French TikToker, Bach Buquen, is a paragon of postmodernism. I mean, what other teenage influencer clogs your social media feed with brain rot posts but also bags an interview with Interview itself, a publication founded by Andy Warhol?
There’s no question that the 19-year-old wunderkind is on the ascent to superstardom. He has the looks, the charm and that irresistable French laissez-faire disposition to become an era-defining heartthrob – Gen Z’s very own Alain Delon.
The global social media phenomenon, who was virtually unknown just a few months ago, has now amassed a 10-million-strong following. Buquen achieved this Herculean feat by going viral globally on the back of clips which see him flaunting his lean physique and dancing ad nauseam to cheesy, bygone hits like Modern Talking’s Brother Louie, Boney M’s Daddy Cool and Sabrina Salerno’s Boys (Summertime Love).
Bach Buquen for GQ France
By ad nauseam, I mean Buquen doesn’t just post one video of one dance, he shrewdly posts a shit ton of videos of the exact same dance over and over again, sometimes on the same day. He does this knowing full well that social media users will either be completely enthralled by the vacuity or actively hate block every fan account reposting it – and there’s a lot of those.
As an aging millennial, I inevitably belong to the latter camp. But the more I try and overlook my rigid generational dogmas, the more I start to admire Buquen’s moxie; his blonde ambition to bulldoze his way to fame.
TikTok, which is all about how loud and obnoxious you can be in a single second, is Gen Z’s television. And there is no one who embodies the Gen Z cultural zeigeist as potently as Bach Buquen. His accounts aren’t just full of dance videos, there are also clips of him showing off his basketball skills, and, in stark contrast, clips of him applying makeup. Like many in his generation, Buquen is a proponent of “genderfuck” i.e. the subversion of binary gender lines (think of the images of Harry Styles wearing dresses and high heels).
Still, as much as I know Buquen is relishing his newfound TikTok fame, I can’t help but wonder if he considers it a necessary evil, a pitstop to later attain a more credible career. His American predecessor, Addison Rae, also started out posting asinine dances on TikTok prior to transitioning into a legitimate artiste. When she’s not starring in critically acclaimed films like Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, she’s releasing intoxicating alt-pop songs that have confounded Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and every other serious publication.
Buquen is on a similar trajectory. Last month alone, he was featured in Interview, French GQ AND French Vanity Fair. He’s also been hobnobbing lately with Simon Porte Jacquemus and 90s cultural icon, Kate Moss, among other titans of the beauty industry.
In an interview with Quotidien, a popular French morning show, Buquen said he is currently in film school. He clearly has his sights set on the silver screen. So it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine someone like Nouvelle Vague filmmaker François Ozon ringing up Buquen soon and casting him in his next big festival film. Ozon, who has a hawk eye for fresh talent, helped launch an assemblage of France’s most celebrated thespians (Ludivine Sagnier, Jérémie Reiner and, more recently, Félix Lefebvre).
A film with Bach Buquen in the lead, no matter how bad or good it is, is bound to be huge. He’s already reached teen idol status, a film career will only augment the size of the horde of hormonal teenage fangirls and fangays who savagely back his every move.
With the allure of Delon and the relatability of Depardieu, there really is no stopping Buquen from world domination. The little shit is destined to be France’s first international sex symbol in decades.
Maybe it’s divine providence that Delon passed away the same year Buquen’s star is born. There can’t be two kings on one throne.
