In this former SNCF technical building, rapper Shay seems very small in the middle of the 450 square meters of L’Aiguillage, a rehearsal studio, under a 7.50 meter high ceiling. The 32-year-old, wearing black tights and no makeup, is used to being perched in stiletto heels, but for a week she has been working hard rehearsing the sequences for her two concerts on November 21 and 22. at the Zénith de Paris (which is sold out): “I have never seen such a hard-working artist. comments Jacques Kaspi, the boss of L’Aiguillage. She is the first to arrive in the morning, the last of the group. » The Belgian rapper has no other option, she has set herself a great challenge: to offer her audience a different show at each concert.
Usually, artists and their teams put together a single show, which they repeat during the months that their tours will last. The challenge is even more important for Shay, who started at the age of 19 under the Booba label, since before his first date at the Olympia in Paris, on March 29, 2024, he had never made a fuss. He sang backup in clubs that paid him generously for thirty minutes of his repertoire, a hard rap in which he voluntarily showed his temperament. “nice bitch” – is named after their first album, released in 2016.
To perfect his provocative choreographies and memorize his positions on stage, he can count on Guillaume Doubet, 38 years old. “I am a bit of a guardian of his vision, which I translate into different departments: music, image in clips, but also in communication with the media, lighting and set design, he explains. I am more of an artistic director of your show than a set designer. It’s a bit new in France. »
This graduate of the 3iS film school started in the United States, on the Interscope Records label, which houses the gangsta rap of Dr. Dre as well as the funky Black Eyed Peas and the pop singer Lady Gaga. He was in charge of the artistic direction of the singer Natalia Kills. When he left school, at the age of 20, he was called by R’n’B producer Ryan Leslie to follow him to Harlem for his recording sessions with the stars of the time, including singer Cassie and her pygmalion, P Diddy. (now imprisoned, accused of sex trafficking).
An ascension in three acts
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