He 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.

[6] Aurélien Cotentin was born on 1 August 1982 in Alençon in Lower Normandy, where he was raised by his father, a middle school principal, and his mother, a teacher.

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.

[30][31][32] Following the success of Le chant des sirènes, Orelsan released his first collaborative single as Casseurs Flowters with Gringe, "Bloqué", on 3 July 2013 as a pre-release for their upcoming debut studio album.

[33] Orelsan et Gringe sont les Casseurs Flowters was released on 15 November 2013 to generally positive reviews,[34][35] and includes tracks such as "Regarde comme il fait beau (dehors)", "La mort du disque", "Dans la place pour être" and "Fais les backs", which all charted in France despite not being released as singles.

[40] Both were released on 9 December and, like Orelsan et Gringe sont les Casseurs Flowters, received generally positive reviews from critics.

[47][48] On 20 October 2017, La fête est finie was released, to huge critical and commercial success: the album was certified gold by the SNEP within three days, platinum within a week, and diamond within eight months.

[49][50][51][52] In January 2023, the album reached a new milestone in terms of impressive sales record: it has been certified double diamond by the SNEP with over 1,000,000 copies sold in France.

[65] By 2023, Orelsan has won a total of twelve awards at Victoires de la Musique, surpassing French music legends Johnny Hallyday and Alain Souchon who had 10 trophies each.

[66] In 2009, controversy erupted when some of Orelsan's earliest work was deemed by certain media to include violent and misogynist lyrics, specifically in "Saint-Valentin" and "Sale pute" (the latter is French for "Dirty whore").

The Socialist Party claimed in a communiqué that the song included "a scandalous, odious text that incited violence directly".

French Secretary of State for Solidarity Valérie Létard considered "Sale pute" sexist and violent and demanded that websites remove the video from their sites.

She also 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.

He 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.

Despite explanations, François Bonneau, the President of the Regional Council of the Centre, threatened financial reprisals against the festival if it didn't reconsider its decision.

When Les Francofolies de La Rochelle festival decided to ban Orelsan from performing,[69] he protested the intervention, citing censorship on artistic works.

[70] The singer Cali protested to the organizers including Jean-Louis Foulquier, who had in turn accused Ségolène Royal of threats to stop the financial support.

Frédéric Lefebvre, the spokesman for Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) said that the matter was blown out of proportion declaring that he supported the young artist's freedom of expression and denounced attempts of censorship by Ségolène Royal against him.

On 14 July 2009, French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand made a declaration of support for the rapper for freedom of expression, judging the whole controversy ridiculous.

[1][2][3] Orelsan explained the lyrics of "Sale pute" to AFP as the expression of these mixed feelings between love and hatred,[73] and eventually dropped the song from his repertoire.

The arrival of Orelsan was questioned, but finally the organisers went on with it, but took to pay back €1 for every ticket sold for the date of the show to associations that protested.

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.