Many genres, One playlist
Alexandra Jarvis
My French playlist today has been carefully cultivated and bears the marks from several years of learning the language. Each song reminds me of a specific time or someone who introduced me to it; indulge me as I take a turn through some of the classics, and recent additions, in my playlist.
There are the necessary inclusions from my late GCSE and A-level years: Stromae, of course – particularly “Tous les mêmes”, and “Alors on danse”, naturally. I loved his music videos which I shared every chance I got, especially the one for “Quand c’est?”. Then there was Maître Gims (now rebranded as simply Gims), and his classics “Est-ce que tu m’aimes?” and “Tu vas me manquer” – a song which, I hate to say, I declared to my French class that I wanted to be played at my funeral. Also Indila with “Dernière Danse”. All basic, but necessary, foundations.
From there we have Amadou and Mariam who make frequent appearances, first added during my attempt to learn more about francophone music. They’re still present with “Je pense à toi” (beautifully haunting) and “Senegal Fast Food”, for a slightly more upbeat tune.
Alex in Geneva
Credit: Alexandra Jarvis
The biggest boost to the playlist came (naturally) from my gap year – bear with me for this obligatory mention. It was heavily influenced by one of the kids I was looking after: 10-year-old Lucile, as well as the popular songs on the radio at the time (Winter-Summer 2019). Amongst these were:
Aya Nakamura, “Comportement” and “Pookie, Djadja”
Eva, “On Fleek”
Niska, “Médicament”
T2R, “Loka 4”
Boulevard des Airs, “Allez Restez”
Souf, “Ça c’est fait”
Jérémy Frerot, “Tu donnes”
Angèle, “Balance ton quoi” (I liked her especially because I apparently gave off her vibe during my fringed days as an au pair? I’ll take it, at any rate.)
And my personal favourites:
Lomepal, “1000*C” - It reminds me specifically of the heatwave Europe experienced in late June 2019 that had me strategically working the shutters in the house, and sent me and Lucile in search of the waterpark.
Lartiste, “Chocolat” - I stand by the fact that this would make an excellent song to drink to, but my housemates seem to have a strange thing against French music.
Ninho, “Maman ne le sait pas” - I infamously knew very few words to this, pretty much the only line that I knew was: ‘à minuit pile.’ Listening to it now, I’m vaguely disturbed that Lucile knew this one.
Dadju, “Django” - This one’s just a bop really.
‘Cultivating the playlist in lockdown’
Credit: Alexandra Jarvis
More recent additions are few and far between, but include “Tata yoyo” (in memoriam of Annie Cordy), “Ego” (Willy William, sadly courtesy of TikTok), and several songs by the band L.E.J. that I recently discovered.
My playlist has changed an awful lot since I first began collating the songs; when I started to listen to them, it would be on YouTube whilst I was revising and I’d get distracted every so often by the music videos. Listening to them now brings back certain memories, of either revising for my GCSEs, or driving around winding lanes in the French countryside on the way to drop the kids off at school. They’re perfect for learning more about the language, and for developing the accent, but they also tap into a certain kind of nostalgia for French that I haven’t quite been able to shake.
If your curiosity really has been piqued, find these songs and more here.