Two crowns for one kingdom: “Civilization” by OrelSan is the best-selling album in 2022 in France, while another rapper, Jul, is the most listened to artist with seven solo records in the official Top 200 unveiled on Friday.
“Civilization” was already at the top of sales for the year 2021. “It is not systematic for an artist to stay in the lead two years in a row, it is a reference”, comments for AFP Alexandre Lasch, director general of the National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (Snep), which reveals this classification.
We have to go back to Stromae (2013 and 2014 for “Racine Carrée”) and Adele (2011 and 2012 with “21”) to find such a performance.
Released in November 2021, “Civilization” totals 406,837 sales in 2022 by combining physical copies – CDs, vinyls -, downloads and listening on streaming platforms, according to Snep.
But, with seven solo albums in the Top 200, the prolific Jul has 582,635 cumulative sales (not counting the collective albums “13’Organisé” and “Le Classico organized” which he promoted). He too is accustomed to the fact (549,000 cumulative sales for his 8 albums in the Top 200 in 2021).
His secret? The 32-year-old Marseillais, by releasing an average of two albums per year, maintains a constant stream of listening on platforms between new and old records (none more than three years old is counted by Snep).
“Before, we bought a CD and it was fixed, whether we listened to it a lot or not”, analyzes Alexandre Lasch.
But, in terms of visibility, the big winner in 2022 will have been OrelSan, 40 years old. If we are only talking about a single record, with “Civilization” the Norman rapper reigns on a podium completed by the Ile-de-France Ninho (283,242 copies for “Jefe”) and the Belgian Stromae (242,224 sales for “Multitude”).
“The Smell of Gasoline”
Author of the hit “Basique” five years ago, OrelSan will this time be talked about with “The smell of gasoline”, a piece denouncing the cocktail controversy / extremism / excess served in the debates around the presidential campaign.
“I don’t follow the news too much but, speaking with the people around me, I see that it’s becoming campaign themes,” he modestly told AFP in November 2021.
In 2022, he will in any case have made the title of his first album, “Perdu d’avance” (2009) lie. In February, he signed a hat-trick at the Victoires de la Musique in the categories male artist, song (“The smell of gasoline”) and audiovisual creation for “Show never that to anyone”.
This documentary series (on Amazon Prime Video) created the event thanks to a richer raw material than that of the competition. About twenty years filmed by his brother have been exploited, reinforcing his closeness to the public.
We see in particular the first years of the galley, between a small job as a night watchman in a hotel or even this “battle” (duel of rappers at the microphone) failed in front of a jury of sizes where Diam’s and Booba sit.
“Bercy all week long”
The success even spawned a season 2, on a tighter timeline, around the painful birth of “Civilization”.
The onstage defense of this new opus, on the other hand, went like a dream with a tour that brought together 1.2 million spectators in 2022, between headlining concerts and festivals.
“Paris, thank you, thank you, I put a Bercy all week long” he sings in “Shonen”. He will have done it with five sold-out evenings in a row at the Accor Arena, another name for this hall, at the start of the year. Without forgetting three evenings at Paris La Défense Arena at the end of 2022.
With a particularly well-articulated show, between a modest intro — a mirror of the early years –, a nod to the culture of video games and a final mastery of visual effects.
And now ? OrelSan has the choice between writing music for himself, for others or writing for the cinema, a field already frequented with “Comment c’est loin” (2015), which he had produced.