Voyou, a singer with wandering sweetness

His real identity is Thibaud Vanhooland, but the French electro pop scene knows him as Voyou. More mischievous than bad boy, the singer with the provocative stage name has just released his fifth album, Tiny Kingdoms, in February 2022 (Sony). A childish mischievousness, the artist’s trademark, which allowed him to conquer the new French scene in no time at all. Evidenced by his tour of festivals this summer (1).

At 34, this native of Lille sings a groovy universe, worthy of the danceable pop of Juliette Armanet and poetic of Étienne Daho. As in 2018, with his first EP (small album of five titles) On s’emmène avec toi and its emblematic title Alone on your tandem, which put romantic disappointment into perspective with metaphors and literate humor.

“The Tiny Kingdoms”: fifth meditative opus

Voyou has traced his path since his first album Les Bruits de la ville (2019), exploring tones, from Trois hooligans, a comic-dramatic title, to nostalgic songs like Lille or Il neige. After this already very mature record, he released Des confetti en disorder in 2020, featuring Le Confort, whose ritornello played on the trumpet, the trademark of this musician trained at the conservatory, embraced by melancholy.

After Terrestrial Chronicles (2021), which has remained rather confidential, Tiny Kingdoms takes us to the end of his reverie. Each piece zooms into unexplored territories and penetrates into the lives of the characters who inhabit it, like a puppet theater whose scenes follow one another before our eyes. A new disc, composed between France and Brazil, which will bring Voyou to major French-speaking festivals from June 10.

hypnotic dive

During his concerts, Voyou tumbles onto the stage, like an expansive talk-show presenter or a CM2 student too happy to be on stage, flanked by a charcoal gray suit deliberately too big for him. As on the stage of the Trianon in Paris on May 16, 2023 where, under the fire of primary colors which reveal a snow-capped mountain or islands painted on cardboard in large flat areas of gouache, in the middle of huge ants and ladybugs, more sympathetic that terrifying, Voyou thrills the public.

The notes of the piece L’Hiver resonate, soon followed by the carnivalesque bass of La Nuit le jour, and the delicate Soleil Soleil, performed in duet with the singer November Ultra. Voyou is one of those naturally unifying artists, to whom the stage suits so well.

(1) Summer tour:

Les Francofolies Esch/Alzette, Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg), June 9

Festival It rings at the door, Grossoeuvre (Eure), June 10

Les Francos de Montréal, Montreal (Canada), June 16

The Good Adventure Festival, Malo-les-Bains, June 25

The Francofolies, La Rochelle, July 13

The Old Plows, Carhaix-Plouguer, July 15

Les Francofolies de Spa, Spa (Belgium), July 23

Les Francomanias Festival, Bulle (Switzerland), August 31

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