Solène Delinger 12:23 p.m., May 26, 2022

His name is no longer Ben l'Oncle Soul, but just Ben.

Twelve years after coming out of the shadows with his hit "Soulman", the singer, who has decided to abandon his character, returns with a fifth album, "Red Mango".

For this opus, the artist has chosen to cover pop classics like "Stay" by Rihanna and "Imagine" by John Lennon, in a reggae version.

Invited to the microphone of Philippe Vandel, he explains this original artistic choice. 

INTERVIEW

Everyone remembers Ben l'Oncle Soul and his

hit Soulman. 

Twelve years after the release of the single that brought him out of the shadows, and four albums later, the singer is back with 

Red Mango. 

This fifth opus, paying homage to his Caribbean roots, contains nine covers of pop classics in reggae version.

Guest in

Culture Médias

this Thursday morning on Europe 1, Ben l'Oncle Soul, who became Ben in 2010, explains this artistic choice at the microphone of Philippe Vandel. 

An idea born several years ago

"I would say that reggae has always been in the background," says Ben.

"There has always been a reggae track in my albums, something tinted or in an arrangement that recalls precisely this reggae there".

The idea of ​​creating a reggae album goes back several years, when the singer recorded his second opus with the Monophonics, a group from San Francisco and making psychedelic soul.

"Every night we listened to a lot of reggae on the bus," he recalls.

"Perhaps also to clear our minds. And so, at the end of this tour, we said to ourselves, 'Hey, when do we see each other again? And what will be the next project in which we will be able to work together ?'

And the trumpeter Rayane launched like this: '

we should make a reggae record.

It was a bit of an idea, thrown around like that.

And then finally, a few years later, we do it." 

>> Find Philippe Vandel and Culture-Médias every day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

“I hesitated to resume John Lennon”

It is also because Ben wanted to rediscover the pleasure of playing with the Monophonics that

Red Mango 

was born.

"There was something fresh too. The just desire to have fun and play together again", he explains on Europe 1. In his fifth album, the singer revisits classics of the pop, including

Rihanna's

Stay

and John Lennon's

Imagine .

A real challenge for Ben, who had to reclaim these inseparable hits from their performers.

"Rihanna wasn't the most intimidating to me," he says.

John Lennon's Imagine 

was more difficult to revisit because "this track is 50 years old".

"It's true that I hesitated a bit", confides the singer,