Bigflo et Oli (referred to as Bigflo & Oli) is a French

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

duo from

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. The duo is composed of two brothers, Florian "Bigflo" Ordoñez and Olivio "Oli" Ordoñez. Their debut album ''La Cour des grands'' was released in 2015 and received a

gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

award in France less than four months after being released, then went platinum, making them the youngest French rappers to receive this award. Their second album, ''La Vraie Vie'', came out on June 23, 2017. The album was certified gold record three weeks later, platinum record three months later, on September 18, 2017, double platinum record in early December 2017 and triple platinum record in March 2018 with over 300,000 sales. Their third album, ''La Vie de rêve'', was released on November 23, 2018. It earned gold record status within 10 days of its release, then went platinum one month after its release. As of October 2019, they have sold over a million copies of their albums.

Biography

1993–2005: Early life

Florian and Olivio were born from an

Argentinian Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

father, Fabian, and a French mother of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

n descent, and grew up in the Minimes district of

, in the Occitanie region. They both received a solid musical and instrumental training from childhood, Olivio studying trumpet and Florian the drums and piano at the conservatoire de Toulouse. It was after hearing Sully Sefil's song ''J'voulais'', released in 2001, that the two brothers started rapping, aged nine and six respectively. Their parents had already introduced them to music: their father is a salsa singer and their mother listened to a lot of

chanson française A (, ; , ) is generally any lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of French pop music which e ...

when they were children (

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed theatrical songs. He generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, but later throughout the world ...

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( ; ; ; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a Armenians in France, French singer and songwriter of Armenian descent. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringi ...

and

Francis Cabrel Francis Christian Cabrel (; born 23 November 1953) is a French singer-songwriter, composer and guitarist. Considered one of the most influential French musical artists of all time, he has released a number of albums falling mostly within the real ...

in particular). Bigflo is the stage name of Florian José Ordonez. He was born on , in Toulouse. After obtaining his '' scientific baccalauréat'', Florian spent a year studying at university, in LEA (Applied Foreign Languages), then decided to stop to devote himself entirely to music. He has been playing drums and piano since the age of 13, in addition to writing his own songs. Oli, whose real name is Olivio Laurentino Ordonez, was born on , in

Villeneuve-sur-Lot Villeneuve-sur-Lot (; in the Languedocien dialect of Occitan language: ''Vilanuèva d'Òlt'' ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Lot-et-Garonne. The commune was formerly name ...

. He began writing at the age of six and became involved in musical creation while preparing his ''economics and social sciences baccalauréat'', which he obtained in 2014. Both brothers attended the

lycée Saint-Sernin In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

in Toulouse.Bigflo & Oli actually shot a music video in their high school in 2012 for their
Pourquoi pas nous ?
' song.

2005–2014: Beginnings

Bigflo and Oli published their first music video on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2005 when they were children, and completely unknown. It reached, at the time, about 400 views. They later released another clip, "Fiers d'être toulousain" in which they already show their love for their hometown,

. The two brothers grew up, keeping on writing and composing, and started to scour the local scenes as high school students. They soon made a name for themselves by taking part in rap battles, such as Rap Contenders. They play several

opening act An opening act, also known as a warm-up act, support act, supporting act or opener, is an entertainment act (musical, comedic, or otherwise), that performs at a concert before the featured act, or "headliner". Rarely, an opening act may perform ...

s, including French rap heavyweights like

Sexion d'Assaut Sexion d'Assaut (), formerly known as 3ème Prototype (for "Troisième Prototype" ), was a French hip hop band formed in 2002, composed of eight Parisian rappers. They are signed to independent record label Wati B, which is under exclusive licen ...

and La Rumeur. On July 14, 2011, they play alongside

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

for the French Fête nationale, in Toulouse. They have also shared the stage with

Orelsan Aurélien Cotentin (; born 1 August 1982), better known by his stage name Orelsan (; sometimes stylized as OrelSan), is a French rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor and director. He has released four studio albums: his debut ''Perdu d'av ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

IAM IAM or Iam may refer to: Arts and media * IAM (band), a French hip hop group from Marseille that formed in 1989 * I Am (American band), often styled I AM, an American rock band * ''Intellectual Asset Management'', an intellectual-property magazine ...

. In 2011, they release their "C'est que le début" music video. In July 2012, they publish their second clip alongside

, "Pourquoi pas nous ?" on YouTube. In October 2013, the band signs on the

Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

. In 2014, they release an

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

called ''Le Trac''. It contains five songs including "Monsieur tout le monde", which reveals the band to the mainstream audience. The clip, directed by Julien Hosmalin, features comedian

Kyan Khojandi Kyan Khojandi (born 29 August 1982) is a French comedian, actor and screenwriter born to a French mother and an Iranian father. He is best known for playing the main character in the television series '' Bref'', which was broadcast on Canal+ f ...

and tells the tragic destiny of an

Average Joe The terms average Joe, ordinary Joe, regular Joe, Joe Sixpack, Joe Lunchbucket, Joe Snuffy, Joe Blow, Joe Schmoe (for males), and ordinary Jane, average Jane, and plain Jane (for females), are used primarily in North America to refer to a comple ...

who ends up losing his temper. Also published in 2014, their video "Gangsta" is shot in Toulouse.

