Elysée Montmartre

Elysée Montmartre is a music venue at 72 Boulevard de Rochechouart, close to the Sacré-Cœur in Paris. It began operating as a ballroom in 1807, on ground once occupied by an open-air dance hall. Early uses included cancan performances and revolutionary clubs. In 1897, architect Édouard Niermans incorporated material from Gustave Eiffel’s French Pavilion at the 1889 Universal Exposition into a renovation. After a fire in 1900 the hall was rebuilt, and the façade seen today dates to about 1908. The façade and former dance-hall interiors gained historic-monument protection in 1988.

During the 20th century, the building accommodated skating, boxing and wrestling before its conversion to a concert hall in 1968. Coluche presented early sketches there, while Alain Souchon and Jacques Higelin gave early concerts. A sound-system installation documented in 1995 distributed audio through 34 speakers. Fire severely damaged the venue in March 2011, and renovation preceded its reopening in September 2016. Its programme has covered rock, French chanson and electronic music, including drum-and-bass nights with Bryan Gee, Ed Rush and DJ Friction. Super! and AlloF have promoted events there, and Nia Archives has performed in the hall, which holds about 1,000 people.