Same common fervor, similar class contempt? | EUROtoday
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L’man of all information. In simply thirty minutes, rapper Jul bought all of his live performance locations following the announcement of his two unique dates, on May 24 on the Vélodrome stadium (Marseille) and April 26 on the Stade de France (Saint-Denis). The announcement of a brand new live performance in Marseille this May 23, noticed the tickets flowing in ten minutes. More than 1,000,000 connections have been recorded, the queues exceeding lots of of hundreds of individuals. Adulated or decried like yesterday Johnny Hallyday, the artist additionally arouses, like his elder, a sure contempt for the elites.
In February 2020, he turned the most important report vendor within the historical past of French rap. More just lately, he, within the house of every week, broke the tributary report on the Stade de France with greater than 97,800 spectators (forward of Johnny Hallyday, Indochina and U2) and bought greater than 123,000 copies of his newest album D&P for all timesfar forward of the perfect begin of the 12 months 2025 (In the land of the Enfoiréswith 57,000 gross sales).
Considered the perfect French rapper by some, criticized or mocked by others, Jul isn’t detached. As the double concert-event of this weekend approaches, return on what makes the artist’s singularity.
An genuine artist
Far from the picture of the rap artist with a number of exterior indicators of wealth (luxurious garments, massive automobiles and bling-bling jewellery), Jul wears the jogging-click-cloved set on all events. It typically brings references to accessible costs or its personal model. Jul seems genuine in his means of being and behaving, in his means of dressing, however, above all, in his way of life his movie star. Already in 2014, he defined: “What I say is what I live and what I see”, emphasizing his need to not disguise actuality, to not “invent a life”.
Jul appears to be providing himself as he’s, uncooked of formwork, along with his strengths, his weaknesses, his desires and his doubts, with out actual calculation or advertising and marketing technique. He stays near his viewers, who can simply establish with him, on the flip of a sentence or an anecdote of on a regular basis life.
In a rap business marked by the search for revenue, Jul’s working mode denotes. During the COVVI-19 disaster, the artist made a donation of 30,000 euros to the Foundation of Hospitals in France, then determined to public sale his gold, platinum and diamond discs in addition to sure objects collector for the good thing about it. More than 300,000 euros had been collected.
Proximity to the general public
With its label, gold and platinum, Jul additionally launched, from 2015 to 2023, seven free albums, out there solely on streaming and obtain platforms (with out bodily model, subsequently). More than easy coms, the artist explains his need to reward his followers, Team Jul, for his or her loyalty. It is particularly across the well-known “Sign Jul” (made by becoming a member of his two palms in an effort to prepare letters J, U and L) that the artist brings his followers, but additionally public figures, comparable to Booba or Vincent Cassel.
This proximity, Jul additionally nourishes it on the geographical stage. Born in 1990 within the fifthe Marseille arrondissement, Jul is in love along with his metropolis, whom he locations on the coronary heart of his life and his work. The most placing instance is the album undertaking 13 organizedbringing collectively round fifty Marseille rappers, with its flagship “organized band” tune.
Marseille within the highlight
This undertaking testifies to Jul’s need to carry collectively: artists, generations, neighborhoods, and in the end Marseille. He has damaged many information: greater than 7 million views in 4 days, the quickest single diamond single within the historical past of French music, French rap title having fasterly reached 100 million views on YouTube, report of longevity within the prime world of the Spotify platform, and so forth. As early as December 2020, the title was licensed double single diamond single with 100 million streams, there too, the quickest within the historical past of French music.
Released in October 2024, the second opus, 13 organized 2, brings collectively greater than 150 artists, completely Marseille. He gave satisfaction of place to the brand new generations, who got here to rub the elders. At the center of his work and his life, Jul is like his metropolis. A parallel is of course rising between the rapper and the Marseille metropolis: a modest and common historical past, uncooked traits lengthy misunderstood and mocked, even despised, then steadily turning into hype.
The Johnny Hallyday of recent occasions?
In 2019, in his title “It’s not lol”, Jul clamable: “I want to sell 110 million CDs like Johnny Hallyday. I want to fill the vel ‘like Johnny Hallyday. If it may seem surprising, a parallel is possible between the Marseille artist and the singer who disappeared in 2017, especially from the point of view of the criticisms. Both are a popular high success, while being mocked by another part of the population.
At the start of his career, Johnny Hallyday was not considered a “actual singer”: he was part of the Yéyé movement, widely despised by part of the cultural elites, musical criticism, and even the adult public. Jul, he would not make “actual rap”, of “actual music”, would not be a “actual singer”. Its use of the autotune, also called vocoder, is very criticized: this software corrects its voice to give it an artificial, even metallic character. He claims it as one of his trademarks, signing of a “Jul fashion”, moreover adopted without complexes by other artists.
To uncover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
Thus, Jul could be thought-about a form of modern-day Johnny: nonetheless typically despised cultural elites, it represents a determine of common tradition which is aimed toward a big viewers, has a rare productiveness (three initiatives per 12 months), weaves an especially shut relationship with its viewers and embodies its time. A nod of life, Jul has even in a sure means already embodied one of many flagship titles of Johnny Hallyday, by lighting the hearth of the Olympic cauldron, through the ceremony of inauguration of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. A participation in an occasion within the picture of his profession: “gold, silver … and platinum”.
Tarik Chakor, lecturer in administration sciences, Aix-Marseille University (AMU).
https://www.lepoint.fr/musique/jul-et-johnny-hallyday-meme-ferveur-populaire-meme-mepris-de-classe-23-05-2025-2590384_38.php
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