m83 tour opener

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Deutsch Português
• Popular artists
• On tour: no
• Upcoming 2024 concerts: none

1,371,320 fans get concert alerts for this artist.

Join Songkick to track M83 and get concert alerts when they play near you.

Find your next concert

Join 1,371,320 fans getting concert alerts for this artist

Similar artists with upcoming concerts

Tours most with, past concerts.

The Theater, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas

Shrine Auditorium

View all past concerts

Live reviews

On Wednesday September 2, 2012 one of the biggest bands in the world right now, French electronic masterminds M83, kicked off their North American tour for Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming in Miami Beach, Florida. The Jackie Gleason Theatre at The Fillmore was buzzing early. And the buzz would permeate the air for a while. A long while. Running almost two hours behind, it seemed as if staff kept coming out every five minutes to tell the house DJ that it would be only five more minutes. When the opening band, Philly’s Sun Airway, took the stage, cheers rose in anticipation of getting the show started. Instead, a deflating sleepiness took over. It’s sad to say, but Sun Airway was a boring version of the headliner and touring partners. Once they completed their set, again everyone waited, anxiously staring at their watches. Rumblings began that M83 was having technical difficulties and immediately memories of their nightmarish set at Ultra came to the forefront. Back in March, M83 was only able to perform two songs before having to shut it down due to the aforementioned technical problems. Then the moment came and all was forgiven and forgotten – the agonizing wait, the disappointing opener – all of it. Emerging from the shadows ablaze in flashy lights and music, M83 clearly had a plan. They lowered our defenses then sucker punched everyone with a fist made of happiness. Having just seen M83 at Lollapalooza last month, it is amazing how Anthony Gonzalez, Morgan Kibby, and Jordan Lawlor have the same energy every show. They go full throttle, as if they’re playing their very last show each time they step on stage. For example, in the middle of “Reunion” they jammed out, becoming instrument playing blurs, remixing the song on the fly (so it seemed, but probably not.) M83’s brand of atmospheric, melodramatic music was brought to life with a cinematic stage production. It surpassed any of the old outdoor Pink Floyd light shows so many of us marveled at in our youth. This is what getting stoned in a spaceship feels like. Every note, every beat, every transition into a different light configuration demanded our attention due to the gorgeous and enchanting quality of the entire affair. There was no half-assing it here. It is a truly sensual spectacle delivered with utmost sincerity by Gonzalez and his M83 brethren. They were as thankful to be playing for us as we were to marvel at them; a glorious first outing for what should be a breathtaking tour.

Report as inappropriate

Possibly one of the most memorable gigs I have been to. One of the great things about M83 is they have a diverse range of songs. There stage performance is amazing intense and awe inspiring. They feel like they really take you on a journey and their music is so anthemic that it enwraps you in a warm feeling of euphoria. Seeing them at Brixton was incredible, because of the size and uniqueness of the venue it definitely added to the experience, the light show that accompanied the music was incredible and really added to the spectacle of the whole event. I love the way some of their songs build and build to this crescendo of sounds and the music feels very progressive in its nature. You have to say they really are a unique band in their style, the lead singer has these incredible tones and the band is so tight in their performance. They have this slight shoegaze feel to them but their sound also feels more emotive and upbeat than the normal shoegaze genre. Bascially if you like electronic music and see them they come highly recommended by me.

The concert was AMAZING! M83 captured all emotions i had expected. From the slow and moody song, "Wait" to the electrifying tune of "Lazer Guns". It had me by the tears because i never would have thought I would've gotten the pleasure to see the group live. I am quite happy that the band played most hits from all of their latest albums, because (although I love M83) I am not as thrilled about a couple songs on the newest album, "Junk". All in all, I loved the mood of the crowd, what with the swaying, then the jumping, to the steady bobbing of heads with hands in the air. It was an experience I will never forget.

I took 35 pictures and videos just to make sure.

It was great! :) The venue was nice, not so big or small, it was mostly standing GA. Also the overall procedure of leading people to the entrance was time-perfect and safe. Kind of impressed by the well-scheduled system. The lights and sounds were fine, too. Also The video behind the band made it more perfect to enjoy M83's astro-like atmosphere.

And of course M83 was a real-super awesomeness! They were packed with new album Junk songs and some of their all-time favorites. Every member of M83 were seemed to be enjoy the moments with crowd, and communicated with pleasure and joy. I'd like to give big thanks for visiting Seoul and hope to see them again here!

Such an amazing gig. I literally laughed, cried, and danced in the 2 hour set. They played a lot of songs from Hurry Up and a few from Junk which was awesome. Songs like 'Go' got the whole crowd really dancing, and it was a great atmosphere. The lights were also incredible! Such a good light show for all the songs (props to them). 'Wait' made me cry in public - not even ashamed, that song has made me cry in private lots of times. The crowd interaction, dancing, and live performance of the songs really made this concert worthwhile. Definitely one of the best gigs I've ever been to.

Amazing music that touches your soul and is performed by amazing musicians that show they love performing it ! The audience really reacted with arms raised in unison with members of the band in keeping with the beat of many songs. We could tell all the new songs on their new album "JUNK"are loved by the audiences reactions! The light show is also an amazing spectacle with their timed moving multi-colored clouds interspersed with 20 watt colored lasers! What a FANTASTIC show M83 lays on its audience!!!

Great show! I love M83 and they did not disappoint. Great weather, cool venue, awesome music, and a great stage design to top it off. My friend who wasn't even really a fan of the band liked it as well. The support bands were not very exciting. Also the food at the Greek was not very good despite looking fancy and costing a fortune. But otherwise M83 is awesome and the Greek Theater is a cool place to see someone you like at least once.

M83 has always been a warming treasure to me. Thank god my now ex-girlfriend dragged me to that show. Their shows are hot, sweaty and danceriffic. You will dance, your head will bob, you will sway, you will jump, and you'll simply stand in awe. Their shows offer a tight set with a lot of fun packed into them. I always leave their shows wanting more, saddened that it's over. And to me, that's the sign of a damn good show.

M38 was a very good show. It was high energy and the band was very engaging. I went in both Omaha and minneapolis and both were truely wonderful. The lights were absolutely spectacular and of course the music was great. My favorite song was walkway blues sung by Jordan Lawlor. Jordan was so fun to watch the whole performance! The crowd energy was great the whole time. 10/10 would recommend

Music was great, lights were spectacular. It'd almost be worth going just for the light show -- the choreography on "Do It, Try It" was especially great. Very well coordinated, vocals sounded almost studio quality. Wish they had played songs from "Red Seas, Dead Cities & Lost Ghosts" but it probably wouldn't have fit the show's theme and feel. Tennyson also put on a nice show.

