FLEUR ROUGE
London-born and raised in France, FLEUR ROUGE brings a unique blend of cultures and influences to her music. After beginning her musical journey as a classically trained opera singer touring across Europe at a young age, she later transitioned into the alt-pop world to tell her own stories through songwriting.
Inspired by artists such as Lorde, Lana Del Rey and Lily Allen, the singer/songwriter creates a sound that mixes cinematic melodies, grungy textures and sharp lyricism. Her latest single, “Everything I’m Not”, explores the pressures of adulthood, the chaos of modern life and the feeling of being out of sync with traditional milestones.
In this interview, FLEUR ROUGE opens up about her musical journey, the transition from opera to alt-pop, the realities of today’s music industry, and the life lessons she has learned along the way.
Hi Fleur, how are you? Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.
I’m good thanks, been exciting to bring out the new body of work this year, been itching to drop these new ones!
For readers who may just be discovering your music, what’s your story? How did your journey into music begin?
I actually started when I was pretty young (11 years old) but I was on tour singing opera professionally, was a pretty crazy period of my life and I’m so glad I got to do something like that it really helped me develop a strong work ethic and develop my skills as a singer.
You were born in London and raised in France. How have those two cultures influenced your identity and your music?
I love adding French lyrics to parts of the song as a little nod to my heritage I feel like it always adds that little exotic flavour to a song. French artists that inspired me to explore that more include Lolo Zouai, Claire Laffut, Angele and Christine and the queens.
You trained as an opera singer from the age of 11 to 16 and even toured across Europe. How did that experience shape you as a vocalist and performer?
It taught me self discipline and how to warm up and take singing seriously. Working alongside adult opera singers showed me a good work ethic that I picked up very quickly. Opera is super theatrical so it brought me a lot of confidence with acting etc on stage, rehearsals with the orchestra were also such an incredibly thing to experience, everyone is so professional it forces you to grow up fast.
Your music now sits in the alt-pop world, which is quite different from opera. How did that transition happen creatively?
I actually didn’t turn to the pop side of things until I graduated years later. The plan was to become a fully fledged opera singer and to go to guildhall to do my masters but in the end I fell out of love with it and decided I wanted to sing my own stories on stage and do a genre that was a little more popular and understood.
Your sound blends grungy instrumentation with cinematic pop melodies. How did you develop this sonic identity?
I’ve always been into the darker pop vibe, the sassy, grunge flavour always made me feel super confident and I wanted to create music that made the girls feel powerful.
Artists like Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Lily Allen and Ashnikko are cited as inspirations. What elements from those artists resonate the most with you?
I love the cinematic melodies that Lana creates, Lorde brings a beautiful lyrically poetic flavour to her music thats infectious, lily Allen brings the satire that I love and Ashnikko brings the sassy, confident bad bish flavours. I feel like my music incorporates all of these qualities in some way.
Your new single “Everything I’m Not” captures a chaotic and very human moment. What inspired the story behind the song?
Honestly I’ve been feeling this way for a few years now watching my friends get married, buy houses, have kids, doing all that white picket fence stuff whilst I chase this crazy music dream. It’s a very unconventional way of living life and sometimes it’s created this feeling that I’m being left behind even though I’m so aware that there’s no one size fits all in life and to be honest, even when people look like they have it all together they rarely do we’re all just fumbling our way through life figuring stuff out as we go and that’s OK.
The track explores the pressure of adulthood and the feeling of being “out of sync” with traditional life milestones. Was this something you were personally experiencing at the time?
Yeah absolutely, there’s always this niggling thing in the back of your mind that says you should really start ticking off those milestones.
There’s a strong theme in the song about rejecting performative perfection. Why was it important for you to explore that idea?
I think our generation has very quickly grown tired of the curated life that instagram sucked us into. Tiktok was the beginning of some realness that I think people were really craving. It was important to explore this because it’s something that’s felt universally and although we’re aware that social media is forever showing us peoples highlight reels, we still find ourselves quietly comparing our lives constantly to others and feeling less than when it doesn’t measure up.
Your music often blends humour, rebellion and vulnerability. Do you see songwriting as a way of processing those contradictions?
Absolutely, it’s a cathartic way of processing how I’m feeling which is something most musicians I guess do, a form of free therapy.
Looking back at your journey so far, what biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
I’ve learnt to not take rejection to heart and to try not to be too much of a perfectionist. It’s really easy to get caught up in the game of comparison in this industry and it’s something I used to do a lot but with time I’ve realised that we all have our own path and our own strengths to play to and success reaches people in different ways and at different times.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
I feel like the social media content aspect is a double edged sword - it’s great that it’s never been easier to share your music with fans but on the flip side I think it’s influenced how people are sometimes writing their songs so that it’s tiktok friendly.
Your music also reflects the chaos and contradictions of modern life and social media culture. How do you personally navigate that pressure as an artist?
I don’t think it’s something any of us are able to fully escape but one way I cope with the perfectly curated online lives that are constantly put in front of us is by limiting the amount of time I spend on the platforms. I like to take breaks, obviously that’s hard when your an artist but I definitely try to limit the amount of time I spend on it so that I can stay grounded. It’s so easy to fall into that trap of self comparison that makes you feel inadequate when we’re all actually facing the same insecurities and chaos that life brings and it’s about sitting in that mess and saying this is actually real life and that’s ok, let’s embrace this.
When listeners hear “Everything I’m Not,” what do you hope they feel or take away from it?
The feeling that you never fully have everything figure out, at every age/decade we’re discovering new things, evolving, changing and it’s important to just enjoy the moment and remember you’re not defined by the milestones you’ve reached.
Finally, what’s next for you? Does this single hint at a new chapter or upcoming project we should keep an eye on?
100% this is the first track on a body of work coming up that I’m super proud of, it’s a grittier FLEUR ROUGE with a lot more grunge production and more French flavours intertwined. The bilingual side is coming through much more this year.
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