"I must resign myself to the fact that my health unfortunately does not allow me to continue to come to meet you for the moment," he said in a statement. "I share this news with you with great regret and deep sadness, but I have to listen to my limits."
"Surrounded by my family, I have to take the time to recover to resume, when I can, the rest of the concerts (...) Take good care of yourself," concludes the 38-year-old artist. In the best case, we would find him on June 1 in Brussels, for a tour that must end in the same city on December 9, after passages in France and the Netherlands.
Like a bad chorus. Wringed by an XXL world tour in the wake of the tube album "Racine carrée" (2013), Stromae had first thrown in the towel at the end of 2015, undermined by depression aggravated by the side effects of an antimalarial.
The one who is one of the most listened to francophone artists in the world was finally back on stage in 2022, to present "Multitude". A record that allowed him to win a 6th and 7th Victoires de la musique (awarded in France) in his career.
"Undefeated"
"Undefeated", the opening track -- on record and on stage -- seemed to attest to his return to form and a renewed ambition.
But "Hell" is back. To say that he had created the event with this piece by unveiling it in a sequence staged on the news of 20:00 of TF1 on a Sunday evening in early 2022.
Stromae on stage at the Vielles Charrues festival in Carhaix-Plouguer, Finistère, on July 14, 2022 © FRED TANNEAU / AFP/Archives
"As a result, I sometimes had suicidal thoughts / I'm not very proud of it / We sometimes believe that this is the only way to silence them / These thoughts that make me live a hell", we hear in this piece with strong autobiographical overtones.
He never made a secret of the problems encountered during his ascent. "Even if we sell dreams, it remains a job and, as in any job, when we work too much, we arrive at a burn-out," he conceded in 2018 in an interview with France 2.
In the 20:00 news of TF1, Stromae had confided that the work on clips for others in recent years -- Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa or OrelSan, among others -- had "really done him good" because "attention" was then "no longer focused" on him.
The return to the spotlight has been harder than expected.
"Going peanut"
Everything seemed crystal clear for Paul Van Haver, for the civil status, which has become a reference for young artists like his compatriot Pierre de Maere or the French Zaho de Sagazan (both roll the "r" like him and like Jacques Brel before).
Born in the suburbs of Brussels, to a Flemish mother and a Rwandan father, who left home very early and was killed during the genocide, he discovered teen rap. He made his debut there, then composed for mainstream artists, such as Anggun, before turning to the eurodance of the 90s, of which Belgium is one of the melting pots.
In 2010, his first album under the name Stromae contains the hit "Alors on danse", an evocation of people dancing to forget the crisis, their despair and death. The song looped in nightclubs, became the hit of the summer and was even remixed by Kanye West.
A few months later, the public discovered a singular artist, between Brel, Arno and Kraftwerk, on the stage of the Trans Musicales in Rennes.
Stromae a singular artist, between Brel, Arno and Kraftwerk, at the Olympia on November 12, 2010 in Paris © FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP/Archives
"My fear is that I won't stay normal. The day I take myself seriously, that's when I'll start peanuts," he said at the time of the success of the dazzling "Formidable" or "Papaoutai".
© 2023 AFP