AXELLE RED

Her last studio album was released eight years ago. Axelle Red has taken her time to set the bar very high for her new songs, which are often upbeat, with lyrics that can be interpreted on multiple levels. The first single from the long-awaited new album (spring 2027) will be released in early September. This autumn will see exclusive preview live shows, the only opportunity for fans to experience the new work in its entirety. On 4 February, Axelle Red also received the prestigious MIA ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from VI.BE and VRT. 
Axelle Red, pop and soul diva and singer-songwriter, has for over three decades been the creator of a long list of iconic songs such as Sensualité, Parce que c’est toi, Je t’attends, Elle danse seule, Le monde tourne mal, À tâtons, Ma prière, Rester femme and Rouge ardent. With thirteen albums, millions of copies sold and tens of millions of streams annually, she has grown – as a humanist and feminist – into a unique artist who effortlessly combines emotion and commitment.

In 1993, Axelle released her debut album *Sans plus attendre*. The pop-soul album was a phenomenal success: with over 500,000 copies sold, it became one of the best-selling records in Belgian music history. Thanks to the subsequent concerts and her second album À tâtons, recorded with some of the best-known American soul musicians, she made her definitive international breakthrough. She grew into an artist who not only made pop history, but also commanded the respect of musical icons worldwide. Her timeless songs are now covered by a new generation of French artists such as Vianney, Clara Luciani, Juliette Armanet and Julien Doré, and recently even by Dua Lipa, during her concert at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.

Alongside her musical successes, Axelle increasingly developed as an activist. She championed human rights, collaborated with UNICEF, became an ambassador for Handicap International, and spoke out about the position of women worldwide long before #MeToo. That commitment took a powerful form in her album Sisters & Empathy (2009), entirely dedicated to injustice against women, child marriage and female genital mutilation: issues she was directly confronted with during her humanitarian work. Whereas on Sans plus attendre she sang: “Le monde tourne mal… Let’s dance”, after Sisters & Empathy she felt the need to do more to use her music as a voice for change.

That combination of passion, sensitivity and altruism runs like a thread through her career. “It’s about the fact that we’re all allowed to seize our opportunities and pursue our happiness, but that we need to ask ourselves to what extent we’re making others pay the price for that.”

Her stage presence has evolved too. “It used to be ‘veni, vidi, vici’ – look at everything I can do. Now I’m mainly looking for ways to share something with the audience, to make a genuine connection.” And that is precisely what makes her concerts so unique. Today, Axelle Red stands stronger than ever on stage. Few artists manage to build such a steadfast career whilst remaining innovative at the same time.