Rilès

Biography

Rilès Kacimi ( ril-ESS; غيلاس قاسمي; born 4 January 1996) is a Franco-Algerian songwriter, composer, record producer and performance artist from Rouen, Normandy. His songs are mainly written and performed in English, with some in French, Spanish, Portuguese and even Japanese.

Beginnings

Born in France, Rilès started making music at a very early age by learning guitar and making YouTube covers. After obtaining a bachelor's degree, he decided to focus solely on music as a career. Rilès studied English literature at the University of Rouen while studying music on his own in his free time. He worked as a supervisor for a while to save up enough money and build his own home-studio in his bedroom. He then began to compose and write music independently. Rilès is also talented in arts. He sells his pieces of art as a way to make extra money for his music career. Rilès started his own music career by writing, producing, and mastering his own songs, as well as recording, directing and editing his music videos. This is reflected in his song lyrics where he references recording and producing his music independently.

First albums

He released his first album, Vanity Plus Mind (2015) and released a variety of singles such as “Brothers” which became a staple and one of his biggest hits in 2016. That same year he released one song per week, every Sunday, for a year to compile into his second “album” (more a collection of songs than an album) called “RILÈSUNDAYZ” which is made up of 52 songs. This includes songs “I Do it”, “Pesetas” and “Should I”, as some of the most popular songs. He organised in a concert tour in France in 2017 during which he performed at the Bataclan in Paris, twice, then at the Zenith of Rouen.
In summer 2019,he released his first studio album Welcome to the Jungle.

Survival Mode and The 25th Hour

In January 2025, Rilès released his second studio album, Survival Mode, six years after his debut. The record comprises fourteen tracks, featuring collaborations with Tif and Gracy Hopkins, and reflects the challenges the artist faced over the preceding two years, as well as his internal struggles.
From 8 to 9 February 2025, Rilès performed a "Survival Run", a 24‑hour treadmill marathon conducted in front of a large circular saw inside a glass arena at Espace Commines, an event location in Paris. The event, open to the public, was streamed live on YouTube and TikTok. It was intended to parallel the themes of his new album and explore concepts of resilience and human limits. Rilès had previously run for twelve consecutive hours in September 2024 without the saw; during the 2025 run he covered more than 200 km, completing the first 61 km in 6 hours 2 minutes. He has cited running and personal relationships as factors that helped him overcome periods of severe personal difficulty, including suicide attempts.
On 24 October 2025, Rilès issued a follow‑up album titled The 25th Hour. He staged a performance on 24–25 October at Espace Commines, during which he applied a red imprint of his right hand to 20,000 physical copies of his album - reference to the tegata handprints left by Japanese sumo wrestlers. The performance lasted 25 hours, exceeding the planned 24‑hour duration. The event was broadcast live on YouTube and could also be viewed through plexiglass windows installed at the venue.
In 2026, Rilès embarked on his Survival Tour, a concert series covering eleven cities across France, as well as venues in Belgium and Switzerland, to promote The 25th Hour.

Studio albums

2019: Welcome to the Jungle
2025: Survival Mode
2025: The 25th Hour

Berlin Music Video Awards

The Berlin Music Video Awards is an international festival that promotes the art of music videos.