Angèle's Libre an instant favorite for us, empowering and fun while rocking Chanel
Artist photos - Manuel Obadia-Wills
Today, the Belgian pop star Angèle (born Angèle Van Laeken) reveals the music video “Libre” HERE via Island Records, directed by Aube Perrie (Megan Thee Stallion, L’Impératrice.) Taken from her album Nonante-Cinq, the video shows Angèle, as a way to oppose an all too often anxious-prone world, creating an alternative environment by imagining herself as an astronaut, a hero, and an explorer. She embodies her own reality by flying over New York City and using her incredible superpowers, with a carefreeness we all have yearned for. This is an invitation to reach for the amplified version of ourselves, a version of ourselves where we blossom and flourish, that pushes and encourages us to live, freely.
For the first time ever, the French luxury fashion house CHANEL designed bespoke outfits for an artist. Virginie Viard has specially designed, in collaboration with Angèle, all of her stage clothes for her Nonante-Cinq tour, some of which are inspired by the CHANEL Spring-Summer 1995 Ready-to-Wear collection. This unparalleled wardrobe features a dozen looks in a range of colors and materials, combining tweed with sequins, as well as accessories such as boots and sunglasses. Angèle has been a CHANEL ambassador since 2020.
With more than 330k copies sold worldwide, Nonante-Cinq includes the other singles “Bruxelles je t’aime”, an homage to her hometown, and “Démons” featuring the rapper Damso, and are the first solo releases after collaborating with the international pop star Dua Lipa on the infectious track “Fever” and their London-shot music video last year. In March, they performed the duet for the first time live at Dua Lipa’s Madison Square Garden HERE. Next week, Angèle will be opening for Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ tour at The O2, London on May 2nd & 3rd.
Besides working on music, Angèle is the face of Chanel's 2021 Eye Makeup Collection and is an overall Chanel ambassador. Angèle is a bedroom music producer with an in-your-face “Do It Yourself” emblazoned on her oversized sweater. She writes her own lyrics, creates her own sounds, and hones a graphic feel that mirrors her own personal style: hard-hitting and direct. Angèle set up her own label (Angèle VL). Angèle is a spokeswoman for her generation, a feminist, fluid and all-encompassing, a pick-and-mix artist working in a world in which musical genres are a distant memory. Pop, rap, and electro are all thrown into her musical blender.
Her breakout debut album Brol (2018, 1M sold in France, 500k in the rest of the world) made her an instant, fresh Francophone star. The album title is a Belgian slang term that is particularly close to her heart. “I just wanted to have a Belgian word in my title, and this one always made me smile. Brol means mess or chaos, but it has a light, optimistic feel, it’s not a negative word at all. The word reminds me of my childhood and my country. I find myself spending less and less time in Belgium, so it feels very comforting to me.”
Born into a family of artists, Angèle has music in the blood. After studying jazz, Angèle began releasing covers of pop classics via Instagram and built up an incredible following. Free-spirited and independent, she goes against type time after time, sticking fingers up her nose and covering her hair in pasta. Her first three hits (“La Loi de Murphy”, “Je veux tes Yeux” and “La Thune”) serve as a refreshing introduction to her musical identity.
