Hugo Pierre Leclercq (; born 30 May 1994), better known by his stage name Madeon (), is a French DJ and music producer from

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...

, currently based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He initially came to widespread public attention at 17 through a YouTube video, "

Pop Culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

", where he performed a mash-up of 39 different popular songs in real-time using a

Novation Launchpad The Novation Launchpad is an electronic music multi-button controller for the popular live control application Ableton Live, featuring a grid of 64 (8x8) brightly illuminated square buttons. Each button can be assigned to a clip, (a piece of aud ...

. It received millions of hits in its first few days of release. Madeon has cited

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

and

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

as his greatest musical influences. Madeon's first EP, '' The City'', was released in 2012. His debut studio album, ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme sp ...

'', was released in 2015, supported by a 22-stop North American tour. In 2019, Madeon released his second album, ''

Good Faith In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...

'', as part of the

Good Faith Live ''Good Faith'' is the second studio album by French DJ and record producer Madeon. It was released on 15 November 2019 through Columbia Records. The album features contributions and vocals from Callie Day, Spoonface, Audra Mae, James the Human, ...

tour. Madeon was ranked at number 105 on ''

DJ Mag ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

''s top DJs for 2017. In 2017, he was nominated for two

Electronic Music Awards The Electronic Music Awards is a music award show focused on electronic music genres that debuted on September 21, 2017 in Los Angeles. It was created by Paul Oakenfold and entertainment company Hunt & Crest and produced by Live L!ve Media. The sh ...

with

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, record producer, musician, and singer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson began producing music in his childhood. He signed to Skrillex's record label OWSLA at the age of 18, a ...

for Single of the Year and Live Act of the Year. ''Good Faith'' was nominated for a 2021 Best Electronic Album

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

Career beginnings

Leclercq started composing music at the age of 11, producing hands-up under the name of "Daemon" and Wayne Mont until 2010 when he began producing house music under his current name, Madeon, which is an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of his previous nickname. He won a remix competition for " The Island" by Pendulum the same year. He went on to remix tracks by other electronic artists the following year. A clip of Leclercq performing his mash-up "

", uploaded to YouTube on 11 July 2011, propelled him to international fame. It featured samples from thirty-nine songs mixed together on-the-fly using a

. The clip went viral and reached over six million views in just a few days. According to a Reddit AMA he hosted in November 2019, he had the idea, purchased the Launchpad, and recorded the song all on the same day. During live performances, apart from the Launchpads, he also uses Allen & Heath's Xone:K2, Novation's Launch Control XL and

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Ableton Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool ...

. His first live performance was in Paris in April 2011 where he was a support act to Yelle, and his UK debut was at The Nest in

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas incl ...

, London where he performed alongside the likes of

Jacques Lu Cont Stuart David Price (born 9 September 1977) is an English electronic musician, DJ, songwriter, and record producer known for his work with artists including Madonna, Dua Lipa, The Killers, New Order, Kylie Minogue, DMA's, Example, Take That ...

. Leclercq has been featured several times on "15 Minutes of Fame", a segment of

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong, (born 30 July 1960) is an English disc jockey who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio st ...

's radio show on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

, with both his debut single "Icarus" and his remix for

deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produce ...

's " Raise Your Weapon" given their first full play on the show. His live recorded performance debut was for Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 gala event in Hull on 27 January 2012, where he played a 20-minute-long set. A debut EP was scheduled to be released at the end of 2011, but then cancelled in favour of multiple singles. The first single, "

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos susp ...

", was released on 24 February 2012 on his independent label popcultur. Madeon toured with

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

as an opening act during her

Born This Way Ball The Born This Way Ball was the third concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga, in support of her second studio album '' Born This Way'' (2011). The tour visited all continents, except Antarctica, and was ranked as the fifth highest-grossing to ...

. He later worked with Gaga on three tracks, "

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

", "Mary Jane Holland", and "

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

" on her third studio album, '' Artpop''. In 2012, he was invited to play four major American festivals, the

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, bu ...

in Miami, Coachella in California,

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

in Chicago and Electric Daisy Carnival in New York, as well as several UK dance music festivals, including the Dance Arena at the

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) (previously known as One Big Weekend, for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, and for 2018 as BBC Music's Biggest Weekend) is a British music festival run by the BBC's radio station. It is held once a year, in a ...

