Christine and the Queens becomes Redcar: change of name, known and daring chorus in music

“While I was working so hard and alone (…) the red cars (red cars in English) that passed punctuated each of my beautiful thoughts“, writes the artist in his notes of intentions. Do not call her Christine and the Queens anymore but Redcar. The artist, who therefore now genders himself in the masculine, entrusts on his social networks to see himself as “trans“. And to add a layer of mystery by associating these visions of cars with “signs” sent by his mother, who recently passed away, in an interview with the British daily The Guardian.

Friday, November 11 was released his album The adorable stars, prologue in French of an expected sequel in English. Release preceded by two concerts at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris in the middle of the week, setting a visceral and esoteric performance, intended for the ultimate fans.

“We can draw a parallel with Bowie who created characters for himself, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane; Redcar is in this logic and I bet that in a year or two, an album or two, the artist will change again, will not be Redcar all his life“, deciphers for AFP Christian Eudeline, editor-in-chief of the French magazine Vinyl&Audio. Redcar is not his first reincarnation. The inaugural album, Human warmth in 2014 under the name Christine and the Queens, opened the doors to success for her, well beyond France, her native country (USA, United Kingdom, etc.). The next one is simply called Chris, his new identity in 2018.

“Name changes are common in music, but rarely for philosophical reasons like Redcar“, continues Christian Eudeline. The closest approach is that of Kae Tempest, British artist between rap, slam and poetry, who got rid of all genres by removing a letter from the first name still on the poster recently (Kate). Cat Stevens is a special case: when he converted to the Muslim religion and became Yusuf Islam, he stopped his career as a musician at the end of the 1970s (he would not return to it until decades later).

When you think of an already established artist, the episode of Prince turned Love Symbol quickly comes to mind. No intimate journey. While the Minneapolis Kid found success with Purple Rain in 1984, he disappeared behind a pictogram on the covers to go to the showdown with his record company in the 1990s. At that time, the star also appeared on stage with “Slavic” (“Slave“) written in marker on the face to protest against his contractual conditions. He will regain his crown of Prince in the 2000s, released from his commitment.

Career bifurcations have also ended up off the road. Like Snoop Dogg who ended up diluting his image in too many projects. The rapper renamed himself Snoop Lion in the 2010s after a “revelation journey” in Jamaica, as he says between two clouds of smoked grass in an interview. The American will not convince anyone and will quickly resume the surname which established him in the 1990s.

Another experience, mixed this time. By abandoning, not their name, but their make-up to appear bare-faced, the members of the group Kiss, in decline, will experience a small rebound in the 1980s.We weren’t behind but we weren’t leading the dance anymore“, admits Gene Simmons, founding bassist in the documentary Kisstory. The quartet will return to faces made up like kabuki theater with the fashion for reunion tours, lucrative since the 1990s.

Does Redcar take a risk? “The artist is very identified on social networks“, reassures Christian Eudeline, author of Iggy Pop, Fun & Destroy (“The Iguana” has often changed his musical skin, but never his nickname). Redcar is in fact working to document his career on Twitter or Instagram, denouncing a “prefabricated gender binary system“.