Photos (122)

Posters (114)

Find out more about M83 tour dates & tickets 2024-2025

Want to see M83 in concert? Find information on all of M83’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Unfortunately there are no concert dates for M83 scheduled in 2024.

Songkick is the first to know of new tour announcements and concert information, so if your favorite artists are not currently on tour, join Songkick to track M83 and get concert alerts when they play near you, like 1371320 other M83 fans.

Last concert:

Last concert near you:

Popularity ranking:

• Pixies (193)
• Depeche Mode (195)

Concerts played in 2024:

Touring history

Most played:

• Los Angeles (LA) (24)
• London (22)
• SF Bay Area (18)
• New York (NYC) (18)
• Chicago (14)

Appears most with:

• The Killers (29)
• Porcelain Raft (29)
• I Break Horses (25)
• Bloc Party (23)

Distance travelled:

Similar artists

• Most popular charts
• Campaigns for promoters
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

• Consequence

M83 Announces Fall 2023 Tour Dates

In support of Fantasy

M83 recently toured America in support of his recent album  Fantasy ,  but if you missed Anthony Gonzalez then, you’re in luck: the French artist is returning to the States for a West Coast tour this fall.

Gonzalez’s next trek begins October 3rd in Tacoma, Washington before taking the artist down the coast. The brief tour includes stops in Eugene, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; and Las Vegas, Nevada before M83 heads to Texas to perform at Weekend 2 of Austin City Limits on October 15th.

Pre-sale tickets to M83’s Fall 2023 tour go on sale Wednesday, May 24th at 10:00 a.m. local time. They become available to the general public the following day via Ticketmaster . Once tickets are on sale, you can find deals over at StubHub , where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

Check out M83’s full tour schedule, which also includes a summer run of UK/European dates and festival appearances, below.

Before dropping March’s  Fantasy,  M83 reissued the indie classic  Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming .  Revisit our 10-year anniversary retrospective on the album here .

M83 2023 Tour Dates: 06/08 — Vilnius, LT @ Lukiškių Kalėjimas 2.0 06/09-06/10 — Helsinki, FI @ Helsinki Ice Arena 06/13 — Istanbul, HR @ Maximum Uniq Açıkhava 06/15 – Dubai, UAE @ Dubai Opera House 06/16-06/18 – Mannheim, DE @ Maimarkt Gelände (Maifeld Derby) 06/17 – Neuchatel, CH @ Festi’neuch 06/19 – Segrate, IT @ Circolo Magnolia 06/22-06/25 – Prague, CZ @ Výstaviště (Metronome Festival Prague) 06/25 – Berlin, DE @ Huxley’s Neue Welt 06/27 – Paris, FR @ L’Olympia 06/28 – London, UK @ The Roundhouse 06/29 – London, UK @ The Roundhouse 07/02 – Lille, FR @ L’Aéronef 07/03 – Esch Sur Alzette, LU @ Rockhal – Club 07/05 – Mérignac, FR @ Krakatoa 07/06 – Bilbao, Spain @ Kobetamendi (Bilbao BBK Live) 07/07 – Hérouville St Clair, FR @ Château de Beauregard (Beauregard Festival) 07/09 – Strasbourg, FR @ Festival Décibulles 08/17 – Saint-Malo, FR @ La Route du Rock 08/25 – Zürich, CH @ Zürich OpenAir 08/31-09/02 – Lisbon, PT @ Parque da Bela Vista (Meo Kalorama) 09/03 – Toulouse, FR @ MEETT – Parc des Expositions et Centre de Conventions (The Rose Festival) 10/03 — Tacoma, WA @ Temple Theatre 10/04 — Eugene, OR @ Hult Center For The Performing Arts 10/07 — Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery 10/10 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall 10/11 — Del Mar, CA @ The Sound 10/12 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater At Virgin Hotels Las Vegas 10/15 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival

Personalized Stories

Around the web, latest stories.

David Gilmour Announces Special US Tour Dates [Updated]

May 16, 2024

Kevin Hart Expands 2024 Standup Tour with New Dates: How to Get Tickets

May 15, 2024

Remi Wolf Sets "The Big Ideas Tour" for Fall 2024

May 14, 2024

Godsmack Announce Fall 2024 US Tour

The New Pornographers and Neko Case Announce Tour Dates (But Separately)

Lorna Shore to Embark on Fall 2024 North American Tour with Whitechapel

The Blood Brothers Announce First Tour in 10 Years and Reissue of Crimes Album

Rise Against Announce Fall 2024 North American Tour

Find anything you save across the site in your account

M83 Announces Tour and New Album Fantasy , Shares “Oceans Niagara” Video: Watch

By Nina Corcoran

M83 has announced a new album and a tour: Fantasy is due out March 17 via Mute . To celebrate the news, bandleader Anthony Gonzalez has shared the lead single, “ Oceans Niagara ,” along with a music video directed by his brother, Yann Gonzalez. Check it out below.

“I wanted to create this sense of friendship,” Anthony Gonzalez said of the single. “Listening to that song, I imagine people running, driving fast, or riding spaceships together. It’s this sense of going forward, like a magic potion that you take to discover new worlds.”

Fantasy is M83’s ninth studio album, following the LP DSVII and the Knife + Heart soundtrack, both of which were released in 2019. The new album was intended to focus on the interplay of guitars and synths, which Gonzalez imagined as being “closer to the energy” of M83’s 2005 album, Before the Dawn Heals Us .

After Fantasy comes out, M83 will hit the road in support of the new album. The tour will bring the band across North America. It kicks off on April 10 in Phoenix, Arizona, and includes stops in major cities like Austin, Nashville, New York, Toronto, Chicago, and Seattle. On May 16, M83 will wrap up the North American leg in San Francisco. Find the full list of tour dates below.

Last year, M83 released a limited-edition reissue of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming to celebrate the album’s 10th anniversary. See where Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming landed on Pitchfork’s list of “ The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s .”

