There’s a point in the interview where Stino says he wanted to perform at l’Olympia, but after contacting the venue, they got informed that Congolese artists are blacklisted due to the incidents that occurred when Héritier Watanabe tried to perform there in 2017. It made me wonder if that’s the reason of Fabregas and Roga Roga performing at the Casino de Paris in 2024 and  Ferré Gola trying to perform there in 2021 (but the event getting cancelled after combattants sending letters to both the Paris Police Prefecture and the venue itself). The same goes for Reddy Amisi. You would expect that someone would prefer to perform at l’Olympia rather than Le Bataclan when celebrating 40 years in music. I remember Fabregas saying that he was thinking about doing an Olympia before or just after COVID and Roga Roga saying it already since 2008, that he wanted to do his at l’Olympia and kept talking about it when releasing his solo-project Sorcellerie Kindoki and Contentieux. I was surprised to see them suddenly performing at Casino de Paris, which is more seen as a hall for stand-up comedians, musicals and actors, but with Stino revealing this it's making sense.



I had already heard about the ban, but didn’t know if it was true. I thought it applied to all African artists because of Ivorian singer Josey performing at the Casino de Paris as well, only to remember that Makossa legend Ben Decca celebrated his 40th music-career anniversary at l’Olympia, Yemi Alade performed there three years ago and Cameroonian singer Lady Ponce did the same in 2022. So it seems the restriction is specifically targeting Congolese artists.





I don’t know what’s going on with the Olympia’s marketing team, but over the past five years, it seems that performing at Le Grand Rex or the Casino de Paris has become more prestigious than l’Olympia in the French-speaking world. Several legends and  upcoming artists and legends are doing their shows in these two halls instead of Olympia.


Going back to Stino wanting to perform at the Casino de Paris, I’m wondering if it might be a bit too ambitious. He has hits to his name, but he’s not quite on the same level as Reddy Amisi. I think it would be better for him to first perform at venues like La Cigale, Élysée Montmartre, or Le Trianon and then aim for the Casino de Paris two or three years later. I also wonder if his big brother and rival, Reddy Amisi, would accept seeing him perform in a bigger venue than he ever has done in his solo-careere.  It might push Reddy to find a concert-promoter and to perform at  Zénith de Paris or Le Dôme de Paris.