Nottet rose to fame in 2014 when participating in The Voice Belgique and went on to finish fourth during the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with "Rhythm Inside".

For his debut album, Nottet wanted creative control and wrote some of the material by himself, while collaborating with writer Amy Morrey and producer Alexandre Germys on a majority of the songs.

Music critics met the album with universal acclaim, praising the lyrics, the songs' construction, and Nottet's vocal delivery and maturity.

It was awarded Platinum by the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) in Belgium, as well as Gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) in France.

Nottet also launched his Selfocracy Tour, which ran from 2017 to 2018 and visited the United Kingdom, Russia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany.

The singer also participated in and won the sixth season of French television dance contest Danse avec les stars in the same year.

[3] When creating songs, Nottet would complete a basic instrumentation with his desired sounds, and then reach out to professional producers to "put the nail polish" in accordance to his vision.

[9] In February 2017, an event was held at Éléphant Paname in Paris, France, where 30 people were given the chance to exclusively listen to unmastered mixes intended for the album.

[3][11][13] Nottet originally envisioned the album's accompanying cover artwork to solely consist of symbols but—due to the disagreement of Sony Music Entertainment—it ended featuring a shot of him.

[9] Unveiled on 1 March 2017 through social media, the artwork portrays Nottet in a dark setting, lying on the ground in front of a mirror and looking off in the far distance.

[18] Lyrically, Nottet expresses his vision of modern society and addresses topics such as toleration, harassment, stereotypes, narcissism, egocentrism and egoism.

[16][17][19] Nottet stated that "people are paying more and more attention to their appearance",[1] and cited "the mirror"—also present on the album's cover artwork—as a significant symbol for Selfocracy.

He notes watching movies without sound when coming up with melodies; the tracks "Million Eyes", "Selfocracy" and "Wolves" were inspired by Changeling (2008), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Beauty and the Beast (1946), respectively.

[19] The album opens with its title track, a "symphonic ballad",[17] which features recording artist Blaise Landsbert-Noon talking about mirrors and reflections over "dark but stirring" music.

[3] Lucie Kosmala of Madmoizelle found the song to be "innocent" and "childlike",[15] while an editor of Newsmonkey likened it to material released by Swift, Pink and Katy Perry.

[24] The fifth track on Selfocracy, "Million Eyes", has been described as an experimental-inspired[30] dark electropop power ballad;[23][31][32] its instrumentation features piano notes that are "wrapped in a hazy aura".

[35] Nottet himself explained that "Million Eyes" was inspired by the work of Sia,[23] while critics also noticed the influence of Rihanna, The Weeknd and Alice on the Roof.

Kosmala of Mademoizelle stated: "[The album] touches by its sincerity, and impresses with the vocal capacities of Nottet which manage to create a separate and captivating atmosphere.

"[15] Steven Bellery, writing for RTL, also praised Nottet's "androgynous" voice, while referring to the album as a "dark, chimerical, lyrical universe".

[41] Jonathan Currinn of website CelebMix labelled Selfocracy as one of his favorite albums of 2017, and praised Nottet's vocal delivery as well as the contributions of the featuring artists.

[27][46] Commercially, "Million Eyes" peaked at number two in Wallonia and five in France,[47][48] and was certified Gold by the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) and Diamond by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP), respectively.

[34] The singer predominantly performed in France and Belgium, alongside venues in the United Kingdom, Russia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany.