“I’m not a star, I’m a famous guy!” At the microphone of Steven Bellery on RTL in Indulge Sunday June 24, 2024, Soprano returned to its relationship to notoriety, but also to money, which has been flowing freely since his string of successes. The rapper, first revealed by the group Psy 4 de La Rime, subsequently pursued his solo career. All the albums published since then have been crowned with success, and the titles that have become hits number in the dozens: Clown, On fire, My Everest, To our everyday heroes, The coach, Cosmo or My precious. He has just released his new album called Freedom.
But if the money and the notoriety are there, Soprano remains no less Saïd, and wants more than anything to keep his feet on the ground. The former coach of The Voice and of The Voice Kids tried to get closer to luxury, and to act like a star like many of his colleagues, but very quickly returned to his roots: “I tried to do like many, to wear Louis Vuitton, things, I can’t do it ! My character means that it’s not my thing, I’m uncomfortable” confided the forty-year-old before revealing that he was riding in a small C1 in Marseille.
He prefers hypermarkets to social evenings
“My little C1, she’s broken! I’m more comfortable like that (…) My watch was given to me by a colleague of mine, it’s not a Rolex“, he continued, before recalling that “people’s imagination” about the stars was far too idealized: “A star is someone who shows a little of his income, who shows… Me, I’m rather… It’s true that I’m a famous guy, when I go shopping, everyone talks to me, gives me his family on the phone, that’s my life (…) That’s more than social parties or private jets. I’m in everyday life, and that’s why I say I’m a star and not a famous guy.”
Between neuroses, depressions and false smiles
During the interview, Soprano returned to his wounds, and on the neuroses he faces and fights on a daily basis. If the singer, a member of the Enfoirés troupe, wears a smile in all circumstances when he is in public, he remains no less human, and experiences many personal worries.“My smile is my little armor. Earlier, I was listening to an interview who talked about the mental load. The mental load, I find that we don’t talk about it a lot. Stromae shed light on depression. One thing people forget is that artists are human. People say to themselves, since they always see me smiling, they say to themselves that my life is always perfect. Whereas this smile is to give me courage”, confided the rapper, who fought for a long time to find the child he did not recognize almost thirty years ago, and with whom he managed to reconnect.
“I locked myself behind my smile, even if it meant keeping things to myself, even if it meant darkening my thoughts. When you talk to yourself in your head, little by little, you start to darken, you go into depression, into burn- out; and when you’re famous, you can’t complain”, said Soprano, who believes that his empathy “is his fault” : “When I see in the room that someone is gloomy, I will block that. And so, I smile so that they are not worried like me. I want it to be me who takes care of them. I’ve forgotten myself a little in recent years…”
