Christine and the Queens change name and release new album

When I worked 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. Who therefore now genders himself in the masculine and entrusts on his social networks to see himself as transgender.

And to add a layer of mystery by associating these visions of cars with signs sent by his recently deceased mother in an interview with the British daily The Guardian.

This Friday appears the 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.

In constant change

We can draw a parallel with [David] Bowie who created characters for himself: Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Saneanalyzes Christian Eudeline, editor-in-chief of the French magazine Vinyl&Audio.

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 lifehe adds

Redcar is not his first reincarnation. His first album, Human warmth in 2014 under the name Christine and the Queens, opened the doors to success for her, far beyond France, her native country. The next one was simply called Chrisin reference to its new identity in 2018.

” Name changes are common in music, but rarely for philosophical reasons like Redcar. »

Political, commercial or spiritual claims

The closest approach is that of Kae Tempest, a British artist oscillating between rap, slam and poetry, who got rid of all genres by removing a letter from the first name still on display recently (Kate).

Cat Stevens is a special case: when he converted to Islam and renamed himself Yusuf Islam, he stopped his career as a musician in the late 1970s (he would only return to it for decades later).

When you think of an already well-established artist, the episode of Prince that has become Love symbol comes quickly to mind. No intimate journey. After the Minneapolis Kid found success with Purple Rain in 1984, he hid himself behind a pictogram on album covers to scold his record company.

At that time, the star also appeared on stage with the term Slavic (slave) written in marker on the face to protest against his contractual conditions. He regained his Prince crown in the 2000s, freed 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 thus renamed himself Snoop Lion in the 2010s after a spiritual revelation in Jamaica. He did not convince anyone in the end, and quickly took over the surname which had consecrated him in the 1990s.

Another experience, mixed this time: by abandoning, not their name, but their makeup to appear bare-faced, the members of the Kiss group, in decline, experienced a small rebound in the 1980s.

We weren’t behind but we weren’t leading the dance anymoreadmitted Gene Simmons, founding bassist of the hard rock band, in the documentary KISStory. The quartet returned to kabuki theater faces with the fashion for lucrative reform tours in the 1990s.

Is Redcar taking a risk? The artist is very identified on social networksreassures Christian Eudeline, author of the book Iggy Pop, Fun & Destroy (The Iguana has often changed its musical skin, but never its nickname). Redcar is indeed working to document his journey on Twitter or Instagram, denouncing a prefabricated gender binary system.