(Brussels) With a week ahead of the initially announced date, Belgian singer Angèle released her second album on Friday, three years later Brol which has been a phenomenal success, selling 1.5 million copies.
Ninety-five, the title of this new opus, refers to her year of birth (1995), with a dose of belgitude, which she already put in the foreground in Brussels I love you. This first single, a declaration of love to his hometown, was unveiled at the end of October as a foretaste.
The 12-track album, available since Friday on music platforms, comes out on its day 26e birthday, with a promotion disrupted by her COVID-19 infection.
Angèle had revealed to be sick last week on her Instagram account (to 3.1 million subscribers). A press conference scheduled for Brussels this week had to be canceled.
On the cover of Ninety-five, the singer, the face of Chanel poses with her hair in the wind, on a moving roller coaster ride, an image supposed to describe the ups and downs of notoriety and overexposure.
“This is completely what I have lived” for three years, said Angèle in an interview with public radio RTBF broadcast on Friday morning. A documentary that Netflix has just devoted to him also evokes the downsides of success.
“This roller coaster (roller coaster), it’s a bit how I see life, with climbs, descents, great moments of free fall and others a little unexpected”, confided the singer, “ that’s the idea of this album ”.
Romantic breaks, isolation linked to confinement (mentioned in More sense), weariness with regard to “madmen” who “kneel” (Free): Ninety-five claims a more serious, more intimate tone.
“This pandemic has raised many anxieties and many questions […] I am a very anxious person. Despite a pretty happy appearance, I have a little sad fund, ”she says again.
In Demons, she sings in duet with the Belgian rapper Damso, on electronic rhythms composed once again by the French multi-instrumentalist Tristan Salvati.
Brol, Angela’s first album released in 2018, has sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, two-thirds of which in France, according to the agency Five Oh, which manages its communication. This million sales in France has earned it the “double diamond” certification, a rare thing. This first opus was honored as “revelation album” of the year at the Victoires de la Musique, the French musical awards, in 2019.