Élysée Montmartre () is a music venue located at 72 Boulevard de Rochechouart,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It opened in 1807, burned down in 2011, reopened in 2016, and has a capacity of 1,380 patrons. The nearest métro station is Anvers.

Origins

The Élysée Montmartre was originally a ballroom inaugurated in 1807 :fr:Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris where the famous

Can-Can The can-can (also spelled cancan as in the original French /kɑ̃kɑ̃/) is a high-energy, physically demanding dance that became a popular music-hall dance in the 1840s, continuing in popularity in French cabaret to this day. Originally dance ...

was performed among others dances during the 19th century. In 1900, the venue was damaged by fire and re-decorated. After the Second World War, it started hosting boxing matches. It also hosted

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

shows, becoming a frequent venue for French television coverage from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Notable productions

The piece ''The Mask'' by

Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the Naturalism (literature), naturalist School of thought, sc ...

takes place in the venue.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Count, ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colour ...

created several paintings here as well. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, a wide variety of French and international performers gained notoriety at the location, including

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

, Alain Souchon, and

Jacques Higelin Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin (; 18 October 1940 – 6 April 2018) was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s. Early life Higelin was born on 18 October 1940. His father, Paul, a railway worker and musician of Alsatian de ...

. In 1992,

Steel Pulse Steel Pulse are a roots reggae band from the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, and were composed of David Hinds (lead vocals, guitar), Basil Gabbidon (lead guitar, vocals), and Ro ...

released their first live album, '' Rastafari Centennial – Live in Paris'', which was recorded over three nights at the venue.

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's performance, during the Hours Tour, on 14 October 1999, was filmed and recorded, with three songs later appearing on the CD single of "

Survive Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...

". A heavily edited recording was released to streaming services as a live album entitled "Something in the Air (Live Paris '99)" in 2020; and later in limited quantities on physical media on 12 March 2021. American metal band Symphony X recorded their first live album, Live on the Edge of Forever, at the venue during a tour in 2000. In 2005,

Cradle of Filth Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their ly ...

recorded their live DVD, '' Peace Through Superior Firepower'' at the venue. The performance was filmed on 2 April 2005. In 2007, Counting Crows re-released their debut album, '' August and Everything After'', as a two-disc deluxe edition. The second disc is a recording of a performance at the theatre on 9 December 1994. The venue is mentioned in

The Roots The Roots are an American Hip-hop, hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Black Thought, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Questlove, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''T ...

' 1999 song, " You Got Me", as a place where the subject saw the band and narrator perform, even though they both lived in the same building in Philadelphia.

Recent history

Incendie Elysee Montmartre 2011-03-22 n01

The room returned to its original vocation in 1995 with dancing evenings animated by the Grand Orchestre de L’Élysée Montmartre and it is now one of the most famous music venues in the city. Finnish Metal band

Sonata Arctica Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup c ...

was the last band to perform at "Élysée" before it caught fire on 16 March 2011. On 22 March 2011 in the morning, the building caught fire. The venue was purchased by Julien Labrousse and Abel Nahmias in 2013, it was rebuilt completely under the direction of Julien Labrousse, and it reopened in September 2016 with a concert of Matthieu Chedid. In 2025, part of the building was converted into a hotel. The project won Archdaily's Building of the Year award in 2025.

References

External links

Élysée Montmartre official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elysee Montmartre Music venues in Paris Buildings and structures in the 18th arrondissement of Paris 1807 establishments in France Montmartre Music venues in France