“The Law of the Butterfly”, Nuit Incolore’s first album, is already 8th in sales in France. Behind this stage name hides Théo Marclay, 22 years old, crowned French-speaking Revelation of the Year at the NRJ Music Awards.
The cover of his first album, where he appears in a pink T-shirt on a purple background, is misleading: Nuit Incolore, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter, shines with his dark lyrics. Théo Marclay, his real name, is also dressed in black from head to toe, but on cloud nine, when he responds to AFP. “I feel like I’m in a dream with everything that’s happening“, he blurted out, returning from Cannes where he was crowned on November 10.”French-speaking revelation of the year” at the NRJ Music Awards. The butterfly lawhis first album, is already 8th in sales in France.
Powered by the success of Exceeds – more than 40 million plays on Spotify -, Nuit incolore is the illustration of the new talents of its generation. His notoriety first began on social networks, where he posted pieces written and recorded in his bedroom. “TikTok, confinement, and boredom, that’s where it all started“, remembers the artist who today has nearly 400,000 subscribers.
Intimate lyrics and vaporous melodies
But music is not there by chance for the young man, born in Vietnam before being adopted by Swiss parents who managed a music store, entered the conservatory, where he learned the piano for ten years. “I had the chance to grow up surrounded by a musical universe“. In his teenage memories, Charles Aznavour and Dalida rubbed shoulders with rappers and classical composers.
Despite the eclecticism of his inspirations – he also draws from the world of manga or Greek mythology – Nuit Incolore quickly found his style, mixing poetic texts with lyrical or vaporous melodies. A style called emo-pop. “It has a real singularity, at the conjunction of many styles, it embodies something different“, greets Nicolas Preschey, programmer of the Fnac Live festival in Paris where the artist performed in June.
His lyrics, his artist name and the title of one of his first collections of five pieces – Insomnia, released in July – echo his creative mode. “I compose mainly at night, and when it’s dark, when you’re alone, the more tearful emotions come out more easily“.
Kyo featured on a song
More of an introvert, he addresses very personal themes in his texts such as his adoption and his quest for identity. “It’s easy to talk about it in song, it’s much more difficult to do it in a discussion“.
Since signing with the label Cinq7 (Wagram), Nuit Incolore has left Switzerland to reach the surroundings of Paris, and carry out its first tour in France. “It’s a learning process, there is no school to learn how to manage your emotions in front of the public.“.
If Théo Marclay continues to sing about solitude, Nuit Incolore has surrounded himself well since his arrival in the music world. The Belgian singer Pierre de Maere, who signed a year before him on the same label, is like a “big brother“, and the Kyo group is displayed as “featuring” on Appointment, a song of his first album. “Seeing them on my album, I tell myself that that’s it, I can stop playing music”he jokes.