37th Victoires de la musique | OrelSan and Clara Luciani dominate nominations

(Paris) They are the big favorites: OrelSan, lord of winter, and Clara Luciani, who has been dancing all summer, dominate the nominations of the 37^es Music victories, revealed Monday evening.

The trophies will be presented at a ceremony on February 11. The rapper, 39, and the singer, 29, compete for the artist (male and female), album, song and audiovisual creation awards.

In this last category, Clara Luciani is in contention with the clip of The rest while Orelsan is nominated for Never show that to anyone, the documentary series about his career. Proof that this type of medium – broadcast in its case on a platform (Amazon Prime Video) – becomes a checkbox in an artistic journey. “We see that the perception of the music-image team is changing, it goes from short formats of 1 minute 30 on social networks to longer creations as did OrelSan, Angèle or Bigflo & Oli”, analysis for the ‘AFP President of Victories, Stéphane Espinosa.

These two leading artists are closely followed by Juliette Armanet and Feu! Chatterton cited respectively in three categories.

But, to summarize the debates, OrelSan appears to be the essential of the hinge at the end of 2021 / beginning of 2022, surfing on a public and critical success.

Social column

Civilization, released in November (same day as 30 by Briton Adele), is the best-selling album in France in 2021 (more than 335,000 copies), according to the classification of the National Union of Phonographic Publishing (Snep).

And the opus fits perfectly at the time. The piece The smell of gasoline imposes itself as the soundtrack / alarm signal of the excesses which bristle the debates around the presidential campaign. And his art of social chronicle still illuminates Manifesto, a seven-minute bravery piece about a demonstration that goes wrong, with beautiful cinematic writing.

The album is not just an acid report, but is crossed, as OrelSan recently told AFP, by a big question: “What are you going to pass on to your children?” Civilization, it’s the society that surrounds me and what I can contribute ”.

Will OrelSan do better than in 2018, when he won three Victories in the same ceremony? The artist is in any case lying the titles of his previous albums Lost in advance (2009) and The party is over (2017), reaching a large audience, well beyond the rap circle.

Dance and messages

With Heart, released in June 2021, Clara Luciani has therefore signed an ideal album to celebrate the deconfinement that was taking shape for the summer of 2021 (11^e sales in 2021 with more than 155,000 copies). Without forgetting some strong messages. “I never wanted to choose between serious and dancing, it was already the case with The grenade (success of the previous album which has become a feminist anthem) ”, she was developing at the time for AFP. The singer-songwriter always emphasizes this “need to dance to exorcise”.

The 37 ceremony^es victoires de la musique will take place at La Seine Musicale, in the Paris region, and will be broadcast live on France 2 and France Inter. This event is scheduled while current music artists are once again affected by health restrictions and in particular the ban on standing concerts until the end of January. “It is particularly super-complicated for developing artists, who do not have the opportunity to exhibit on stage, underlines Stéphane Espinosa. It is important that the Victories are held, especially for them, so that they have a first TV ”.

With the revelation categories (male and female), the general public will discover artists like Chien Noir, Myd, L’Impératrice and Silly Boy Blue.

In 2021, the Victories had consecrated in the queen categories Benjamin Biolay (doubled with the trophies of the male artist and the album for Grand prize) and Pomme (female artist).