Diversidad

The Diversidad program is curated, directed and produced by a team of professionals who have been involved in the entertainment industry and namely the urban culture for many years. Their expertise and savoir-faire bring a real asset to the making of this ambitious project.

Jean-François Michel
The European Music Office’s Secretary General, a non-profit organization located in Brussels that represents the interests of the music sector on a European level. Its main objective is the conception and implementation of a European music policy. Jean-François Michel has been active in the music industry for many years. He namely founded The French Music Export Office in 1993. This organization was created at the initiative of the record industry, with the support of public authorities as well as other music trade organizations in France. Jean-François Michel is also the Director of the Association Diversités, a non-profit organization created in 2007, which gathers several creative industry organizations and aims at promoting cultural diversity. Diversités members’ main goal is to share their expertise and know-how in the field of cultural industries.

Laurence Touitou:
Working as an architect in New York in the 80’s, Laurence Touitou was just at the right place to witness the growth of the Hip Hop culture. Back in Paris, she quit her architecture job to produce the first ever Hip Hop show in France’s main TV channel. The show quickly became hugely popular among Hip Hop fans in France and definitely helped build the French urban scene that is today the second biggest market for Hip Hop after the United States.
She then went on creating the famous French record label DELABEL with Emmanuel de Buretel. She managed the label for 10 years and produced most of the main French Hip Hop artists (IAM, Tonton David, Alliance Etnik, Oxmo Puccino, the soundtrack for the French movie « La Haine », etc…) along with other mainstream artists such as Neneh Cherry, Placebo, Massive Attack, Keziah Jones, Arno, Rita Mitsouko, Mathieu Chedid, etc… Laurence Touitou has headed the conception and artistic direction of Diversidad.

Nicole Schluss
started working as a Press Attache in the music industry, shortly became Project Manager and later Director of the International Department of Polydor (now Universal) for 7 years.
She then joined DELABEL as Marketing and Promotion Director where she helped develop the career of some of the best-selling French artists such as Les Rita Mitsouko, Les Negresses Vertes and emblematic French rappers like IAM, Assassin, TonTon David, etc.
In 1999, she created the artistic agency DERRIERE LES PLANCHES (DLP) originally dedicated to artists management. DLP has now evolved to become a full music agency adding publishing and record production to its core activities working with up-and-coming artists as well as chart-topping ones.
DLP’s past and current artists include: -M-, Diam’s, Vanessa Paradis, Oxmo Puccino, Ariane Moffatt, Manu Larrouy, Benjamin Siksou. In 2009, the European Music Office solicited DLP to coordinate and co-organize the Diversidad cultural program.

Franck II Louise has been involved in the French Hip Hop scene since its beginning in the early 80’s
As a choreographer and composer, he has composed many scores for the cinema and dance shows such as “Drop It!” the choreography that made him famous after an international tour of more than 400 dates including shows at the Avignon festival and the Parisian theater “Palais de Chaillot”, URB Festival (Helsinki), Breaking Convention Festival (London), New York City Center (New York), les Eurockénnes de Belfort (France). Franck II Louise gets his inspiration from the 50’s and 70’s Sci-Fi, the cinema and comics. His dreamlike vision of the urban culture distinguishes his work from the other contemporary choreographers. The Diversidad show will definitely benefit from Franck II Louise innovative and professional direction and choreography. “The individual manages to free him/herself from the codes that the tribe sets up for him and he/she gains true self-confidence while successfully interacting with others.”

Angelo Gopée:
Senior Vice President of Live Nation France, Angelo Gopée has been involved in the urban culture as concert producer for the past 20 years. He is the ideal concert producer for the Diversidad show as his understanding of the street culture is deeply rooted in his professional background.