“Papaoutai” (2013) sounds like a dance song, but it's a child's question: dad, where are you? Everyone says he's a great father, the kid has been told to grow up like him — but he isn't there. The song turns to all fathers: everyone knows how babies are made, nobody knows how fathers are made.
Stromae grew up in Brussels without his father, who was killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The video, with Stromae as a frozen, puppet-like dad who doesn't respond to his son, made the meaning unmistakable. It topped charts across Europe.
The title is spoken French squeezed into one word: “papa, où t'es ?”. Learn how French drops letters in speech (t'es for tu es), and the chorus becomes easy.