NEWS: Stromae Makes Directorial Debut w/ Yael Naim's "Coward" Video
When Belgian singer-songwriter Paul Van Haver, aka Stromae, first heard Yael Naim’s signature song “Coward” he was moved to tears. Upon learning this, Naim invited him to collaborate on a video for the track. A year later the plan finally came together, Van Haver, driven by his label Mosaert’s mission to foster creativity across disciplines, signed on to direct.
Rounding out the core team, Naim and Van Haver enlisted Wes Anderson collaborator Martin Scali (Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox), Mosaert artistic director Luc Junior Tam and stylist Coralie Barbier. The resulting video is now available.
The video tells the story of an old woman, a former superhero now retired, our heroine is in denial of her condition’s decline, not accepting the physical changes of growing old. Choosing a superhero as principal character addresses the antithesis of cowardliness, as main topic, in order to highlight it, because by definition a superhero is never a coward. Moreover, it also permitted to stick to Yael Naim’s writing that evokes motherhood, but more generally, the feeling of cowardliness that we can all experience when we’re confronted with serious steps in our lives. The clip questions the thin subjective border that separates courage from cowardliness and vice versa. To what extent her relentlessness can be seen as courage? Is it not simply the fear of the future?
The centerpiece of her newest LP Older (out now) “Coward,” is a ruminant cabaret tune about the loss of control and freedom. In addition to the official video, Naim recently revealed a live version of the track (performed with hundreds of fans) in Paris, France: watch the “Coward” flashmob video here
And make sure to catch Naim in Philadelphia (12/6 @ World Cafe Live) and New York City (12/8 @ Highline Ballroom).
Born in France, raised in Israel, and residing in Paris since age 21, Naïm is a true citizen of the world who has forged for herself, as the New York Times attested, a “prestigious artistic career.”
Naïm's third album, Older (out now) chronicles life, death, and the transformation in between. The album soulfully chronicles life, death, and the transformation in between. Already Gold in France, the album earned Naïm her second Female Artist of the Year award at Les Victoires de la Musique, France’s equivalent of the Grammys and was nominated for France's 2016 Album of The Year. The LP is anchored in the personal (Naïm became a mother and lost a grandparent while writing it) but tethered to world events including the paris terror attacks (she performed at the official memorial for the Bataclan victims).
Produced by her creative partner, musician-producer David Donatien and mixed by Michael Brauer (Coldplay, Grizzly Bear), Older is driven the birth of Naïm and Donatien’s child (documented in the nursery-rhyme-like “Make a Child”) and the death of her grandmother, eulogized in chanson-folk style on the album’s spectral closer, “Meme Iren.” Older represents an artistic turning point for Naïm and Donatien, in their insistence on finding meaning in that which initially unsettles them.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Mosaert, a certain approach: Mosaert is a creative independent label, based in Brussels. Created in 2009 by Paul Van Haver (better know under the name of Stromae), accompanied by his artistic director, Luc Junior Tam, it is today active in several sectors (industries??) including music, ready-made clothes and audio-visual. The label, after having conceptualised and produced the Stromae project adventure, today decides to continue this same artistic production, at the service of other talents. Concretely, this will is found in different fields the label is well acquainted with, and as diversified as musical and visual creation, music videos and live shows direction, and textile creation.
PEOPLE:
Paul Van Haver: Successful singer-songwriter under the stage name of Stromae, Paul Van Haver also graduated the INRACI of Brussels in the cinema section. If “Coward” is his first official project as director, he’s deeply involved in the artistic choices of all Stromae project images. He currently dedicates most of his time to the development of Mosaert Label, with the aim of producing other talents than Stromae in music, visual art, textile creation or cinema.
Luc Junior Tam: Luc Junior Tam has been Mosaert artistic director since 2009. He’s thus coordinated Stromae project image since its beginning and recently co-directed Stromae’s “Quand c’est” music video as well as the live footage of its Racine Carrée tour.
Martin Scali: Martin Scali, screenwriter and director, grew up between Paris and Barcelona. He’s collaborated with Wes Anderson for several times, particularly as assistant on Fantastic Mr Fox and as 2nd team director on Grand Budapest Hotel. He currently prepares his first full-length feature.
Coralie Barbier: Stylist, Coralie Barbier graduated the Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer in Brussels, and started her career at “Mais il est où le soleil?”. She then was requested to conceive Stromae clothing line. She created Mosaert label clothes brand that now releases its third capsule collection.
Yael Naim: Yael Naim is a singer-songwriter. Beside being the composer and singer of world hit “New Soul”, she’s built for 12 years a songwriting career with David Donatien that allowed her to win a “Victoire de la Musique” (French music awards) for each of her 3 albums.
