Despite a very promising start, Mr. Pokora experienced a setback with the relative failure of his album “MP3”. At only 23 years old, he had to adapt. In particular, he reduced his lifestyle by selling his car and his apartment and moving to the suburbs. A difficult period which is now far behind him.
Mr. Pokora has not always met with success… Exclusive – M. Pokora poses in Paris, France Photo Jerome Dominé/ABACAPRESS.COM© Abaca, Domine Jerome/ABACA
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The life of an artist has its hazards and not everyone is lucky enough to have the staggering income of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. With the exception of a few bankable stars like them, there are few who have not, at one time or another, experienced a lean period. Even if he did not experience the horrors experienced by Chantal Goya, who between her banking bans and her problems with the tax authorities spent part of her life, ruined, being pursued by bailiffs, Mr. Pokora also knew his less prosperous period.
However, his beginnings had been flamboyant. Right after winning Pop starsin 2003, his group, the Linkup, which he formed alongside Otis and Lionel Tim – with whom the relationship had deteriorated very much – met with success with a first album. Then Matthieu, whose real name is Tota, decides to go solo. First under a first pseudonym, Matt Pokora, which he had to abandon after losing a lawsuit against the singer Matt Houston, then with the artist name that we know him today. Mr. Pokora therefore released a first eponymous album in November 2004 which was certified gold, then a second, entitled Playerin January 2006 which will rise to first place in sales. Thunderous debut. But the singer will quickly become disillusioned…
Bjork, 50 Cent, Elton John, Nelly Furtado, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake… when in 2008, our little Frenchy decided to use the services of American producer Timbalandthe latter can already boast of having collaborated with the biggest stars. By his side, Matt released his third solo album, called MP3all in English. But nothing is going to happen as planned.
Mr. Pokora's third solo album is less successful
Promotion of the album was to begin on January 26, 2008 during the NRJ Music Awards when a hitch disrupted the schedule. Two days before, the first single Dangerous leaked for a few hours on the Internet. Then, after the NRJ Music Awards evening, a journalist wrote that the man who is not yet Christina Milian's darling was booed upon his arrival. A few weeks later, the artist replied: “There is a journalist from Nice-Morning who harasses me. He found nothing better than to write that I had been booed when I arrived, while people were clapping like crazy.“He makes these remarks in the magazine Stubbornfurther sparking speculation about his sexual orientation. He just says he's privileged to be on the cover of any magazine… In the meantime, other rumors are circulating in the press. The songs on the album would be a compilation of sounds that Nelly Furtado would have refused to Timbaland. Some also accuse Pokora of having plagiarized Justin Timberlake. This is starting to cause a lot of bad buzz…
Were they responsible for the commercial failure of MP3? Impossible to say. But the numbers are there. Despite the singer's already high visibility and his past successes and although the critical reception was good, the record will sell poorly. And this will have consequences on the lifestyle of the artist, who at 23 years old, had already begun to taste the pleasures of fame…
Last January, he had already touched on a few words while sitting in the Six Seater Sofa by Léna Situations. “At that time, my album is not doing well enough and the tour is not filling, I anticipate and I say to myself: 'I'm going to avoid keeping the same lifestyle,” he confided to the one who has just entered the Grévin museum. When everything stops, you have to continue paying bills and taxes. I prefer to have a little money aside to be able to bounce back..”
Car, apartment, Mr. Pokora had sold everything!
Comments that he just made last month, on the microphone of another show, Important Talkhosted by Taylor Chiche on YouTube. “In 2008-2009, on my album in English, obviously there are no more sales, he recalls, conceding that he had not set aside enough financially during the first years of his career. I'm starting to see the red coming financially. And at that moment, straight away, rather than having your ego I said, oh my, I feel it…“To anticipate future losses, Matt starts by selling his car. But he goes further.
Already the owner of real estate in the capital, this sports fan sacrifices it too. “I sold my apartment on which obviously I made a capital gain, he reveals in the show. I was in Paris 16th, I went to Suresnes.” In this town in the western suburbs of Paris which remains a rather upscale townthe singer even offers himself the luxury of buying bigger for less, thus avoiding going into bankruptcy! He has since sold this house which was 170m2.
A year ago, he concluded this story by explaining to Léna Mahfouf: “He There are a lot of people who get screwed. There are footballers who, after their career, end up ruined despite all the money they have pocketed because they have a certain rhythm of life. And when everything stops, you have to continue paying fees, bills, taxes, etc….”
Foresighted, Matthieu knew from the beginning not to put all his eggs in one basket. This is how from his second album, he created his own label, called M2theP E and since then, he has continued to diversify his financial operations. He has notably invested in the catering sector, both in Paris and in Los Angeles where he resided for a long time before moving for good to France a few months ago. From now on well sheltered from need.
