MaMA was born in 2010, how was the festival created and what was its objective? 

At the Printemps de Bourges, where I was working at the time, we noticed that the festival - which is open to the general public - was attracting more and more industry professionals. So we started to organise debates, round tables and cocktail parties as part of the festival, but by doing this we were creating competition for our own shows. The idea of a moment in the year when we would bring together the entire music industry was born from this notion. Especially since events like this existed elsewhere in Europe, but not yet in France. 48 hours before the Printemps de Bourges in 2009, Daniel Colling, director of the festival, and myself noticed the interest from the industry and decided to set up in Paris the following year for the first edition. 

Why did you decide to hold the event in several venues (eleven in 2021), all in the same neighbourhood, Pigalle? 

From the start, we imagined the festival in several venues, with the daytime exclusively dedicated to the convention and to French and international professionals, and the evening to concerts, which are also open to the general public. One of the reasons for MaMA's success is that everything takes place in a very small geographical area. This makes it very easy to move around and to see many artists in the same evening. Spectators don't buy a concert ticket, they buy a pass for the event and can go from venue to venue as they please. I'm convinced that the same event held across Paris would not have worked. People pass each other on the boulevard all night, introducing themselves to each other. Pigalle is also the music district, there are cabarets, theatres, musical instrument shops... It's symbolic! 

MaMA is both a festival with a programme of concerts and a convention with conferences, workshops... Why did you choose this dual identity? 

It was important for us that the artists play in front of an audience that is interested in them in a non-professional capacity. And it is always better for industry professionals to discover an artist in concert, to see the emotion they can create live. 

For the 2021 edition, you have programmed Crystal Murray, Babysolo33 and Sopico, artists who are still little known to the general public. Is new talent part of your DNA? 

At MaMA, with a few exceptions (Christophe, Archive, Caravan Palace, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Moriarty, Youssoupha...), we largely book up and coming artists who can benefit from MaMA's impact to move their careers forward. For example, artists such as Lilly Wood & the Prick (2011), Christine and the Queens (2012), Jeanne Added (2013), Jain (2015), Angèle (2017), Clara Luciani or Eddy de Pretto (2018) all performed at MaMA before going on to find fame. The festival allows them to get noticed by professionals and sign up with French or foreign festivals and record labels. It is a career accelerator. This year at MaMA, artists such as Crystal Murray. DeLaurentis, Franky Gogo and the electro duo Gargäntua signed up for a new stage in their careers. As for Lucie Antunes, she arrived with a very sharp show, mixing music and technological innovation. This year, we also welcomed November Ultra and Thérèse, two musicians who are in the news a lot at the moment... In total, nearly 150 artists performed at MaMA 2021. The artists who come to MaMA already have a tour manager, a label and an agent, they come for the next step, to export themselves, for example. We are a tool! We have also set up an operation called "Avant-Garde", in collaboration with the Institut français. Twelve artists from the French programme perform a mini-concert on the Trois Baudets stage in front of industry professionals from all over the world, representing labels, agencies, festivals, etc. It is an opportunity for these professionals to meet the artists' entourage and, if they wish, to see them play their "real concert" later on. 

How did you design the convention elements? 

We offer debates along several lines: recorded music, live music, innovation and media. We are a general interest event that mixes very specific debates with others that are more societal, where we take a step back to think about the future, with an international outlook. This year, inevitably, many of the debates took stock of the pandemic, but we also discussed, among other things, the place of streaming, the future of festivals, artificial intelligence and societal issues such as parity, mental health and ecology. Part of the convention is still intended for newcomers to the profession (artists and producers) with workshops on developing their business, seeking funding, or preparing an artist for export. In total, out of the 140 debates, we welcomed nearly 400 French and international speakers. It is interesting to know how things are done abroad, if we encounter the same problems and how we solve them. This international perspective is essential to MaMA. 

Every year MaMA offers a focus on a specific country. Is this part of your strategy to open up internationally? 

Every year we try to focus on a country that is little known, or at least less well known. In the past, we have had Colombia, Brazil, Japan and China. We invite a delegation from the country, we organise conferences to present the local market, and many artists from the country are programmed in the concert section. We have also worked on cultural seasons, as was the case in 2017 with Colombia, which is a very interesting country musically speaking, but which is not well known in Europe. Being part of a joint season allowed us to offer a look at this country by welcoming Colombian professionals with the Institut français and the Colombian Ministry of Culture. 

Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, the festival was cancelled. Did this post-Covid-19 edition have any particular ambitions? Were there any particular topics or themes you wanted to address? 

We wanted to talk about the future, not just about this past year and a half the music was silent. What is important for everyone is how we start again, how we get going again! Institutions, specialists, economists and even doctors took part in the festival to suggest answers to these questions.