01 Water Deep 02 Oceans Niagara 03 Amnesia 04 Us and the Rest 05 Earth to Sea 06 Radar, Far, Gone 07 Deceiver 08 Fantasy 09 Laura 10 Sunny Boy 11 Kool Nuit [ft. Kaela] 12 Sunny Boy Part 2 13 Dismemberment Bureau

04-10 Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren 04-11 Albuquerque, NM - El Rey Theater 04-13 San Antonio, TX - The Aztec Theatre 04-14 Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater 04-15 Houston, TX - The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall 04-16 Dallas, TX - House of Blues 04-18 Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works 04-19 Atlanta, GA - The Eastern 04-21 Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall 04-22 Washington, D.C. - The Anthem 04-23 Boston, MA - Roadrunner 04-25 New York, NY - Terminal 5 04-28 Montreal, Quebec - M Telus 04-29 Toronto, Ontario - History 04-30 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre 05-02 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre 05-03 Saint Paul, MN - Palace Theatre 05-05 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom 05-06 Salt Lake City, UT - Ogden Amphitheater 05-08 Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 05-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore 05-10 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo 05-14 Pasa Robles, CA - Paso Robles Amphitheatre 05-16 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater

All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Matthew Strauss

By Jazz Monroe

M83 Announces Fall 2023 Tour Dates

[READ FULL BIO]

M83 Verified

Similar artists on tour.

Live Photos of M83

concerts and tour dates

Fan reviews.

Cookie banner

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy . Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use , which became effective December 20, 2019.

By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.

Follow The Ringer online:

• Follow The Ringer on Twitter
• Follow The Ringer on Instagram
• Follow The Ringer on Youtube

Site search

• Diss Track Rankings
• What to Watch
• Bill Simmons Podcast
• 24 Question Party People
• 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s
• Against All Odds
• Bachelor Party
• The Bakari Sellers Podcast
• Beyond the Arc
• The Big Picture
• Black Girl Songbook
• Book of Basketball 2.0
• Boom/Bust: HQ Trivia
• Counter Pressed
• The Dave Chang Show
• East Coast Bias
• Every Single Album: Taylor Swift
• Extra Point Taken
• Fairway Rollin’
• Fantasy Football Show
• The Fozcast
• The Full Go
• Gambling Show
• Gene and Roger
• Higher Learning
• The Hottest Take
• Jam Session
• Just Like Us
• Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air
• Last Song Standing
• The Local Angle
• Masked Man Show
• The Mismatch
• Mint Edition
• Morally Corrupt Bravo Show
• New York, New York
• Off the Pike
• One Shining Podcast
• Philly Special
• Plain English
• The Pod Has Spoken
• The Press Box
• The Prestige TV Podcast
• Recipe Club
• The Rewatchables
• Ringer Dish
• The Ringer-Verse
• The Ripple Effect
• The Rugby Pod
• The Ryen Russillo Podcast
• Sports Cards Nonsense
• Slow News Day
• Speidi’s 16th Minute
• Somebody’s Gotta Win
• Sports Card Nonsense
• This Blew Up
• Trial by Content
• Wednesday Worldwide
• What If? The Len Bias Story
• Wrighty’s House
• Wrestling Show
• Latest Episodes
• All Podcasts

Filed under:

• Pop Culture

The Past, Present, and Future of M83

After nearly seven years between proper albums, Anthony Gonzalez returns this week with ‘Fantasy,’ his immersive ninth album that hits his nostalgic sweet spot but doesn’t wallow in his history

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: The Past, Present, and Future of M83

Anthony Gonzalez admits he hasn’t seen a lot of new movies in the past year, but the M83 mastermind probably still thinks the Oscars got it all wrong this past Sunday. A few weeks before the release of his ninth album, Fantasy , he reveals The Fabelmans as his favorite movie of 2022 and quickly realizes it’s the most painfully on-brand thing he could say. “It’s all about nostalgia!” he says with a laugh, and “nostalgic” is right up there with “epic” and “cinematic” as the most commonly used adjectives to describe M83’s music. Yet he also sees something aspirational in Steven Spielberg’s recent work—for the master’s ability to find nuance and resonance in his origin story decades into his career, and for his habit of splitting the difference between “one for the studio and one for me,” retreating from the zeitgeist for populism with an art-house heart.

After finishing the vocals for his first proper pop album in seven years, Gonzalez tells me, “I felt like I gave so much energy and heart that I ended up crying a lot.” While this man has written a song called “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea,” M83 fans never think about Anthony Gonzalez himself crying an entire body of water. Similarly, for a project so often connected with outsized, hyperbolic emotions, the most surprising sound I’ve ever heard on an M83 song is a commonplace vocal affectation, popping up about 45 minutes into Fantasy .

On the albums he’s made over the past 22 years as M83, you might hear distorted synthesizers that sound like guitars or distorted guitars that sound like synthesizers. Beck could show up , but so might a toddler telling a story about magic frogs . There may be slap bass, sax riffs, and Ron Burgundy jazz flutes that imply a deep love for ’80s shlock, with an uncredited Steve Vai guitar solo to confirm it. But toward the end of new song “Kool Nuit”—a prog rock–Italo disco odyssey that can sound normal only within the context of M83—a man lets out an anguished scream, something we hadn’t even heard on songs titled “Car Chase Terror” or “Teen Angst.” A straightforward expression of pent-up anger is so out of character for M83 that Gonzalez, himself, isn’t even actually sure he did it. “Screaming was almost as sufficient as crying, to let it all out,” he says. “It feels like I’m alive.”

I love this little moment of trad rage for him, in part because it proves that M83 is still capable of surprise on an album that has largely—and accurately—been played up as a course correction after a solid decade of struggling with the pressure and obligations that come with achieving just about everything he’s ever set out to do. And knowing this eruption came directly from Gonzalez, it opens up a conversation about whether I can believe the PR boilerplate that Fantasy is “his most personal album yet.” “I feel like I say that on every album. I’m not sure that means anything really,” he jokes. And indeed, having to explain a PR boilerplate stands as one of the many reasons he prefers to recuse The Life of Anthony Gonzalez from M83’s music. 2016’s Junk was also quite personal, a result of his own fame-induced freak-out and the desire to freak out the squares who stumbled into the tent. “It was strange to enter a new world that I didn’t have access to before, and I don’t think I liked it that much,” he says.

