After rowing across the Mediterranean, shooting a video with President Macron and accumulating more than a billion views on YouTube, McFly and Carlito get into music and release their first album on December 10, 2021. They leave as soon as possible. next spring on tour throughout France with a big concert at the Olympia in May 2022.
“We really worked hard to make a real musical proposal that was qualitative with lightness and humor”, explains McFly. But the first condition is that“it has to be us what, when you listen to the album, you say to yourself it’s McFly and Carlito”.
The result ? Our best album, a record (at BMG) which brings together 16 crazy, sometimes squeaky songs with rock and electro tones, interspersed with three wacky interludes.
“The songs are a bit like three minute summaries of who we are”, says Carlito. The duo sings for example the praises of the hot dogs of a Swedish furniture brand before dedicating a piece to their children in the title Infinite +1000.
It’s also a pretext to (finally) meet their millions of fans. “We have to go see our audience. We are going to give back what people give us, we are going to give them back this energy fivefold”, he assures.
For David and Raphaël, today welcomed as superstars wherever they go, the road has been long. They tell it in particular in One Life, with the duo Bigflo and Oli who accompanied them in the production of the album. “It represents our story. We left high school, we were two guys from 9-2 who wanted to make jokes. It’s a promise we made in the school yard. We said to ourselves: ‘come on, we’re not stopping. It’ll take as long as it takes, but we’re going to the end’ “, McFly says.
“In fact, I don’t see what else I could do”, Carlito confides. “I did my third year internship in an office. I came home, I was sick, literally sick. I said: no, I don’t want to do that. I’m going to see my boy, and come on and have fun ! Can we earn money with that? We’ll see. But me, that’s what I want to do “, he recalls. “And for 10 years, we did not win precisely”, recalls McFly. “It took 14, 15 years “, but the two friends now live comfortably.
As soon as the box office opened, their fans flocked to pre-orders for the album and tickets for the tour, which will take them to the Olympia in May 2022. YouTube, music, cinema … What are they still dreaming about? “Go on the moon”, Carlito answers. But for McFly, a video with the American group “the Red Hots, that wouldn’t be bad”.
Deep down, they’ve always dreamed of it. Because before becoming the kings of humor on YouTube, and inviting themselves to the Élysée, McFly and Carlito are musicians. David Coscas and Raphaël Carlier, their real name, are rock and metal fans. One is an outstanding guitarist, the other an energetic drummer. It was in the courtyard of a high school in Bois-Colombes (Hauts de Seine) that they met. “Frankly, since teenagers we want to make an album”, admits Carlito, in his thirties with the appearance of a skater. “It’s hours and hours of dreams in my room listening to ‘zik’, eyes closed to imagine that “, resumes his partner, with a more serious air.
For more than five years, their videos, challenges and hoaxes have become essential Sunday meetings for millions of young people. Today, their main channel is approaching seven million subscribers, their secondary two million. Produced in response to Emmanuel Macron’s challenge to make young people aware of the importance of barrier gestures in the face of Covid-19, the song I remember became the second most viewed video of 2021 on YouTube, with almost 16 million views.
Since the launch of their channel, the two friends have never shied away from a challenge, whether launched by the president or by the two new phenomena of the Michou and InoxTag networks. This is what led them to cross the Mediterranean by rowing this summer.