Matthieu Chedid 'M' Albums

Matthieu Chedid 'M' Biography

The notion of family is important to M. Always has been. At the age of six Matthieu and Emilie contributed backing vocals to Chedid Snr's hit song T'as beau pas etre beau; aged 14 he debuted in the rock band Les Bebes Fous (that's 'The Crazy Babies to you and me) alongside the children of such French music icons as Michel Jonaz and Alain Souchon. His grandmother's influence is there in his word play ('M' is pronounced like 'Aime', or love) and his spare, powerful prose. Matthieu Chedid had already devoted his life to music when, one day about 15 years ago, he stood in front of the mirror one sleepy morning and realized he could style his dark hair into the shape of an M. Voila! There it was: a way to distance himself from the inevitable Chedid associations and forge his own creative path. A way to mask his shyness and indulge his love of T-Rex glam, pointy collars and skinny trousers, and glasses shaped like stars and snowflakes. M gave him an identity to play with: "Dressing as M lets me reflect my personal evolution, and the way life never stands still." Hit singles such as 1998's ferocious Machistador underscored M's clever irreverence ("You can only make fun of others if you are able to make fun of yourself"), and helped broaden M's fan-base to the point where his 2009 single Le Roi des Ombres - the video for which showed a tiny effigy of M going up in flames - had the whole of France talking. Rumours abounded that M was binning the sequins and feathers. That he was going back to the name he'd been born with. M doesn't listen to rumours. "M is my starting point in the universe," he says. "M is my artistic identity, my place, my Il, no matter what he looks like."