthless friend"... and "formidable" he turns into "fort minable" (formidable as against most gauche).

For those who fear this young man would be merely a poet's poet, his music is a particularly danceworthy mix of techno, Congolese rumba, mexican trumpet and more, most capably mixed into a spectacular wall of sound.

He may be a weirdo, but ... like!
Paul


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Yeah Paul, seconded !
One of the very few musicians my kids and I agree on!!

Cheers,
Jos


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## PabloElFlamenco (Jun 5, 2014)

Yes Jos, the credit's all Mr. Paul van Haver's (Stromae's real name). Last saturday, Irène and I went to see his concert at the Arras (North France) open air festival, it was a fantastic show and the public, to a very large extent Flemish AND French-speaking Belgians, and French people of course, by all accounts (for the loud singing they did!) seemed to know the lyrics to all his songs. 
Most impressive, a very, very talented and resourceful young musician, he is. I MUST get me one of his polo shirts...(he's got an attractive line of clothes, too...resourceful, I said!).

Greetings
Paul


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