The popular Stromae will release their third album Multitude this Friday, March 4. For the occasion, the Belgian confided in our colleagues from Parisian and took the opportunity to discuss his paternity. During his long years of absence (his last album, Square root, dated back to 2013), the artist has gone through all the states. First seriously ill, he then experienced a rebirth in 2018 with the birth of his son, the fruit of his relationship with Coralie Barbier.
This paternity, the singer evokes it in particular in his title This is happiness. “After Papaoutai, still talking about paternity was weird. But I had to tell it, because I was living it. The pee, the poo that I sing, I had my hands in it. But I didn’t want a teary song. I say at the beginning ‘I gave you life / you saved mine’ because it’s true and then we laugh. Corn the real space-time break was when my son asked me to put Papaoutai in the car. ‘Ah ok it’s my son who asks me that’“, he recalled.
Stromae was 34 when her son was born. A late paternity according to him, “but it was really a desire. And it feels good“. Always for our colleagues, the star spoke about her new way of reconciling work and private life: “The album I did from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I said to myself ‘this time, I will not go through suffering to make this album’ (…) Every day, at 5 p.m., finished, thank you, goodbye. I find my son and my wife.“
The singer also appeared very fulfilled in his family life on February 11 on the airwaves of France Inter before Augustin Trapenard. “One of the nicest things that happened to me was my son. It’s childhood, it’s life, yes. Say to yourself, when you get home: ‘Yeah, ok, there were interviews, stuff…’ Well, yes: the concerts are great. But afterwards, when we come home, and we just have to cook for him (…) it just brings us back to essential things” he confided with emotion.