; he also provided support for

Swedish House Mafia Swedish House Mafia (SHM) is a Swedish house music supergroup consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008, were placed at number ten on the ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJ Poll 2011, and have been c ...

's headlining set at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Leclercq was listed at number 54 on ''

'' in 2012. Madeon released a new single on 3 August 2013 titled "Technicolor." On 25 February 2014, Leclercq released a track available for a free download on his website called " Cut the Kid", stating that it was created circa 2011 or 2012. Many of his songs have been used in media franchises: "Icarus" was featured in the US show ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series ''Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' in May 2012 and 21 May 2013 (finals with Aly Raisman) and on the in-game soundtrack of ''

Forza Horizon ''Forza Horizon'' is a 2012 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2012. The game is the fifth instalment of the ''Forza'' series, having originally spun-off from Turn 10 ...

''; " Finale" and " Imperium" have been featured in EA Sports' '' FIFA 13'' and ''

FIFA 15 ''FIFA 15'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released on 23 September 2014 in North America, 25 September in Europe and 26 September in the United Kingdo ...

'' respectively. "You're On" was also featured in ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2016'' (abbreviated as ''PES 2016'', marketed as ''Winning Eleven 2016'' in Japan) is a football simulation game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbo ...

''. "Finale" has also been included in the opening cinematic of ''

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale ''PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale'' is a 2012 crossover fighting video game developed by SuperBot Entertainment, in conjunction with Bluepoint Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It features various characters drawn from di ...

''; "The City" appears in EA Sports' ''

NHL 15 ''NHL 15'' is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 24th installment of the ''NHL'' series and was released on September 9, 2014 in North America then three days later in Europe, Australia and ...

'', '' Need for Speed: Most Wanted'' and "Technicolor (Club Extended)" in ''

Need for Speed Rivals A need is dissatisfaction at a point of time and in a given context. Needs are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. In other words, a need is something required for a ...

''. "Finale" and Leclercq's remix of "The Night Out" by

Martin Solveig Martin Laurent Picandet (; born 22 September 1976), better known by his stage name Martin Solveig (), is a French DJ, singer, songwriter and record producer. He hosts a weekly radio show called ''C'est La Vie'' on radio stations worldwide, incl ...

were featured on the official soundtrack of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

Winter X Games XVII Winter X Games XVII (re-titled Winter X Games Aspen '13; styled as Winter X Games Seventeen in the official logo) were held from January 24 to January 27, 2013, in Aspen, Colorado. They were the 12th consecutive Winter X Games to be held in Aspen. ...

event in Tignes, France and both received several plays on air. "Finale" continues to be used as the bumper music for X Games broadcasts.

2015: ''Adventure''

In September 2014, Leclercq released " Imperium" as the lead single from his debut studio album, ''

''. On 8 December 2014, Leclercq released the second single from the album, titled "You're On", featuring Kyan. On 9 February 2015, Leclercq released the album's third single, "Pay No Mind," featuring Passion Pit. The album's fourth single, "

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

," was released on 10 March 2015. On 24 March 2015, the final single of ''Adventure'', "Nonsense," was released, featuring Mark Foster of

Foster the People Foster the People is an American indie pop band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2009. Its members are singer Mark Foster, guitarist Sean Cimino, and keyboardist Isom Innis. Foster founded the band in 2009 after spending several years in ...

. On 27 March 2015, ''Adventure'' was released. The album peaked at number 43 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and at number one on the US

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

chart. In mid-2015, Leclercq embarked on his first headlining tour, Adventure Live, consisting of 22 stops in North America. The tour ended on 9 May 2015. Leclercq further promoted his debut studio album on his Pixel Empire US Tour in early 2016, which ended on 21 February 2016.

2016–2017: ''Shelter''

On 11 August 2016, Leclercq released with his close friend

a new track called "

Shelter Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locat ...

". Throughout 2016–2017, he toured the US and Europe alongside

on a live show they called the

Shelter Live Tour The Shelter Live Tour was a collaborative concert tour by French DJ and record producer Madeon and American DJ and record producer Porter Robinson in support of their single "Shelter". The tour visited North America, Europe, Asia and Australia fr ...