2015–2016: ''La Cour des grands''

On September 11, 2015, their debut album ''La Cour des grands'' is certified

and they become the youngest French rappers to receive this award, at the age of 22 and 17. The duo gradually established themselves as a major force in French rap, going so far as to be considered by

Akhenaton Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the ...

, member of

, as the next generation of French rap. He explains in 2016: In the face of rising success, the two brothers say that "what is happening is a childhood dream come true." In June 2015, they make a brief appearance in a YouTube video on the

Squeezie Lucas Adrien Hauchard (; born 27 January 1996), known professionally as Squeezie, is a French Internet celebrity, YouTuber. He is the second most subscribed French language, French-speaking youtuber, after Tibo InShape, with over 19.6 million s ...

channel. In March 2015, they put out the music video for the song "Nous aussi", from their album ''La Cour des grands''. The clip was directed by the same director as "Monsieur tout le monde". It involves three podcasters: Jhon Rachid, Baptiste Lorber as well as Jérôme Niel, famous for his tutorials broadcast on

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

's Grand Journal. Their music video "Le Cordon" came out in May 2015. This

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

clip directed by Nicolas Carnol tells the story of a mother and her

aborted Aborted is a Belgian death metal band formed in 1995 in Waregem. The group currently consists of vocalist, founder, and only constant member Sven de Caluwé, along with guitarists Ian Jekelis and Dan Konráðsson. Although the band originally ...

child, confronting two opposing yet complementary perspectives. After touring France in 2015, the two brothers set off on a second tour in 2016, where they played at a number of major summer festivals. Among other things, they took part in the 3rd edition of ''AbbéRoad'', a charity concert of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation.

2017–2018: ''La Vraie Vie''

Bigflo and Oli went live on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

on April 30, 2017, and announced the name of their second album, ''La Vraie Vie'', scheduled for release on June 23, 2017. They also released on May 2, 2017, a song by the same name as well as an 8-minute video clip, shot at the Mont Blanc massif. On May 12, 2017, they unveiled a second single, "Alors Alors". On June 2, the duo released another music video, featuring

Jamel Debbouze Jamel Debbouze (; ; born 18 June 1975) is a Moroccan-French actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer and director. Best known for his stand-up comedy sketches, he also worked with director Alain Chabat in several films and other notable Fren ...

, called "Personne". On June 16, 2017, seven days before the album release, Bigflo and Oli announced the release of a clothing brand called ''Visionnaire''. The album featured a number of well-known guests such as Belgian singer

Stromae Paul Van Haver (; born 12 March 1985), better known by his stage name Stromae (), is a Belgian singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his music, which is a blend of hip-hop and electronic music styles. Stromae came ...

who co-wrote the song "

Dommage "Dommage" is a song by French hip-hop duo Bigflo & Oli taken from their album ''La vraie vie''. The song peaked at number 11 on the French Singles Chart. The single was certified platinum single in France, with the equivalent of more than 20 mil ...

", American rapper

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

on "Ça va trop vite" and French rap star

JoeyStarr Didier Morville (; born 27 October 1967), better known by his stage name JoeyStarr, is a French rapper, record producer and actor, from Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, Île-de-France. He co-founded the French rap band Suprême NTM ...

on "Trop tard". On the eponymous song "La Vraie Vie", BigFlo took a dig at rapper

, who turned down a collaboration because of a busy schedule. In July 2017, the two brothers reappeared on

's YouTube channel in a video where the three of them created a song in under an hour. The video attracted more than ten million views. The album's fourth music video came out on September 8, 2017, and featured the song "

", where Panayotis Pascot and

Pascale Arbillot Pascale Arbillot (born 17 April 1970) is a French actress. She is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences; however, soon after, she decided to become an actress. She has appeared in films, on television and in the theatre. Fil ...

play the roles of the characters mentioned in the song. The album was a huge success and was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

on September 18, 2017, about 3 months after its release. At the end of September 2017, Bigflo and Oli appeared once again with Squeezie with the same idea as the first video, this time the three of them making a video clip in less than twelve hours. On December 15, 2017, the group released a fifth clip, for the song "Salope!". In January 2018, the duo is nominated in 2 categories of the '' Victoires de la Musique'': "Urban Music Album of the Year" with ''La Vraie Vie'' and "Original Song of the Year" with "

". They performed this title live with a 60-piece amateur choir from

Chabeuil Chabeuil (; ) is a commune of the Drôme department in southeastern France. Chabeuil's town hall was designed by the architect Ernst Tracol, and was completed in 1883 with tuff stone quarried in the village of Peyrus. Population Notable p ...

