Aurélien Cotentin, known as Orelsan is a French rapper, singer, composer, actor, director and screenwriter who first became known on the Internet, notably on the Myspace site. When he was around twelve and listened to rock and metal (Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, etc.), his basketball and skateboarding friends board introduced him to the world of rap. He quickly hooked on this musical genre: The way of describing everyday life, the density of texts and images. I learned the texts by heart, NTM, IAM… I also translated the Public Enemy texts. I got into the game, I rapped for fun. »
In Caen, he also met Gringe, originally from Cergy and who arrived in Normandy in 2000 with his parents. Gringe also raps and the two young people decide to form a duo: the Casseurs Flowters. Their name is a play on words (flow: rhythm used by a rapper to give rhythm to his songs) on the nickname – Casseurs floats – of the two clumsy bandits from the film Maman, j'ai missed l'avion: (We love this film and the comparison with these two broken arms, the big thin one and the little big one, was inevitable), explains Orelsan, they publish the album <Orelsan and Gringe are the Casseurs Flowters> which will be certified platinum disc. In 2008, the label 3e bureau offered him to produce his album in collaboration with 7th Magnitude, label of Skread and Ablaye. It was in 2015, under the impetus of Kyan Khojandi and Bruno Muschio, that he invested television with Gringe in the form of the series of short humorous bubbles entitled Bloqués, broadcast on Canal +. The same year, he moved on to directing and acting, always surrounded by his faithful accomplice, for Comment c'est loin, co-directed with Christophe Offenstein. A fourth album, released as a soundtrack, is based on this experience.
These productions allow Orelsan to popularize his character as a lost and resigned thirty-year-old, who nevertheless has a creative spirit and an offbeat humor. Since 2016, he has been the French voice of Saitama for the anime adaptation of the One Punch Man manga. In 2017, he returned to music with the single Basique which announced the release of his third solo album: La fête est finie. The album is certified double diamond disc and wins three Victoires de la musique.
His fourth album, Civilisation, will be released in 2021, announced with the clip for (L'Odeur de l'essence). The album is certified diamond disc in 5 months. It is the fastest certified album diamond disc. It brings Orelsan three new Victoires de la Musique (Best Song for The Smell of Gasoline, Artist of the Year and Audiovisual Creation for Never Show That to Anyone). and then counts 12 Victoires de la musique in total, making him the third artist to have won the most, behind Alain Bashung and Matthieu Chedid.