Released 4 June 2013 Recorded 2012 Length 3:34 | Format 7"
CD
Digital download Genre Hip hop
R&B Label Mosaert | |
"Formidable" is a song by Belgian singer Stromae. The song was released as a digital download in Belgium on 4 June 2013 as the second single from his second studio album Racine Carrée (2013). The song entered at the number 1 spot the week of its release in Belgium and reached number 1 in France. It was his most successful single since "Alors on Danse" in 2009.
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Music video
On 21 May 2013 amateur videos appeared on YouTube showing Stromae, apparently drunk and wandering at the Louise/Louiza tram and metro station in Brussels during the daybreak. The images went viral. Some days later it was revealed that that was the taping of a music video. This was confirmed during the French TV show Ce soir (ou jamais !) in which Stromae discussed and also performed his new single "Formidable", which is about the story of a drunk man just separated from his girlfriend. The clip was fully composed by extracts of hidden cameras taken on 21 May. It also shows people taking pictures with their cellphones and three policemen talking to the artist. The video won Music video of the year at the Victoires de la Musique.
Cheyenne Toney cover
On 6 December 2013, during the fourth live show of the fourth season of the Dutch television programme The Voice of Holland, Dutch singer Cheyenne Toney performed a cover of "Formidable". She sang her own written cover, with lyrics translated from French to Dutch. Her version of the song reached the peak position in the Mega Single Top 100 (charting higher than the original) and the eighteenth position in the Dutch Top 40.
Arabic version
A Maghrebi Arabic version of the song by Moroccan Canadian performer Nadia Essadiqi was an internet hit in October 2015. On 17 November she went on to perform the song live on the VivaCité radio chart show Tip Top and on Le Petit Journal (Canal+).