Amoeba Music

Stromae - Biography

Stromae was born Paul van Haven in 1985 to a Flemish mother and largely absentee Rwandan father. The latter was lost to the violence of civil unrest in that country when van Haven was 12. After an unsatisfactory experience at a private Belgian music school, he struck out on his own, collaborating with various other musicians and DJs until finally settling on his current artistic identity, whose name derives from the sylabbically inverted verlan argot of “Maestro.” After a wildly successful entrée into continental Europe with the hit single, “Alors on danse,” he is now touring the United States while supporting his most recent release, Racine Carree.