Paul Van Haver (born 12 March 1985 in Brussels), better known by his stage name Stromae is a Belgian singer-songwriter. He has established himself in both hip hop and electronic music genres. Stromae came to wide public attention with his song "Alors on danse", which became a number one in several European countries.
Stromae was born in Brussels to a Rwandan father and a Flemish mother. His father was mostly absent during his childhood and was killed during the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. His mother raised him in a French community in the suburbs of Brussels. At the age of eleven Stromae began to show an interest in music and attended the Académie musicale de Jette, where he studied music history and learned to play the drums. This was his first experience with musical theory. He learned to sing from Nemanja Pravdic.
In 2000 he appeared as a rapper called Opmaestro, though he later changed his stage name to Stromae (a syllablic inversion of "Maestro", a practice called verlan).
At the age of 18, he founded a rap group called "Suspicion", along with rapper "J.E.D.I." in Eichof. They produced the song and music video "Faut que t'arrête le Rap...", though later, J.E.D.I. decided to leave the rap duo. In order to finance his private school education, Paul Van Haver worked part-time in the hospitality industry, but his school performance wasn't up to standard. It was only later, when he registered at Institut national de radioélectricité et cinématographie, that he released his first album.

During his study at the film school of Brussels, Stromae decided in 2007 to concentrate fully on his musical career. This resulted in this debut-EP "Juste un cerveau, un flow, un fond et un mic…". In 2008 he signed a 4-year record deal with "Because Music" and "Kilomaître".
In 2009 Stromae worked as a young trainee at the musical radio station NRJ in Brussels. Vincent Verbelen, Music Manager, was impressed by the talent of Stromae's first single 'Alors on danse' and decided to air it for the first time on NRJ. The response from listeners (including influential personalities ranging from Anna Wintour and Jean-Claude Van Damme, to the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy) was one of extreme enthusiasm and Stromae came to wider public attention. In a few weeks from that point, sales of the song established it as number one in Belgium.
Vertigo Records, a label of Mercury Records France (Universal Music Group) signed him for a worldwide licensing deal soon after this.
By May 2010 the track Alors on danse had reached number one in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Romania and the Czech Republic.
In 2010, he was nominated for "Best Dutch and Belgian Act" at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
His debut album 'Cheese' (including the hit single "Alors on danse") won the award for Best Dance Album at the Victoires de la Musique.
In 2011, he received a nomination for "Best Belgian Act" at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
The first single "Papaoutai" from his second album Racine Carrée was digitally released on May 13, 2013. It went on to chart number 1 in Belgium and France, number 2 in the Netherlands, as well as number 7 in Germany and Switzerland. The special video of this song also won the OGAE Video Contest in 2013.
On May 22, 2013, amateur-looking videos appeared on YouTube showing Stromae, apparently drunk and wandering at the Louiza tram station in Brussels at dawn. The videos went viral. A few days later, it was revealed that this was linked with the filming of a professional music video. This was confirmed during an appearance by Stromae on the French TV show “Ce soir ou jamais” in which he 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 made from edited hidden camera footage taken on May 22. It also shows people taking pictures with their cellphones and three policemen talking to the artist.
In November 2013, Stromae received the award for Best Belgian Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
On 17 March, 2014, it was made public that Stromae's song "Ta fête" would become the official song for the Belgian football selection at the 2014 World Cup.