If you\u2019ve watched the music video for \u201cPapaoutai,\u201d<\/a> then you probably already have a clue what that sad story is. In the video, a young boy spends time trying to get his father\u2014a life-sized mannequin played by Stromae\u2014to interact with him, but he can\u2019t make him come to life, not even for a game of catch. What makes the video even more heartbreaking is that the son watches the other kids on his cul-de-sac have good relationships with their parents, who are full of life. The music video is a direct reflection of the lyrics.<\/p>\n The title \u201cPapaoutai\u201d is a play on the phrase \u201cPapa o\u00f9 t\u2019es?,\u201d which translates to \u201cDad, where are you?\u201d in English. Stromae is reflecting on a frustrating childhood as he tries to understand where his dad disappeared to. <\/p>\n Born Paul Van Haver, Stromae is the son of a Belgian mother and a Rwandan father. He didn\u2019t really get to know his father before he died in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when Stromae was just 9 years old, according to an interview he did with NPR.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOf course, my personal life is that I didn\u2019t really know my father. I met him, like, sometimes, and he died in the Rwandan genocide. So that\u2019s why I was educated by my mother only,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Rwandan Civil War, which included a 100-day genocide, was the culmination of decades of ethnic hostility between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. This conflict led to the systematic mass killing of 800,000 to one million people in 1994, concluding when Tutsi-led rebel forces took control of the nation. Stromae\u2019s father was a Tutsi, according to the Parisian independent magazine Worldcrunch.<\/a><\/p>\n In the song, Stromae isn\u2019t only asking where his dad went. As he\u2019s grown up and thought about fatherhood more by becoming a dad himself, he also wants to know what makes a good father.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, of course, it\u2019s a question that I have, but it\u2019s not because I didn\u2019t grow up with my father that I have this kind of question; it\u2019s just because I\u2019m a man. The question is, what\u2019s a good father, what\u2019s a father, what\u2019s a bad father? And actually, the answer is we\u2019re just trying to do our best,\u201d he said in the NPR interview.<\/p>\n Continuing, he added that the song was a cathartic release for him to get out the anger of his dad not being around: \u201cAnd until before I created the song I was still a little bit angry, but I decided to have less angry about my father and just decided to say, OK, I\u2019m already 28 and I think I have to grow up because he\u2019s not there anymore. And\u2026 I have to do my best for the next one, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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