To the degree that the lyrics of Fantasy invite deeper analysis—“Beyond adventure!” “I believe in the darkness!”—none are intended to provide a window into Gonzalez’s politics or his feelings about fame or whether he wants to have kids. (On that note, he flatly does not—when I ask about a Game Boy Advance marooned in his bathroom, he claims that “all the toys here are mine.”) But he’s correct in that every M83 project is personal. Not “personal” as we’ve come to expect from indie musicians at M83’s level in 2023, the result of a massive shift toward singer-songwriters and “feeling stuff” music where artists inspire frightening parasocial relationships based on personal disclosure, on and off the record. Rather, Gonzalez is “personal” like a movie director, expressing his artistic and philosophical sensibilities through an immediately identifiable house style: neons and pastels, soft-focus reverb, blinding synths, gated drums. Gonzalez admits that he spent most of the pandemic watching older movies and reiterates that Fantasy connects him to his teenage years, which creates an odd tension; when I talk to him, he’s 42 years old, meaning that his teenage years do not all coincide with the majority of his sonic palette. As we speak, he is wearing a T-shirt from the Matthew Broderick–Michelle Pfeiffer film Ladyhawke , which came out when he was 5.

This is the fifth time I’ve had the privilege to interview Gonzalez since 2011; I don’t say “privilege” because Gonzalez is an open book or a legendary raconteur. Quite the opposite: “I just want the world to forget about me,” he told NME earlier this year , a prime example of how his pull quotes are typically about how much he’d rather avoid press altogether. Our original plans to catch up were dashed when a historic snowfall hit Southern California; rather than conduct an interview over Zoom, he insisted we still meet in person. “To be on TV, to be filmed, even showing my face on a webcam talking to my family on Sundays is something I can’t do,” he admits.

When we first met a few weeks before the release of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming , Gonzalez had taken a number of massive, irreparable steps toward establishing M83 as a player in the mainstream. He had made the permanent move from his native France to Los Angeles and, in the wake of 2008’s Saturdays = Youth , opened for Kings of Leon and the Killers—despite owning none of their records. “I was in a little bubble with my friends and family. It was almost too easy after a while,” he said at the time . “Midnight City” had been out for a few months by that point and was already M83’s biggest hit. By the end of the year, it had made the late-night rounds and was named Pitchfork ’s no. 1 song of 2011. But it wasn’t “Midnight City” yet, a song that will be used in future period pieces to signify “early 2010s” the way “Fortunate Son” does for the Vietnam era. The Victoria’s Secret and Gucci commercials were yet to come, as was its usage in France’s UEFA Euro 2012 broadcasts, and its appearance in French erotic dramas, a Katy Perry docudrama, and 22 Jump Street. It’s very likely to reach a billion streams on Spotify by the end of this year.

“When I moved here 12 years ago, I made [ Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming ] and I didn’t expect anything from it,” Gonzalez says, though his ambitions feel like revisionist history, given how he once likened the album to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness . “All of a sudden, I was not an indie artist anymore.” Most of the co-headliners on this spring’s Just Like Heaven festival can relate: acts like MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Empire of the Sun, and Future Islands that happened upon a few massive hits during the late aughts and early 2010s, before the total conflation of “indie” and “pop” and the dominance of streaming.

Gonzalez’s first project after Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming was the least indie thing imaginable, scoring the soundtrack for Tom Cruise’s 2013 sci-fi brainteaser Oblivion. This was an overt attempt by director Joseph Kosinski to replicate a previously synergistic French connection, as he also helmed the 2010 Tron reboot that featured the first original music from Daft Punk in five years . Hollywood Reporter described Oblivion as “dramatically caught between its aspirations for poetic romanticism and the demands of heavy sci-fi action,” which is about as astute of an M83 assessment as I’ve ever read.

But when I caught up with Gonzalez right before its wide release, he could barely conceal his disillusion. “I started to work on this project with a lot of hope, saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to do something super special and original,’” he groused in 2013 . “But you can’t really, because there are so many people involved and so much money in the game that it’s hard to change things. Hollywood kind of sucks the life out of you very quickly.” Despite about $300 million in box office earnings, Oblivion was considered a flop. At a time when similarly revered electronic artists like Dan Deacon and Oneohtrix Point Never are frequently called upon to score major motion pictures, Gonzalez is content to work exclusively with his filmmaker brother Yann. “I have a film agent that didn’t call me in 12 years,” he flatly states.

Gonzalez has copped to being “scared” of “Midnight City” due to both its popularity and how it would be used as a comparative point for anything he could do next. “I’m already stressed about the reviews of my next album, and it’s not even done yet”— this was two years prior to Junk . Every M83 album to that point was a moon launch; what happens when you finally get there? It’s a question that just about every artist who makes a game-changing double album has to face. Sign O’ the Times begat Lovesexy , a small and strange record that somehow failed to break the top 10. Roger Waters plumbed the depths of his psychosexual neuroses with The Wall and followed it with The Final Cut , an impenetrable concept record about post-war Europe. Right this moment, Billy Corgan is likely still grumbling about how the reception of Adore effectively ended his imperial phase.

“After the success of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming , I could’ve stopped everything—how am I gonna beat that, it’s impossible,” Gonzalez says, and it took about five years for him to offer an answer. I don’t see M83 as a one-hit wonder and I don’t think he does either, despite making a joke or two about his reception as a festival headliner: “People are expecting the hits ... one, in my case.” It’s just that his subsequent hits took a far more circuitous path. “Wait” was the fifth and final single from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming , arriving nearly a year and half after “Midnight City.” It didn’t really catch on until two years later, when director Josh Boone demanded its inclusion in the film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars . A year after that, “Wait” was used to great effect in a 2015 Bose commercial that starred a teenager about to experience her first kiss ... until her father interrupts and turns on “Skidamarink” instead. “Outro,” the third M83 track to clock streaming numbers in the hundred millions, inspired so many sync licenses that a Huffington Post article demanded, “Dear Hollywood: Please Never Use This Song Again.” That was nearly nine years ago.

This is the sort of fame that Gonzalez could live with—to be both ubiquitous and totally anonymous at the same time. The success of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming didn’t jeopardize Gonzalez’s privacy. It’s likely that most M83 fans still don’t know what he looks like, as he never appears in his own videos. Living in Los Angeles, Gonzalez says, “If you’re not a model or musician, you don’t exist.” But the opposite is somehow also true—it’s a lot easier for these people to blend in while in Los Angeles, a sort of “industry town” where most residents know not to bother you.

