1. Orelsan has released four studio albums: his debut Perdu d'avance on 16 February 2009, his second album Le chant des sirenes on 26 September 2011, his third album La fete est finie on 20 October 2017 and his fourth album Civilisation on 19 November 2021.
Orelsan is one half of the French hip hop duo Casseurs Flowters, along with Gringe, with whom he has released two studio albums: Orelsan et Gringe sont les Casseurs Flowters in 2013, and the original soundtrack for their 2015 film Comment c'est loin.
Orelsan has a particular style of mixing humor and irony with heavy subjects and manages to reach and appeal to multigenerational audience and a much larger crowd of listeners than hardcore rap fans.
In 2022, Orelsan was named "chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" by the Ministry of Culture of France, rewarded for his creation in the artistic field and the contribution he has made to the influence of the arts in France and in the world.
Orelsan initially listened to rock music and was a fan of manga and comics.
Orelsan graduated with a French baccalaureat in Economic and Social Sciences before moving to Caen where he studied at l'Ecole de management de Normandie, graduating in 2004.
Orelsan collaborated with Gringe in his initial works and formed the duo Casseurs Flowters with him in 2004.
Orelsan spent one year at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, where he had the inspiration of writing the song "50 pour cent".
In 2004, Orelsan formed the hip hop duo Casseurs Flowters with his colleague Gringe.
On 16 February 2009, Orelsan released his debut album Perdu d'avance, a provocative album produced by Skread, that included 14 tracks.
In 2010, Orelsan collaborated with The Toxic Avenger on the extended play N'importe comment, releasing three music videos, a single and a maxi single containing remixes, all on the Roy Music label.
On 26 June 2010, Orelsan appeared on Skyrock's Planete Rap, joining Jena Lee on the song "Je reve en enfer" from her album Ma reference with Orelsan adding his punchlines in a version known as "Je reve en enfer ".
Also in 2010, Orelsan collaborated with Nessbeal in "Ma grosse" and was part of the Diversidad project, joining a great number of rappers from various European countries.
In September 2010, during an interview with Canal Street, Orelsan announced that he was working on his new album that would come out in 2011.
On 30 May 2011, Orelsan released "RaelSan", a pre-release and lead single for his upcoming second album.
On 3 March 2012, Orelsan won two awards in Victoires de la Musique, one in the category "Urban Album of the Year" for Le chant des sirenes, and for "Group or Artist Popular Revelation of the Year" chosen by the public.
In 2013, Orelsan's recognition continued growing further, as he was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique award for Male Artist of the Year, while he was given the Prix de la Creation Musicale award for Songwriter of the Year.
Orelsan was nominated for the NRJ Music Award for French Revelation of the Year, and at the 2013 Trace Urban Music Awards, he was nominated for the Male Artist of the Year and Best Live Performance awards, while "La terre est ronde" was nominated for Best Song and "Ils sont cools" featuring Gringe nominated for Best Music Video.
On 21 March 2015, Orelsan posted a photo of a script with the working title Orel et Gringe on his Instagram page.
On 20 September 2017, Orelsan released the first single from his third solo album, entitled "Basique", along with its music video in which the album's release date was revealed to be 20 October 2017.
On 22 September 2017, Orelsan revealed the name of the album, La fete est finie, along with its cover art.
On 8 February 2019, Orelsan won the award of "Musical Show, Tour or Concert of the Year" for his tour in Victoires de la Musique of 2019.
In November 2022, Orelsan won two awards at 2022 NRJ Music Award: Francophone Male Artist of the Year and Francophone Tour of the Year.
Orelsan offered help to groups that wanted to file a lawsuit based on Article 24 of the law on freedom of the press, that forbids incitement to commit crimes.
Orelsan added: "I admit that these lyrics can shock" and he apologized about it, mentioning that he had not performed the song live for several months and it didn't appear on his album Perdu d'avance.
Orelsan added: "[However] whatever I said, I will always be less violent than the series broadcast on TF1, where a guy gets hit every five minutes for no reason".
Orelsan did eventually appear at the festival despite the campaign.
When Les Francofolies de La Rochelle festival decided to ban Orelsan from performing, he protested the intervention, citing censorship on artistic works.
Orelsan explained the lyrics of "Sale pute" to AFP as the expression of these mixed feelings between love and hatred, and eventually dropped the song from his repertoire.
On 14 May 2014, the Court of Appeal of Paris closed the case by putting an end to all lawsuits and the original complaint filed against Orelsan, finding that action taken against him by five feminist associations was prescribed.