Concert - Santa: Accor Arena 2026 – A spectacular triumph and a major turning point for the new pop icon

By Mulder, Paris, Accor Arena,, 02 april 2026

April 2, 2026, will go down as a pivotal date in the meteoric rise of Samanta Cotta, aka Santa, who took the stage at Paris’s Accor Arena for the very first time to close out a triumphant tour that drew more than 500,000 fans across France. In a packed and electrified venue, the singer delivered far more than just a concert: a true artistic statement of intent, a theatrical manifesto where every detail from the visual staging to the vocal intensity seemed to affirm that her place among the leading figures of the French music scene was no longer a promise but a reality. From the very first minutes, marked by the unifying echo of Mylène Farmer’s Désenchantée, the tone is set: Santa positions herself in an unapologetic lineage with the high priestesses of the total spectacle, while injecting her own identity rougher, more organic, almost visceral.

Her entrance, already widely discussed by the audience, sums up the show’s ambition all on its own: suspended in the air, upside down, in an almost Christ-like pose, Santa appears as a hybrid figure between artistic performance and pop icon, immediately embodying that tension between fragility and power that runs through her entire career. This penchant for the spectacular is no accident; it is a logical continuation of her career, particularly since her dizzying performance in Brussels in 2023, where she played a piano suspended 40 meters above the ground, or her memorable appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, where she performed Johnny Hallyday’s Vivre pour le meilleur in front of nearly 200 million viewers. At Bercy, this mastery of aerial spaces becomes a signature, almost a natural extension of her stage presence.

But to reduce this concert to her technical feats would be to miss the point: the almost visceral connection Santa shares with her audience. On several occasions, she breaks down the symbolic barrier between stage and pit, going so far as to sing amidst the spectators, embrace fans, or hand the microphone to a child visibly overwhelmed by emotion. These moments, far from being mere anecdotes, help build a narrative in which the artist does not tower over her audience but moves through it, shares it, and celebrates it. This closeness, already perceptible in her lyrics notably in Recommence-moi or La difference finds a physical, almost palpable expression here.

Musically, the concert serves as a synthesis of her career, from her beginnings with Hyphen Hyphen—the band she founded in 2009 with Romain Adamo, Laura Christin, and Zaccharie Schütte to her breakout as a solo artist with Popcorn salé, a diamond-certified single that became a generational anthem within a few months. The perfectly crafted set alternates between moments of intimacy and collective outbursts, with tracks like Dis-moi oui, Les larmes ne coulent pas, and Générique de fin, which take on an almost liturgical dimension within the Accor Arena. The mash-up of Michel Berger’s Le paradis blanc and Désenchantée serves as a declaration of artistic heritage, while her cover of Johnny Hallyday recalls her attachment to the French tradition of grandiose spectacle.

What is also striking is the overall aesthetic coherence of the show, conceived largely by Santa herself a testament to a level of artistic control rarely seen in an artist at this stage of her solo career. The absence of giant screens replaced by columns of LEDs and sophisticated lighting and pyrotechnic effects gives the concert an almost timeless quality, far removed from the ultra-digitized standards of many current productions. Paradoxically, this choice enhances the visual impact by refocusing attention on the performer, on her moving body, on her voice, which never falters despite the physical intensity of the show.

That voice, in fact, is one of the pillars of her artistic legitimacy: capable of navigating between fragility and power with disconcerting ease, Santa commands an immediately recognizable vocal signature, inherited both from her family background (an American singer mother and an architect father trained at the Beaux-Arts) and from her stage experience accumulated over more than fifteen years. This maturity undoubtedly explains why her debut album Recommence-moi, released in 2024, was such a massive success, going platinum in France and winning the Victoire award for Best Album in 2025, while also fitting into a broader trend of renewal in French chanson.

This Parisian date marks not an end but a strategic transition: the concert, recorded in its entirety, will be released in theaters on June 4, 2026, under the title Santa Le Concert au cinéma, in a 160-minute version. An initiative that confirms Santa’s ambition to go beyond the traditional framework of live performance to place her work within a broader immersive experience, halfway between cinema and musical performance. At a time when few French artists manage to combine popular success, artistic rigor, and a strong identity, this evening at the Accor Arena stands as a striking demonstration: Santa is no longer a revelation; she is now a benchmark, and above all, an artist destined to endure.

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Santa Accor Arena concert setlist:
01 - Intro - Vous avez Piraté mon coeur
02 - Chanter le monde
03 - Eva
04 - Les larmes ne coulent pas
05 - La différence
06 - Popcorn Salé
07 - Le paradis blanc / Désenchantée
08 - Qui a le droit
09 - Vivre pour le meilleur
10 - Je brûle
11 - Dis-moi oui
12 - Paradis
13 - Où va le temps qui s'en va
14 - Générique de fin
15 - Recommence-moi

Photos and video 4K : Boris Colletier / Mulderville