But “Midnight City” was a hit , a meme, the first thing Gonzalez made that escaped his quality control. As an electronic band that played danceable music, M83 was destined to be lumped into the thriving EDM festival economy. And in 2012 they were booked as a top-line act at Ultra Music Festival in Miami—“the world’s premier electronic music festival”—alongside Skrillex, David Guetta, Tiësto, Justice, and Fatboy Slim. After about a half hour of technical difficulties—remember, they’re largely a band amongst DJs—M83 played “Midnight City” and an abridged version of “Couleurs,” that was it. The Miami New Times ran two separate articles on this disaster (“M83 at Ultra Music Festival 2012: Technical Issues Ruin Live Performance,” “M83 on Ruined Ultra Performance: ‘Our Deepest Apologies’”) and a third when the band returned several months later. Worse yet, “Midnight City” soon became a staple of EDM DJ sets, its indelible opening riff just another drop in a Serato bank. “It makes me cringe. I hope these people are not gonna come and see my show,” Gonzalez sniffs. “It’s that way with society, there’s a lot of people I see online following me that I absolutely don’t want to have anything to do with.”

Now, there isn’t a trace of punk rock in M83’s music. Still, Gonzalez describes 2016’s Junk as the outcry of a “cocky little rebel” within. The cover art was not compared to McDonald’s Fry Guys, nor a Michael Mann or John Hughes still. Whereas past albums were likened to Tangerine Dream meets Mineral or Smashing Pumpkins via Brian Eno, Junk touted Punky Brewster and Who’s the Boss? as primary influences. The importance of M83’s presumptive sincerity is best exemplified by 2008’s “Graveyard Girl.” Here’s a sample lyric—“She worships Satan like a father / But dreams of a sister like Molly Ringwald.” During the bridge, said Graveyard Girl takes the mic and whispers, “I’m 15 years old, and I feel it’s already too late to live. Don’t you?” To be clear, this song rules and would obviously be fucking ridiculous if Gonzalez hadn’t spent the past seven years committing to the bit. But whereas M83 was always serious —even at their sweetest— Junk dared to be silly, which caused the entire foundation to collapse in the eyes of critics. It’s a little difficult to tell whether Gonzalez is disappointed with the reception of Junk or his own performance, but it also ensured that M83 wasn’t going to get any bigger than it already was, which was sort of the whole point.

Though Junk could have been seen as a preemptive strike against his own backlash, the title was also Gonzalez’s first attempt at social critique—alluding to the disposability of art and, when he reflects upon it today, artists themselves. Gonzalez was relieved at the positive reception of “Oceans Niagara” in January, especially as he spent the night before its release in terrible gastric distress after stress-eating a giant hamburger. “What shocked me was all these comments like, ‘Oh, M83 is finally back!’” he says. “If you don’t release an album every year or play a festival every summer, you don’t exist anymore.”

M83 didn’t stop making new music after Junk , at least if you count the ambient collection Digital Shades Vol. 2 or Knife + Heart , a low-stakes soundtrack for Yann’s ’70s Paris period piece. Yet if Gonzalez himself longed to be forgotten, the influence of M83 still loomed large in his absence. For the rest of the 2010s, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming set the course for synth-pop, and therefore, pop music at large—it’s easy to hear the influence of “Midnight City” in the 1975’s more arena-ready moments, or Taylor Swift’s 1989 , or even the last War on Drugs album; but his earlier, more abrasive work is likewise notable in the cutting-edge electronic pop of Porter Robinson and Jane Remover. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming also created a cottage industry for its coproducer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who was tapped to steward synthy sonic pivots for Paramore, Tegan and Sara, Jimmy Eat World, and even blackgaze titans Deafheaven .

Gonzalez demurs when I ask whether he’s noticed the long-tail influence of M83 on 2020s pop culture—“I’m extremely shy and don’t hang out with other musicians, so I don’t get this sense of my music influencing others.” But if there’s a component of “borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered ’80s” to M83’s music, his most popular work imagines a universe similar to the one in which we now live. Junk predates the entire Stranger Things franchise, and also Wednesday , which is essentially a longform version of “Graveyard Girl.”

Understandably, in a time of unabashed ’80s boosterism and reboots, content creators have gone directly to the source. Gonzalez says he received a few Netflix offers that were “absolutely insulting,” and spent the last year working on a video game that will never see the light of day. Perhaps in the past, these experiences would’ve pushed Gonzalez even further away from his signature sound. “But there’s always something [in these projects] that tells you, ‘Why did you get into this?’” he explains. “You should be writing a new album or being on the road with your own project, because I know that I’m in control of things and I feel maybe more sane working on a new M83 album.”

In a roundabout way, Fantasy truly does speak on where Gonzalez sees himself as a 40-something artist; he speaks of a “new chapter” and even a “new career” beginning with Fantasy , intertwined with a quite literal desire to return to his roots. Though he’s very deep into the process of rehearsing for M83’s upcoming tour, he spent the previous eight months back in France swimming, hanging with old friends, and playing guitar without any pressure to create new music. He hasn’t put a timetable on anything, but Gonzalez suggests his sights are set on living back in Antibes, having exhausted everything Los Angeles had to offer his more achievement-oriented former self. “In France, it’s a way more simple way of living—less about looks, more about your spirit,” he explains. “And my parents are getting older and I want to spend more time with them. Musically, L.A. doesn’t bring me anything I need anymore.”

Yet, for all the times Gonzalez has described M83’s music as a tribute to his adolescence, one in which he played in both blues and Sonic Youth–inspired indie rock bands, he’s never been asked ... would teenaged Anthony Gonzalez actually like Fantasy ? “If I was 16 or 17, I’d probably like to listen in my car and run fast,” which immediately brings to mind the second-most surprising thing I’ve heard on an M83 album. Toward the end of “Earth to Sea,” an immediate laser-lit highlight, I hear not the voice of Kim or Jessie or Graveyard Girl or any of the stand-ins for Anthony Gonzalez’s teen dreams. As with “Kool Nuit,” I hear the reckless, joyous youth he speaks of so fondly and to which he’s dedicated this entire project—“the deeper end ... I FUCKING LOVE IT!” “I still want to grab that feeling and not let it go because truly I don’t—” he responds, “I don’t feel like I’m 42.”

Ian Cohen is a writer and registered dietitian living in San Diego. His work has appeared in Pitchfork , Spin , Stereogum , and Grantland .

Next Up In Music

• Welcome to Paradise: The Oral History of Green Day’s ‘Dookie’
• Alice in Chains With Rob Harvilla
• An Eras Tour Update
• “Strange Ways”/“Fancy Clown” by Madvillain
• Remembering Steve Albini, Plus Our Favorite Albini Albums With Rob Harvilla
• Hypocrisy in Hip-Hop, the End of a Grifter, and Ceasefire Talks

Sign up for the The Ringer Newsletter

Thanks for signing up.

