Favourite French Language Tracks

[Satchmo Distel]

Charles Aznavour - Il faut savoir (originally 1961)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRLJWSA-6-c

English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEo1qWau2eQ

Nina Simone version (Nina covered a lot of French-origin songs and ended up living in France):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xvWScduT_g

[Jah Womble]

Not sure whether anyone else knows it, but I've always been very partial to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CiZ8nS6oo

[Sean of the Shed]

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

One more, she has such an amazing voice

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Not sure whether anyone else knows it, but I've always been very partial to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CiZ8nS6oo

This Philippe Katerine’s number is much better IMO, big hit at the time, 2005. The clip was shot in a small Vendée village using the locals:

[Pérou Flaquettes]

The new Francophone scene isn’t my bag but you occasionally come across some decent stuff on W9 or M6 channels (they broadcast music clips), or others.

Kendji Girachas a great voice, superb gipsy-ish rendition of Aznavour’s classic La Bohème here:

[Giggler]

Serge Gainsbourg - Initials BB, as sampled on A Big Day In the North by Black Grape which itself was featured in this fantastic study of following Burnley away at Preston in 2005 (sorry Snake. I met Rocky in the Burnley League club in 2016 and although I thought he was ace, I understood perhaps one word in seven):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QTkjNlM0-c

[Pérou Flaquettes]

My pupils used to love that (Diam's, French rappeuse):

[Wouter D]

[ad hoc]

I am a big fan of Belgium's Stromae.
Alors on dance, Formidable, and Papaoutei are good places to start, but honestly I haven't really heard a weak track by him

[San Bernardhinault]

I love all of Amadou and Mariam's Dimanche a Bamako album.

But my favourite is probably (ironically titled in English) Senegal Fast Food

[linus]

Too vast a domain to cover, so I'll just post some lesser-known favourite songs from some of the best francophone artists and acts. Here's Proverbes by Jacques Dutronc:

He had a superb phase in the late 60s/early 70s, like his partner Hardy. And from her, a song from her masterpiece album La Question, which is playlisted in this link below:

Best tracks: Rêve, Viens, Mer, le Martien. A remarkable album she did with a talented Brazilian artist called Tuca, who imparted a minimalist bossa stamp on this work. Here's a great sample of Tuca's work, it sounds a lot like the tracks in La Question:

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

[linus]

Hardy has had a remarkable longevity, quality work spanning a half century. Out of her more recent output, this is my favorite track, from the pretty good Le Danger album:

[MsD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3RUJ22Ca2k

This is so great when it kicks off.

[linus]

and a little bit of local flavour from Montreal, Yves Desrosiers, a relatively new talent who delves in a classical french chanson style:

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I quite liked that from Québec/Canada in the 1980s:

(great band)