In the years 1990-2000, guitar groups singing in English put Belgium back on the map of contemporary music.

And in the 2010s, Stromae became the new standard-bearer, with its Jacques Brel-style writing bathed in electro open to the globe.

"Stromae has made French-language song cool. I had long thought it corny because, in the 2000s, we got a little lost. A little anecdote became a song and came to it with societal subjects, the grandiose, the ambitious and a whole generation followed," Pierre de Maere told AFP.

At 20, he released this year "Un jour, je", his first mini-album noticed which earned him to be already programmed at La Cigale in Paris in May.

Belgian singer Pierre de Maere poses on January 26, 2022 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives

The French artist Suzane has often been compared to Stromae.

But this singer has her own style.

If there was influence, it is rather to be found in an approach around the image, Suzane shaping a double tights to her feminist messages, with her Uma Thurman-style jumpsuit in "Kill Bill".

"way of communicating"

"The influence of Stromae on young artists is not so much in the music as in the way of communicating it. Each moment at Stromae is thought out upstream", deciphers for AFP Christophe Gendreau, speaker at the Chantiers des Francos, support structure for emerging talents from the French Francofolies festival.

Stromae on stage at the 37th Victoires de la Musique on February 11, 2022 in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the suburbs of Paris BERTRAND GUAY AFP / Archives

"Young artists are aware that the image they want to convey must start from them. Previously, they let the media do their thing and they followed. The change, for this generation, Stromae has inspired it", continues this manager.

Pierre de Maere emphasizes that "every visual aspect is worked down to the last detail", when Stromae emerges with "Racine Carrée", an album rich in hits that will change its dimension.

"It's been a long time in French-speaking song, since the Rita Mitsouko, that so much importance had not been given to the image, it's hyper-inspiring", continues the young Belgian artist.

Pierre de Maere learned the lesson.

For his first single "Absurd Gossip", he had posters printed where we see him lying, vintage telephone in hand, in a bathtub on a pink background.

With this catchy slogan: "Take this poster, make me famous, resell it".

Keeping control of the creation of a record, from A to Z, by limiting contributors, is Stromae's other great legacy to the current new wave.

"Want to be a star"

Belgian singer Pierre de Maere poses on January 26, 2022 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP

"The artists who are products of labels, it's over; Stromae - he is not the only one, but he counted for us - has proven that we can do everything ourselves", insists Pierre de Maere.

"Me or Iliona (another emerging Belgian artist), we write, we compose, we produce, it gives ultra-authentic, coherent, spontaneous, more than if 50-year-old guys - I have nothing against the fifties (laughs) - told us what to do", he unrolls.

Stromae also uninhibits French-speaking artists with a declared ambition.

"It's a very Anglo-Saxon approach, among Belgians more assumed, Stromae starts with objectives", summarizes Christophe Gendreau.

Stromae appeared in Jimmy Fallon's American TV show in December, clearly targeting an audience to conquer in the United States.

Pierre de Maere does not aim so high, but always tumbles into an interview claiming his "desire to be a star".

"A desire that I've always had, it's not a marketing argument (laughs), I want to sell dreams, he continues, voluble. Beyond the rhinestone and glitter aspect, in the recognition it there is an accomplishment side, that my music resonates with an audience".

© 2022 AFP