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

Breaking Down the Eagles’ 2024 Schedule

Sheil and Deniz Selman go over the schedule’s strengths and weaknesses, predict the season record game by game, and more

The 2024 NFL Schedule Release Draft

Austin Gayle, Sheil Kapadia, and Steven Ruiz discuss the best matchups and draft which holiday, prime-time, regular-season, international, and stream-only games will be the most enticing for the viewers to watch

Chris Ryan on Kawhi Leonard’s Game-Winning Shot

Go back in time with Chris Ryan as he shares his story about where he was when the Sixers were eliminated in 2019

Chelsea Go Top Ahead of WSL Final Day Showdown

Flo Lloyd-Hughes is joined by Jessy Parker Humphreys and Becky Taylor-Gill to discuss Chelsea’s midweek win over Tottenham and Saturday’s final day in the WSL

Celtics to ECF, Tyson Fury on Fury-Usyk, NFL Schedule Release, and Which Team Forces a Game 7?

The East Coast Bias boys recap the 2024 NBA playoffs and the NFL schedule release

Penultimate Premier League Games and Juventus’s Coppa Italia

Musa and Ryan run through Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Newcastle United Chelsea’s victory over Brighton to climb into sixth, Manchester City’s win at Spurs and much more

M83 Tour 2024 - 2025

• Upcoming Concerts
• Past Concerts

M83 are a French electronic music band from Antibes, formed in 2001 by Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau.

Discography

Hurry up, we’re dreaming.

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is the sixth studio album by French electronic band M83. The double album was released on 18 October 2011 by Naïve Records in France and Mute... Read More

Saturdays = Youth

Saturdays = Youth is the fifth studio album by French electronic band M83, first released on 11 April 2008. The album was produced by Ken Thomas, known for his work... Read More

Latest Setlist

M83 on october 15, 2023.

Fantasy Tour 2023

Zilker Park, Austin, Texas

Popular Tracks

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:

M83 Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

Fantasy tour 2023 tour, m83 at austin city limits 2023.

• Oceans Niagara
• We Own the Sky
• Run into Flowers
• Don't Save Us From the Flames
• Edit setlist songs
• Edit venue & date
• Edit set times
• Add to festival
• Report setlist

M83 at The Theater at Virgin Hotels, Las Vegas, NV, USA

M83 at the sound, del mar, ca, usa.

• Earth to Sea

M83 at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA

M83 at the mountain winery, saratoga, ca, usa, m83 at hard rock live, wheatland, ca, usa, m83 at silva concert hall, eugene, or, usa, m83 at temple theatre, tacoma, wa, usa, m83 at kexp studios, seattle, wa, usa, m83 at rose festival 2023.

• Midnight City

More from this Artist

• Artist Statistics
• Add setlist

Most played songs

• We Own the Sky ( 287 )
• Midnight City ( 286 )
• Couleurs ( 250 )
• Reunion ( 220 )
• Intro ( 218 )

More M83 statistics

Alesso Alison Wonderland Anamanaguchi Axwell DJ Coco Diplo Dry the River Sam Feldt Guernica Club DJ Hein Henrik B Floor Jansen Jimkata The Knocks Kungs Kygo LSDREAM Madeon Lisa Mitchell Henri PFR Eric Prydz Porter Robinson Saint Saviour Martin Solveig Tommy Trash Tritonal Zeds Dead

View covered by statistics

Artists covered

View artists covered statistics

Gigs seen live by

4,041 people have seen M83 live.

izzyschmidt BingoB Celluloid_Droid jek311 bennealwilliams IMLoVer77 sccccvxm rileyp00p pappyd jennasalwen treyelmore davidk445 mike_uchi ryanpaschal bmackimmie Charmander99 wadeb jzhunter joeco0l manewitz neilknutson matulaj Kioluy filwdork DooleyDaniel carlosbecerril DaVader333 ReclaimerRob rconner Snarehanger madyyrenee okjustin joelman GO-INDEEP DWall45 logankausch eigtba MinusTheSnake neverclever MarkEOrtega eblue98 stmason ellabluepaskel Kampy init_bear Lukefine7299 cfwarren3 BillyFever LukeHarnen mendezzoso

Showing only 50 most recent

M83 on the web

Music links.

• M83 Lyrics (de)
• Official Homepage

Tour Update

Marquee memories: brainstory.

• May 14, 2024
• May 13, 2024
• May 12, 2024
• May 11, 2024
• May 10, 2024
• May 9, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com

• Skip to content
• Accessibility
• Buy Tickets

Jeremiah Chiu

• Date May 2 , 2023
• Event Starts 7:30 PM
• Doors Open 6:30 PM
• On Sale On Sale Now
• Ages 18 & Over

New album ‘Fantasy’ out now

M83 announces the details of his new full-length album, FANTASY .   In addition to this news, M83 has shared the sweeping, transformative first cut “Oceans Niagara” . Accompanying the track is a video directed by his long-time creative collaborator, filmmaker ( Knife + Heart , You And The Night ) and brother Yann Gonzalez.

“BEYOND ADVENTURE”, Gonzalez sings into a trademark M83 swirl of synths & guitars. These are the only two words in the entirety of “Oceans Niagara”, a proclamation with an ellipsis, and the most apt tone-setting for the evocative, sense-amplifying journey that is Fantasy. 

For Gonzalez, Fantasy ‘s direction and aesthetic was immediately clear. “I wanted this record to be very impactful live,” he says. “The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of Before The Dawn Heals Us. The combination of guitars and synths is always in my music, but it’s maybe more present on this new record than on the previous ones.”

Reserved in nature, Gonzalez also sought to continue a trend that has become more prominent in his recent albums. “I wanted to be more present lyrically and vocally even if that was daunting at first,” he states . “I thought if I could achieve that, this album will be more personal than those that came before.”

Fantasy, M83’s 9th studio album , proves a towering sensory delight and marks his most personal album to date, an alternate world that Gonzalez has created as an escape from the disconnected world we live in today. 

2LP Pink Marble Vinyl edition (140g) exclusive to m83store

2LP Black Vinyl edition (140g vinyl)

Jewel-case CD Edition

Stream ‘Oceans Niagara’

• Apple Music

M83 has also announced news of an extensive summer tour. Full dates are listed below.

where to today?

Myrtle beach, new orleans, explore all, additional benefits of becoming a vip member, foundation room vip club membership, additional benefits of vip membership.

