Lomepal at Electric Brixton - 01.04.2019
Photo credit: La Vague Parallele
French rap sensation Lomepal took the stage by storm at Electric Brixton on March 1st to give his first performance across the channel. The sold-out show filled the old theatre with electrifying energy as the Frenchman took over the stage for his debut performance in the anglophone world.
Born and raised in Paris, Antoine Valentinelli was studying film when he rose to fame in the francophone rap scene with the release of his album FLIP in 2017. The name of the album comes from skate, his other great passion in life. Lomepal, whose stage name is a word play on ‘the pale man’, has a cumulated over a hundred million views on his YouTube channel. He has performed in front of major crowds at music festivals in France, Belgium and Switzerland. He is currently completing a tour with sold outs shows all around France and Belgium as well as the UK and Canada. He recently released his second album, Jeannine, named after his grandmother, which is inspired by her madness. This has been a source of inspiration for songs such as Beau La Folie. For this new album, he was mainly inspired by the deep emotions and the loneliness he felt in the ‘after-fame’ period of his life that followed the massive success of FLIP. He has described these feelings as incoherent and this incoherence is what has truly allowed him to tell more significant life stories,than in his previous record, as, to him, composing rap songs is to him ‘a therapy to cure anxiety’.
Starting off with his hit song Club, Lomepal energised the crowd with his magnetic charm as he emerged on stage. While popping out his signature head shake and swinging hips moves, he moved on to perform Mômes, one of his tracks from his new album Jeannine. He then went into an energetic performance of one of his latest singles, 1000 degrés.
As Lomepal performed songs from his latest album on stage such as Plus de Larmes, Évdemment and Trop Beau, he wandered around the stage with a lost gaze in his eyes, turning into a modern cursed poet drowned in melancholia. The energy and the rhythm of the performance may have slowed down but the electric feel was still going strong. Lomepal suddenly appeared on a balcony over the crowd to perform a magnetic interpretation of Oyasumi, one of his first tracks, which completely enchanted the spectators. Lomepal built up the atmosphere around the concert hall as he performed Danse. The magnetism of his performance truly came to a head with his interpretation of Yeux Disent, a single that recently earned him a Platinum Record in France.
Lomepal brought back the energetic intensity of his opening act with his performance of X-men, a song that features the Belgian rapper, Jean Jass, who joined him on stage. The duo also performed La Vérité, a song that originally features French rapper OrelSan. The moment everyone was waiting for finally arrived when Lomepal interpreted his most recent collaboration with French disco-pop band L’Impératrice, Là Haut. After waving goodbye, Lomepal came back on stage to perform his most recent hit, 1000 degrés, a song that originally features his Belgian counterpart Roméo Elvis, prompting the fans that were standing next to the stage to do a mosh pit that truly reflected the energy in the room.
Lomepal’s chameleonic charisma and French charm truly took the Electric Brixton by storm with an electrifying and unforgettable show.
Edited by Dimitrina Dyakova, Deputy Digital Editor
