Paul Van Haver, better known as Stromae (1985-) is a Belgian singer-writer. He has distinguished himself in both hip hop and electronic music. He first became famous with the song “Alors on danse” (So We Dance). It was released in 2009 in Belgium and in 2010 in the rest of Europe. In 2013, his second album Racine carréewas a commercial success, selling 2 million copies in France alone and nearly 600,000 units elsewhere. The main singles from the album include “Papaoutai” and “Formidable”. His music is primarily sung in French, though he has performed some songs in Flemish.
Stromae’s music is heavily influenced by electronic music especially Belgian New Beat music. He has been touted as the “face of the New Beat generation”. He considers Congolese music to be a huge influence. Stromae has been compared to Jacques Brel, who in turn significantly influenced Stromae, with Stromae even covering several of his songs.

Alors on danse (x 3)

Qui dit études, dit travail,
Qui dit taf, te dit des thunes,
Qui dit argent, dit dépenses,
Qui dit crédits, dit créances,
Qui dit dettes, te dit huissier,
Oui dit assis dans la merde.
Qui dit Amour, dit les gosses,
Dit toujours et dit divorce.
Qui dit proches, te dit deuils car les problèmes ne viennent pas seul.
Qui dit crises, te dit monde dit famine dit tiers-monde.
Qui dit fatigue, dit réveil encore sourd de la veille,
Alors on sort pour oublier tous les problèmes.

Alors on danse… (x 9)

So we just dance (x 3)

When we say study, it means work,
When we say work, it means money,
When we say money, it means spending
When we say credit, it means debt,
When we say debt, it means bailiff,
We agree to being in deep sh*t
When we say love, it means kids,
When we say forever, it means divorce.
When we say family, we say grief, because misfortune never comes alone.
When we say crisis, we talk about the world, famine and then Third World.
When we say tiredness, we talk about waking up still deaf from sleepless night
So we just go out to forget all our problems.

So we just dance… (x 9)

Et là tu dis que c’est fini car pire que ça ce serait la mort.
Quand tu crois enfin que tu t’en sors quand y en a plus et bien y en a encore!
Est-ce la zik ou les problèmes, les problèmes ou bien la musique.
Ça t’prend les trips ça te prend la tête et puis tu pries pour que ça s’arrête.
Mais c’est ton corps c’est pas le ciel alors tu t’bouches plus les oreilles.
Et là tu cries encore plus fort et ça persiste…

Alors on chante
Lalalalalala, Lalalalalala,
Alors on chante
Lalalalalala, Lalalalalala

Alors on chante
Alors on chante
Et puis seulement quand c’est fini, alors on danse.
Alors on danse (x 7)
Et ben y en a encore (x 5)

And you say it’s worse than that because eventually it will be death.
When you finally think you’ll do it when there are more, well there are more!
Is the music or the problems, the problems or is it the music.
It grabs you by the guts, it takes hold of your head and then you pray for it to end.
But your body is no heaven so you block your ears even more.
And then you yell even louder and it goes on…

So we just sing
Lalalalalala, Lalalalalala,
So we just sing
Lalalalalala, Lalalalalala,

So we just sing
So we just sing
And then only when it’s over, then we dance.
So we just dance (x 7)
And well, there’s still more (x 5)