The World Cup has Americans finally picking their head out of the sand and looking around at the big beautiful world beyond our shores. One global sensation that somehow slipped past our radar is Stromae, the Brussells-born singer-songwriter whose music has been described as a melange of “hip-hop, dance music, salsa and French folk music.”

His most recent record, Racine Carrie, went platinum eight times over in his native Belgium and sold 1.5 million copies in France alone. His single "Papaoutai" reached Number One on iTunes in 16 countries. Considering Stromae sings about AIDS, cancer, breaking stereotypes and other topics not usually associated with popular music, that's no small feat.

“I think it’s important to talk about everything. I want to talk about every kind of subject," he told Time Out New York. "Music is the only place that I can have no taboos. In real life I have a lot of taboos, and I can’t talk about everything easily. But I have to listen to it again and again and again, and change sometimes so I don’t sound just angry and aggressive.”

Though this androgynous 29-year-old identifies as straight, he's not afraid to play with sexuality and gender—particularly on his single “Tous les mêmes,” which blasts gender stereotypes. Something of a conceptual artist, he created a half-man, half-woman character for the track.

Next for Stromae is U.S. domination—with Kanye West remixing his hit “Alors on danse” and a much-anticipated New York debut Friday night. See what all the fuss is about in the video for  “Tous les mêmes,” below.