Racine Carrée
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Racine Carrée (stylised √, English translation: Square root) is the second studio album by Belgian musician Stromae. It was released digitally on 16 August 2013 and three days later physically in France and Belgium. Recorded in an attic, Stromae expressed his desire to incorporate Caribbean and African musical influences along with his signature 1990's-inspired dance beats. The album explores themes as diverse as alienation from social networks, relationship issues, discrimination, cigarettes and lung cancer, AIDS and absent father figures. Prior to its official release and afterwards, Racine Carrée has immediately received critical acclaim for its thoughtful lyrics and gained comparisons to fellow Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel.
The album has also been a commercial success across Western Europe, including non-francophone countries. Racine Carrée has topped the charts in France, Flanders, Wallonia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada, and the top forty in Germany. In his native Belgium, it has remained at the top the charts for multiple weeks and been certified eight times platinum by the BEA. In France, the album has been certified diamond by the SNEP and become one of the highest-selling albums in recent years after amassing over one million copies sold four months after its release. Racine Carrée has so far yielded three chart-topping singles: "Papaoutai", "Formidable" and "Tous les mêmes".
Singles
Racine Carrée has, so far, produced three singles:
- "Papaoutai" was released as the lead single in mid-May 2013. The autobiographical song tells the story of a young boy who is looking for his father. Stromae revealed that his father was killed during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The music video shows him adopting the style and pose of a 1940's mannequin, representing the absent father and the young version of him trying to interact with the mannequin. The single became an instant hit in France and Wallonia, where it spent multiple weeks at number one; it also reached the top ten in Switzerland and Luxembourg as well as non-francophone countries or regions such as the Czech Republic, Dutch-speaking Flanders in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
- "Formidable" was released as the follow-up single to "Papaoutai" in June 2013. The music video, filmed in the streets of Brussels, was particularly notorious for displaying Stromae wandering at the Louise/Louiza tram and metro station during the daybreak, where the singer appears to be completely drunk. The song tells the story of a drunk man recently separated from his girlfriend. It eventually topped the charts in France and the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking regions of Belgium, reached the top five in the Netherlands, the top twenty in Switzerland and the top forty in Austria and Germany.
- "Tous les mêmes" was officially released as the third single from the album in December 2013. The song displays the various stereotypical traits and behaviours of men and women alike. The music video for the single shows Stromae half-dressed as a woman and acting annoyed by the attitude of men and what they do; to further aid the interpretation, green lighting effects are used for male Stromae and pink ones for female Stromae. The single became Stromae's third consecutive number one from Racine Carrée in France and Wallonia, while reaching the top five in Flanders and charting in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
