Sébastien Tellier at Color Fest 14 | 12 August 2026

Sébastien Tellier is a French singer-songwriter, musician and multi-instrumentalist, born in Le Plessis-Bouchard on 22 February 1975 and raised in Paris. One of the most charismatic and unclassifiable figures on the European music scene, Tellier is internationally recognised as one of the finest exponents of the French Touch, He is capable of fusing electronic, synth-pop, auteur chanson and cinematic sounds in an entirely personal artistic universe. A romantic and visionary dandy, over a career spanning more than 20 years he has built an inimitable sound identity, suspended between elegance, irony, melancholy and experimentation.

The beginnings and debut with L'incroyable Vérité

Growing up immersed in his musician father's record collection and the soundtracks of the great French composers, Sébastien Tellier began composing at a very young age, mastering piano, guitar, strings and bass. In 1998, he participated in the compilation Source Rocks with the track “Jockey”, which attracted the attention of Rolling Stone magazine. In 1999, his synth-baroque compositions hit the Air, who hire him for their label Record Makers.

The solo debut came in 2001 with L'incroyable Vérité, an intimate and rarefied album - played entirely by Tellier himself, without drums - that consecrates him as one of the most original voices of new French music. The album, mixed by Quentin Dupieux (alias Mr. Oizo), is presented on a tour as support for Air. The track “Fantino” is chosen by Sofia Coppola for the soundtrack of the film Lost in Translation (2003), giving Tellier international visibility and a stable place in the pop film imagination.

Politics, La Ritournelle and international success

In 2004, the Politics, the second studio album, which reveals all the eclectic skills of the Parisian artist. The album is a kaleidoscope of genres - 80s electronic disco, jazz, house, pop - enriched by the collaboration with the legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen (formerly with Fela Kuti). The single “La Ritournelle”, supported by a memorable string arrangement, became the signature track of Tellier's career: remixed among others by Metronomy, It reached the charts halfway across Europe and established itself as a contemporary pop music classic, with millions of listeners and a cultural impact that spans generations.

In 2006, he published Sessions (later republished as Universe for the UK market), an acoustic collection of his best-loved songs recorded in a single day with pianist Simon Dalmais, which reached the top of the French iTunes chart.

Sexuality, Daft Punk and Eurovision

The third studio album, Sexuality (2008), marks a turning point: produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk, is a concise, sensual and refined work that explores the theme of eroticism and seduction through eleven tracks of enveloping electronic pop. In the same year, Tellier was chosen by France Télévisions to represent the France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade with the piece “Divine”, an event that generated a great deal of media debate due to the choice - unprecedented in the history of the competition - of singing predominantly in English for the French representative.

From L'Aventura a Domesticated: cinema, fashion and collaborations

In 2014, the L'Aventura, an album openly inspired by Brazil, which confirms Tellier's ability to reinvent himself with each record release. Over the years, his music has been used in numerous soundtracks, advertisements and fashion shows: the big fashion houses, fascinated by his dandyism and enigmatic elegance, regularly involve him in their projects. His declared fans include Marc Jacobs, Philip Glass and Karl Lagerfeld.

In 2020 it publishes Domesticated, the seventh album, followed by a period dedicated to composing film scores and producing for other artists, as well as releasing several EPs.

Kiss The Beast (2026): the great return

Almost six years after the last complete album, in January 2026 Sébastien Tellier released Kiss The Beast at Because Music, his eighth studio album and the first for his new label. The twelve-track album is an ambitious sound mosaic that traverses intimate synth-pop, sparkling disco, cinematic ballads and moments of uncanny beauty. Recorded between Paris and London, Kiss The Beast sees the production of Oscar Holter (The Weeknd, Katy Perry), SebastiAn, Victor Le Masne e Daniel Stricker, with string arrangements by Owen Pallett to add cinematic weight to the whole.

Collaborations include the legendary guitarist Nile Rodgers (Chic) in the album track “Thrill of the Night”, the singer-songwriter Slayyyter and the rapper Kid Cudi in the touching “Amnesia”. The track “Loup” involves over 150 musicians in a crescendo of controlled chaos that defies all expectations. About the album, Tellier said he wanted to create a monumental and maximalist work, free and instinctive, driven by the pure pleasure of making music.

The european tour 2026 in support of Kiss The Beast recorded numerous sold out in France (including two dates at the Olympia in Paris) and to Belgium, the UK and Germany, confirming the Parisian artist's extraordinary artistic moment.

Sébastien Tellier live at Color Fest 14: 12 August 2026

The 12 August 2026 Sébastien Tellier will be on stage at the Colour Fest 14 a Lamezia Terme, on the Riviera of Sunsets (Lungomare Falcone e Borsellino), for one of the most eagerly awaited Italian summer dates of his tour. It will be an opportunity to hear live tracks from the new album Kiss The Beast together with the classics that have written the history of French Touch, in a unique setting between the sea of Calabria and the pine forest of the most important festival in southern Italy for independent and avant-garde music.

Tickets available at colourfest.co.uk/tickets-info/