Benjamin Clementine
| Benjamin Clementine | |
|---|---|
Clementine in 2015
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Benjamin Sainte-Clémentine |
| Born |
7 December 1988 Crystal Palace, London, England |
| Origin | Montmartre, Paris, France |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, artist, composer, bandleader, musician |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 2008–present |
| Labels |
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| Associated acts | |
| Website | benjaminclementine |
| Notable instruments | |
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Steingraeber & Söhne E-272 Steinway D-274 Yamaha C7 |
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 75/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The Observer | |
| The Independent | |
| The Wall Street Journal |  |
| The National | |
| PopMatters | 7/10 |
| Q | |
| The Guardian | |
Benjamin Sainte-Clémentine (English pronunciation: /ˈbɛndʒəmɪn ˈsən ˈkləməntɪn/; born 7 December 1988), also known as Benjamin Clementine, is an English artist, poet, composer, and musician.
Born and raised in London, Clementine later moved to France and became a homeless teenager in Paris. There, his performances helped him to become a cult figure in the music and art scene. Following his move back to London, he made his TV debut on the BBC programme Later With Jools Holland in 2013. Dubbed as becoming one of the greatest singer-songwriters of his generation, most critics have honoured him citing and describing him as a man of unusual intelligence, great piano style and deep musicality with charisma on stage but nonetheless, found it difficult to place his music in one specific genre, mostly stating that its rather beyond category. However, his vocal range, ability and diction has mostly been compared to that of Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, and his passionate vocal delivery to Edith Piaf.
Considered by The New York Times as one of the 28 geniuses who defined culture in 2016, Clementine's compositions are musically incisive and attuned to the issues of life but also poetic, mixing revolt with love and melancholy, sophisticated lyricism with slang and shouts, and rhyming verse with prose monologues. He moved from busking to music halls, to symphonic music and spoken word, breaking free from traditional song structure, inventing his own dramatic and innovative musical territory. He is noticeably seen topless and barefoot onstage, dressed entirely in black or dark grey, with a long, wool trench coat.
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