Research into Existing Products: Music Video - Stromae (Papaoutai)

Papaoutai is a eurodance/house song performed and written by Stromae, a Belgian musician. It was released as a digital download during 2013 and was the lead single from Stromae’s second studio album Racine Carrée, after a three year hiatus. ‘Papoutai’ currently has 492,104,297 views on YouTube.

The phrase “Papa où t’es?” translates to “Dad, where are you?” in French. Stromae intentionally spelt the phrase ‘Papaoutai’ to impersonate the spelling of a child, complimenting the meaning of the song and Stromae’s role and feelings within the song. Stromae was born to a Rwandan father and a Belgian mother, his father had abandoned him and started a second family elsewhere, Stromae saw his father very infrequently and in 1994 his father was killed in the Rwandan Genocide. The song ‘Papaoutai’ refers to the absence of Stromae’s father and the video continues to assist the same perspective throughout with the main character being a young boy and Stromae playing the role of the father.

The video shows a common theme of a young boy attempting to interact with his father who appears stationary and unresponsive similar to a mannequin. It appears that the makeup and costume team have intentionally created a plastic look for Stromae to enhance the mannequin characteristics. The father’s lifeless characteristics represent the experience of abandonment Stromae suffered with his father.

The editing is quick as the young boy walks into different rooms they are framed exactly the same just with different props and colours showing a sense of continuity. 

 

Outside of the house the town is colourful reflecting on the industrial 1950s. It appears they are all living in an alternate reality.

There are multiple characters paired representing the relationship of parent and child. Throughout the dance in unison, the different styles of dance indicate the difference in parenting styles through the rhythm.

 

It becomes apparent that the various pairs are dressed identical to each other whilst dancing. Their dancing elaborates on their relationship with each other. One father appears to be very aggressive as the child stands still suggesting their relationship can be negative. 

 

 

 

The fact the children are identical to their parents is ironic as at the end of the music video the beat becomes calmer and the child sits down next to his motionless father replicating his actions and the child becomes a mannequin instigating that the child has given up and accepted defeat.

Before this occurs there is a moment where the mannequin comes to life where the father and son are dancing in unison. Reality sets in a few moments later showing the lifeless mannequin father sitting still in the car suggesting the protagonist had took his father outside to dance, and the moments before were the sons imagination. He then pushes the car back to his house with the father still in it showing that although the protagonist's dancing was real life he imagined his father dancing with him, when in fact he was sitting in the car all along.

It doesn’t go unnoticed that as the song heightens the young protagonist’s anger also heightens as the boy aggressively dances around Stromae. The close ups of Stromae elaborates the lack of expression on his face compared to the close ups of the child elaborating the deep expressions and anger within.

Although there is a story behind the music video there is no strong narrative showing that it is a hidden meaning. However, there is a huge element of performance in the music video leading it to me a performance based music video.