One touch personal Concierge service

Advance concert notification for House of Blues and Live Nation tickets

Premium reserved VIP seat locations

Priority entrance and pass the line to Foundation Room and Music Hall

Reserved members area during post-concert events

Artist meet-and-greets (based on availability)

Member only events - including backstage tours

Access to Foundation Room and Live Nation VIP clubs nationwide

Live VIP beyond our House with our affiliated partners

Membership dues include a contribution to Music Forward Foundation

©2019 Foundation Room House of Blues

Your ultimate key to the House For total entertainment & nightlife

Submit the online request above to contact VIP services. Our team will fill you in on the best options to make your concert an unforgettable experience.

GET ON THE LIST

21+, access is not guaranteed, entry is based on availability and capacity. Dress code is enforced. Management reserves the right to admission.

Elevate to the best

Submit the online request above to contact VIP services. Our team will fill you in on the best options to make your concert an unforgettable experience. VIP reservations are not inclusive of concert tickets. A ticket is required to gain entry to our shows.

• Event Calendar
• Restaurant & Bar
• Private Events
• Foundation Room
• Gospel Brunch
• Merchandise

Featured Acts

{{ featured.artistname }}.

You May Also Like

{{ item.title }}.

NFL Schedule 2024: How to buy tickets for every Eagles game | Brazil game vs. Packers; home opener vs. Falcons, more

• Updated: May. 15, 2024, 8:44 p.m. |
• Published: May. 15, 2024, 8:04 p.m.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts talks to reporters following an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. The Buccaneers won 32-9. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) AP

• Cayden Steele | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The Philadelphia Eagles will open the NFL’s 2024-25 regular season against the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, Sept. 6., 2024 (9/6/24). The roster is loaded with stars, including quarterback Jalen Hurts , wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and running back Saquon Barkley .

BUY EAGLES TICKETS: STUBHUB , VIVID SEATS , TICKETMASTER

Fans who want to watch Eagles stars at Lincoln Financial Field or on the road, can purchase tickets from STUBHUB , VIVID SEATS , TICKETMASTER .

The NFL released its 2024 regular-season schedule on Wednesday, including the Eagles’ 17-game slate.

Eagles’ 2024 home opponents: New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars

Eagles’ 2024 road opponents: New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, Baltimore Ravens, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Rams

Here’s the Eagles’ 2024 schedule:

Sept. 6- vs. Green Bay Packers, 8:15 p.m., in São Paulo on Peacock/NBC10

Sept. 16 - vs. Falcons, 8:15 p.m., ESPN (MNF)

Sept. 22- New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 29 - at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 13 - vs. Browns, 1 p.m.

Oct. 20- at Giants, 1 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 27 - at Cincinnati Bengals, 4:25 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 3 - vs. Jacksonville Jaguars at 8:20 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 10 - vs. Dallas Cowboys at 4:25 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 14- vs. Washington Commanders at 8:20 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 24 - at Los Angeles Rams, 8:20 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 1 - at Baltimore Ravens, 4:25 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 8 - vs. Carolina Panthers at 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 15- vs. Steelers at 4:25 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 22 - at Washington Commanders, 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 29 - vs. Dallas Cowboys at 4:25 p.m.

TBD- Giants

Here are the Eagles (11-7) results from 2023:

Sun. Sept. 10 at New England, W 25-20

Thu. Sept. 14 vs. Minnesota, W 34-28

Mon. Sept. 25 at Tampa Bay, W 25-11

Sun. Oct. 1 vs. Washington, W 34-31 OT

Sun. Oct. 8 vs. LA Rams, W 23-14

Sun. Oct. 15 at New York Jets, L 20-14

Sun. Oct. 22 vs. Miami, W 31-17

Sun. Oct. 29, 2023 at Washington, W 38-31

Sun. Nov. 5 vs. Dallas, W 28-23

Mon. Nov. 20 at Kansas City, W 21-17

Sun. Nov. 26, 2023 vs. Buffalo, W 37-34 OT

Sun. Dec. 3, 2023 vs. San Francisco, L 42-19

Sun. Dec, 10, 2023 at Dallas, L 33-13

Mon. Dec. 18, 2023 at Seattle, L 20-17

Mon. Dec. 25, 2023 vs. Giants, W 33-25

Sun. Dec. 31, 2023 vs. Arizona, L 35-31

Sun, Jan. 7, 2024 at Giants, L 27-10

Mon. Jan. 15 at Tampa Bay, L 32-9

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

• Share full article

The Great Read Paris Dispatch

Dancing Past the Venus de Milo

The Louvre is joining in the celebration for the Olympics by opening up for dance and exercise classes early in the morning. Tickets sold out in a flash.

Exercising in the Louvre before the crowds arrive this month. Credit...

Supported by

By Catherine Porter

Photographs and Video by Dmitry Kostyukov

Reporting from Paris and dancing through the Louvre

• May 16, 2024

I fell in love with the Louvre one morning while doing disco moves to Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” in the Salle des Cariatides .

The museum, a former medieval fortress and then royal palace, had not yet opened, and I was following instructions to catwalk and hip bump and point in the grand room where Louis XIV once held plays and balls.

The sun cast warm light through long windows, striping the pink-and-white checkered floor and bathing the marble arms, heads and wings of the ancient Grecian statues around me.

“Point, and point, and point,” shouted Salim Bagayoko, a dance instructor. So I struck my best John Travolta poses and pointed around the room, my eyes landing on the delicate sandaled foot of Artemus, the wings of a Niobid and the stone penis of Apollo.

The woman beside me caught my eye. We giggled.

Over the years, I have felt many things in the world’s most-visited, and arguably most-famous, museum — irritation, exhaustion and some wonder, too.

This time, I felt joy.

With the Summer Olympics coming to Paris in a few months, museums and galleries across the country have been competing to put on Olympics-themed shows. One of the Louvre’s offerings is an hourlong dance-and-exercise circuit through the building, which museum officials call “Courez au Louvre” — meaning both run to and run in the Louvre.

The museum seemed a natural training gym, explained its performing arts director, Luc Bouniol-Laffont. It is so big that the staff wear running shoes to cover its 400 rooms, which, when stretched together, extend more than nine miles. And exercise would offer a different connection to some of the 33,000 works.

“It’s not the spirit looking,” he explained. “It’s the body.”

He offered Mehdi Kerkouche , a local choreographer, a tour with curators and gave him carte blanche to design the sessions — with one small request.