. This back to back set contained tracks made by both artists, often mixed together between themselves. Throughout the tour both Madeon and Porter also would sing their own songs. Their last performance was on 23 April 2017 at the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

. In August 2016, the new gameplay trailer of EA Sports' ''

FIFA 17 ''FIFA 17'' is a football simulation video game developed and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in September 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This is the fir ...

'' was released, featuring Madeon's remix of "

Song 2 "Song 2" is a song by English rock band Blur. The song is the second song on their eponymous fifth studio album. Released on 7 April 1997, "Song 2" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Char ...

" by Blur, which was also featured in a BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix in 2012. Leclercq's collaboration with

, "

" was included in the ''

'' soundtrack.

2018–present: ''Good Faith''

On 13 November 2017, Leclercq announced that he would be releasing his next project in 2018. Further hints about the project were not officially revealed until 20 August 2018, when Leclercq's creative director was interviewed via a Madeon-inspired podcast called the Pixel Empire Podcast. On 30 January 2018, Leclercq stated on his Instagram and Twitter that he had moved to the United States to finish his upcoming album. On 20 March 2019, Leclercq announced his new live show would debut on Lollapalooza 2019. He stated this would not be a DJ set but rather a new live show; fans will be expecting new music. Later that year, on 28 May 2019, Leclercq announced that he would be releasing a new song on 29 May 2019 through a new website, goodfaith.world. On 29 May 2019, the goodfaith.world website was updated with a video previewing the new song, titled " All My Friends", along with locations of record stores in four cities:

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative cen ...

, and

. Each record store was issued two copies of the new single on clear 7" vinyl. On 30 May 2019, the full official audio was released on YouTube. On 10 July 2019, Leclercq premiered the first episode of Good Faith Radio (Beats Radio on Apple Music), where he officially played and released his next single, "Dream Dream Dream". Along with the single, he played tracks by other artists, including some sent by his own fans accompanied by fan-made art. He described the radio show as "...a space I want us to share, I want to introduce you to my favorite things and showcase some of the amazing music and art you create." Along with the radio premiere, it was released on music streaming platforms and a visualizer video was released on YouTube. The

tour was premiered at Lollapalooza 2019, followed by headlining shows in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, Amsterdam, and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. A longer North American leg started on 30 October in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. T ...

and ended on 14 December in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city i ...

, followed by an Australian tour as part of FOMO Festival in January 2020. On 29 October 2019, Leclercq revealed that ''Good Faith'' would be released on 15 November 2019. In an interview with

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

, Leclercq said the album was based on his relationship to joy and his mental health: "I wanted to make music that was celebratory but that hinted at the fact that that joy had to have been reclaimed and fought for a little bit." Madeon worked again with Lady Gaga on the track " 911" from her 2020 studio album, ''

Chromatica ''Chromatica'' is the sixth studio album by American singer Lady Gaga, released on May 29, 2020, by Interscope Records and subsidiary Streamline. Gaga supervised the production with longtime collaborator BloodPop and a variety of other produce ...

''. On 9 May 2020, Madeon played a DJ set for the virtual Secret Sky music festival. During the set, he previewed a song called "The Prince". The song was released on 14 August that year. Along with the release, Madeon launched an

alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by inten ...

. When it was solved, a 6-track EP named ''12122017'' was found, reportedly named for the date it was made. However, after an email correspondence with Leclercq, he revealed that the EP was produced on 6 December 2017. The creation of the EP is attributed to Madeon's own anger due to "not feeling anything from music", and has referred to the EP as a document that serves as context to the Good Faith album instead of an EP. On 18 September 2021, Madeon premiered the Good Faith Forever Live set at Second Sky music festival in Oakland, California. After many years of being played during live performances and teased online, Madeon released the track "Love You Back" on 27 April 2022, after a reveal at his Coachella 2022 set.

Discography

* ''

'' (2015) * ''Good Faith'' (2019)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
"Pop Culture" on Madeon's official YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madeon 1994 births 21st-century French musicians Ableton Live users FL Studio users Electro house musicians Electronic dance music DJs French DJs French electronic musicians French house musicians French record producers French songwriters Male songwriters Living people Musicians from Nantes Nu-disco musicians Remixers