, discovered through to their YouTube video where they covered the song. That evening, the duo won the "Original Song of the Year" award, thanks to audience votes. Following this victory, Oli had to dye his hair blue, a challenge he took up with his big brother, following the same pattern as when the rappers won the

NRJ Music Award An NRJ Music Award (commonly abbreviated as an NMA) is an award presented by the French radio station NRJ to honor the best in the French and worldwide music industry. The awards ceremony, created in 2000 by NRJ in partnership with the televisio ...

s, when Oli finished with blond hair. At the end of June 2018, the two brothers released a new track in collaboration with French DJ Petit Biscuit, called "

Demain Demain may also refer to: * ''Tomorrow'' (2008 film) (a/k/a ''Demain''), a 2008 Canadian drama film directed by Maxime Giroux * ''Tomorrow'' (2015 film) (a/k/a ''Demain''), a 2015 French documentary film by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent * "Demai ...

". About a month later, the duo released the associated video clip, mainly consisting of shots of fans dancing during their festival appearances.

2018–present: ''La Vie de rêve''

Bigflo and Oli announced on September 8, 2018, in an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

live show the release of their new album ''La Vraie vie 2'' as a direct sequel to ''La Vraie vie'', scheduled for release in November 2018. The album will include Florian's solo, the song "

" released a few months earlier, as well as the song about their mother and new features. However, on October 3, 2018, the brothers announced that it would finally be called ''La Vie de rêve'', as they felt that the previous name would sound too much like a bonus album or an album that could not be listened to without having listened to the previous one. On October 26, 2018, the first single (excluding "Demain") from their third album is released, ''Nous Aussi 2''. The accompanying music video exceeded one million views in less than a day. The next single was released a few days later, on October 31, and was entitled "Plus Tard". The album was released on November 23, 2018 and was a huge success, selling more than 44,000 copies in the first week, almost twice as many as its predecessor and was certified gold record after only 10 days, then platinum in less than a month. Adding to the album's success, it was given the "Urban Music Album of the Year" award during the 2019 '' Victoires de la Musique'', where the siblings were also named "Male Group or Artist of the Year". On February 11, 2019, they released the video for "Rentrez chez vous", song they performed a few days earlier at the ''Victoires'' ceremony. They went on a year-long tour, and notably played two days in a row at

Stadium de Toulouse Stadium de Toulouse, previously named Stadium Municipal, is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Toulouse, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Toulouse Football Club, as well as rugby matches for Stade ...

, where no concerts had been given since

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

's 1992 performance during his

Dangerous World Tour The ''Dangerous'' World Tour was the second world concert tour by American singer Michael Jackson and was staged to promote his eighth studio album '' Dangerous.'' The tour was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. All profits were donated to various chari ...

. They also released "Allez le Stade", a song dedicated to the Stade Toulousain's 20th French Championship title. In July 2019, they declared their intention to pause their career after their tour and the summer festivals, in order to "settle down and recover". In 2020, they nonetheless released two EPs, ''Freestyles Insolents'', compilation of their YouTube-released freestyle tracks, and ''Un été quand même'', joint release with Bon Entendeur. They also appeared on L.E.J's "Tu es" and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

-based rapper Jul's "Que ça dure".

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artists

As featured artists

Other charted songs

Awards

, - ! 2016 , Prix Talents W9 , , Bigflo & Oli , , , - ! rowspan="2" , 2017 , Grand prix

SACEM The Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music or SACEM () is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers, and music publisher A mus ...

, Rolf Marbot Song of the Year Award , "Je suis" , , , - ,

, Francophone Duo/Group of the Year , Bigflo & Oli , , , - ! rowspan="6" , 2018 , Aficia Awards , Francophone Duo/Group of the Year , Bigflo & Oli , , , - ,

MTV Europe Music Award The MTV Europe Music Awards (originally named MTV European Music Awards, commonly abbreviated as MTV EMA) are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an al ...

, Best French Act , Bigflo & Oli , , , - , rowspan="2" ,

, Francophone Duo/Group of the Year , Bigflo & Oli , ! rowspan="2" , , - , Video of the Year , "

" , , - , rowspan="2" , Victoires de la Musique , Original Song of the Year , "Dommage" , ! rowspan="2" , , - , Urban Music Album of the Year , ''La Vraie Vie'' , , - ! rowspan="4" , 2019 , rowspan="2" ,

, Francophone Duo/Group of the Year , Bigflo & Oli , , , - , Video of the Year , "Promesses" , , , - , rowspan="2" , Victoires de la Musique , Male Group or Artist of the Year , Bigflo & Oli , ! rowspan="2" , , - , Urban Music Album of the Year , ''La Vie de rêve'' ,

Distinctions

On March 23, 2017, they were made ''chevaliers de l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

'' by the Minister of Culture.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigflo and Oli French hip-hop groups French musical duos Sibling musical duos Musicians from Toulouse French people of Argentine descent French people of Algerian descent Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Musical groups established in 2005 Musical groups from Occitania (administrative region)