“Forget the Mona Lisa, for once,” Mr. Bouniol-Laffont said. “There are so many other things to see.”

The classes, priced at 38 euros, about $41, for adults, sold out within an hour of going live online. They last through the end of this month.

The biggest draw is the timing. The dancing begins an hour before the museum opens. Each morning, some 60 lucky people — divided into two groups of 30 — get to experience a private viewing normally enjoyed only by the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z .

No giant lines, no pressing crowds, no selfie-sticks: We had the Louvre to ourselves.

Here’s a secret: While the French are passionate gallery-goers, they aren’t huge into the Louvre. Some nine million people crowd its halls each year, but the vast majority aren’t French. The place is just too big and crowded. The experience of viewing the Mona Lisa is similar to squeezing into the subway at rush hour ; some 30,000 people press before it each day. Why suffer through that when there are more than 100 less-packed museums, full of marvelous things, scattered around the city?

Even Mr. Kerkouche admitted he hadn’t been inside the building since he was a child. “All the Parisians are the same,” he said. “I bike every day in front of it to go from one place to another in the city. But I just don’t look at it anymore.”

Arriving at the Louvre alone, before the crowds, gave me the space to really look at it. And boy, is it breathtaking.

In the center of the outer courtyard, I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid glowed purple-blue in the morning light. I stepped inside it and floated down the escalator into the museum’s modern foyer, the reflection of the building’s ornate stone facades, with its columns and statues, scattered around me.

I felt like a character in a Disney cartoon. It was magical.

Mr. Kerkouche’s idea was to have a four-part session, in four different rooms, tucked close to one another in two of the Louvre’s three wings. Otherwise, he said, the hour would be eaten up by commuting.

He asked four collaborators — three dancers and his gym coach — to help design a 15-minute class for each space. Each one was inspired, energetically, by the room.

Disco in the Salle des Cariatides, which once had held royal balls, was obvious — to him, disco was the modern version of ballroom dancing. “We have to give back the first purpose of this room,” he said.

From there, my group stepped into the next room for some quick stretching beside the Venus de Milo and then ran down to the basement to the oldest part of the building. There, we did warrior training — lunges, squats and jumping jacks to the beats of the AC/DC song “Highway to Hell.”

The activity befit the Louvre’s origins as a fortress built around 1200 to protect the medieval city from the Normans while King Philippe Auguste was on a crusade. Over the centuries, it was converted into a royal palace and greatly expanded. In 1984, while doing a huge renovation of the building, archaeologists unearthed the base of the original rough limestone walls.

We did running races up and down the steps toward the Great Sphynx of Tanis , which guards the entrance to the Egyptian antiquities collection. I imagined its pouting lips smiling just slightly, and its huge stone tail flicking in mild feline amusement.

We whooped and hollered as we ran up the stairwell to the next class, the echoes washing over my body. The instructors played hide-and-seek during their first walk-through together, I was told. They maintained that sense of playfulness.

It was all so otherworldly and silly. I felt the sense of exhilaration and freedom I remember from summer camp when I was a kid.

We were instructed to dance into our next class, through a tunnel made of the massive bodies of two stone bulls with eagle wings and the heads of bearded men. Inside, we were greeted by a reconstructed 2,700-year-old courtyard of Khorsabad, a palace of King Sargon II, leader of the Assyrian empire. Abandoned soon after his death, the palace was unearthed in 1843 in modern-day Iraq by the French vice consul to Mosul. Parts were sent to the Louvre soon after for display.

The giant statues inspired Mr. Kerkouche to offer a class in dancehall, the Jamaican urban dance in which moves are rooted, powerful and sensual.

“We are living statues,” said Queensy Blazin’, the dance instructor who led us through rounds of twerking, stomping while scooping our arms and bouncing forward into squats while barking “ha” to the deep beats of Sean Paul’s “Get Busy.”

The joy was infectious and irresistible.

Even the security guard was dancing at her post. She had never seen anything like it in her 34 years working here, she confided.

Beauty shouldn’t just be stared at, I realized. It should be enjoyed and celebrated.

Our last stop was in the part of the Louvre that was once a parking lot for the Ministry of Finance, which, for more than a century, had its offices in one wing of the building. As part of the 1984 renovation, the museum directors converted the space into a peaceful courtyard with potted trees, benches and Carrara marble statues from the royal gardens of the Marly palace. That was a former getaway spot for Louis XIV, where he’d come to relax in the stunning gardens, resplendent with waterfalls, groves and pools.

And so there we did yoga. The teacher led us through downward dogs and pigeon poses before giant statues of rearing horses and hunters — a homage to the king’s favorite pastimes.

I noticed sea gulls wheeling above the giant glass roof.

“Normally, yoga is very introspective,” Laure Dary, the instructor, explained to me later. “But this is a setting like no other. I have to tell them to open their eyes.”

She directed us to focus on one statue, and take it as a mental memento. I gazed into the stone eye of a marble boar being speared by a hunter in a tunic.

At the end, my fellow rosy-cheeked participants crowded around the teachers to thank them profusely. We were all high on endorphins.

“This was a life highlight,” beamed Benny Nemer, 50, a Canadian artist who has lived in Paris for four years.

My only criticism: 15 minutes was not enough time in each room. I need to go back and examine them all intimately, plus see some other ones I glimpsed while running by. Which was exactly the point, according to Mr. Bouniol-Laffont of the Louvre — to lure Parisians back into the building, and remind them of the place’s majesty.

Because once you fall in love with a place, you don’t want to be parted from it.

Catherine Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is based in Paris. More about Catherine Porter

2024 Paris Summer Olympics

The summer olympic games in paris are expected to draw millions of spectators..

Olympic Flame Arrives in Marseille: The flame will be carried on a 79-day journey across France  and its territories, culminating in Paris with the start of the Olympic Games on July 26.

World Anti-Doping Agency: Ahead of the Olympics, the global agency tasked with policing doping in sports is facing a growing crisis  as it fends off allegations it helped cover up the positive tests of elite Chinese swimmers .

Friends Competing for Spots: Conner Mantz and Clayton Young had run side by side for more than 10,000 miles. Both vied for a place in the marathon at the Paris Games . Who would make it?

Fencing Rattled by Suspensions: Concerns about refereeing integrity and preferential treatment  for top saber competitors have cast a shadow over a sport decided by the finest of margins.

Did France Build the Olympics Safely: Undocumented workers played a larger and more dangerous role  in delivering the Games than the Macron administration acknowledges.

Advertisement