Béatrice Martin, a.k.a Coeur de Pirate and other French music
 

This is my second year taking French, and I decided it would probably be a good idea to listen to some French pop music so I could practice listening for words. For a while, all I really liked was MIKA's "Elle Me Dit", but one day I decided I'd start on its music video and navigate the suggested videos, choosing the next song based on whether or not I'd heard it before.

That's how I found Coeur de Pirate. The first song I found was "Adieu", which I now know is off of Blonde. That led to "Comme des enfants", which led to "Pour un infidèle", which led to me going home and purchasing every album I could find with her name on it, including the soundtrack for Child of Light, which I didn't know she had made.

So, now most of my library is French. This can be something of a problem, because I live in Austin, Texas, and while I have one or two French friends, the majority of the populus falls into three categories; the "snobby hipster who only knows some popular French phrases and can't even pronounce them correctly", the "Hablamos español", and the "speak English before I shoot you". It's not like I could communicate with my French friends in speaking anyway, because they all like to talk at the speed of light. So, I've become that weird guy whose library is filled with music no one understand or that comes across to native speakers as patronizing. Not that that makes me like it any less, it's just something strange.

Anyone else got some good French artists to share? Maybe if I get something a little more fleshed out than my current library I won't feel like such a tool.

Welcome to MB, Crossark ! Your musical curiosity has lead you into an interesting situation, and I´ll certainly be checking out Béatrice Martin if you recommend her so highly. In the meantime, here is some Francophone pop from an unlikely source, a Belgian nun:-



^ She was a bit of a one-hit wonder, and in fact gave up recording completely - round about the time that she commited suicide.

Rather more productive have been La Bottine Souriante, who play French Canadian music. Here´s something with lots of vocals for you to practise that pronunciation:-





And lastly, no linguistic input here, but I can´t resist posting again what is probably my fave music clip ever. Third time I´ve posted this on MB, so if you don´t hear from me again it means I´ve been permabanned for spamming:-

Thank you so much for the response! I'll definitely be checking these out!

Oh...dear...

btw, hello Crossark!

Serge Gainsbourg!

(I'm french, if you need help with finding french music or learning french, get in touch!) :)

Will do, kind sir or madam!

Thanks for all your suggestions. In addition to them, I have found a few more songs/artists that I quite enjoy. They are as follows:

Vincent Vallières
Louis Jean-Cormier (mais pas Karkwa)
Alfa Rococo
Lance-toi - Maïa Leia
Avec les doigts de ma main - Bernard Adamus
Absolute Beginners, La valse posthume (Version Courte), Little French Song, Quelqu'un M'a Dit, et Le Toi Du Moi - Carla Brundi
Mon cœur te portera - Catherine Durand

If my library didn't contain French music in the majority when I wrote the original post, it does now. :D

Merci beaucoup pour les recommandations!

If anyone else has more, I welcome them gladly.

Well, since you´re asking, Janszoon´s post (second one down) in this thread might interest you:-
http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...w-ii-1247.html

While all I can think of is the altogether more obvious Jaques Brel:-

Thanks, Lisna! That was awesome!

Yesterday I happened upon the music of a French-Canadian, Émile Proulx-Cloutier.

Some of his songs are available at: Émile Proulx-Cloutier Videos, Lyrics, Full Albums & Bios | SonicHits

I especially like his song "Mayday," a very sweet-sounding love (?) song with thought-provoking lyrics that I can only partially understand (since the automatic English translation is poor), but that appears to end with these intriguing words: "I carry you around like a belt of explosives or a baby kangaroo" (very delicately, apparently).



If some French-speaker could translate the French lyrics into English for me, I'd really appreciate it!

Émile Proulx-Cloutier - "Mayday"

Y a quelquun qui croque mon coeur
ya quelquun qui cri mon nom
les petits soldats de pailles
marche a moi en bataillon
tout les jours je vous repond
par la bouche de mes canons
tout les soirs je me recouche
le canon loin dans la bouche

et j attends que l aube arrive
et j attends que l aube arrive
et j attend que l aube arrive
jusqua ce qu amour s en suive

Ya des yeux plein d aventures
ya des jeux beaucoup beaucou
mais la peur au coin du mur
lache sur moi son chien fou
oui parfois la joie me heurte
dans les fuites les fetes les flirts
les medailles que je voulais
tombe la comme des boulets

Et j avance a la derive
et j avance a la derive
et j avance a la derive
jusqua ce qu amour s en suive

Sur toi la peur j ai fait mes griffes
et je te porte partout
comme une ceinture d explosif
ou un bebe kangourou

* * *

I also like this song by the same artist because it sounds so warm due to the very pretty guitar and vocals and the pleasant accordion:

Émile Proulx-Cloutier - "Ce qui ne peut se taire"



Another song by him that I like is:

Émile Proulx-Cloutier - "Madame Alice"
I have no idea what he is saying, but I still like it.



* * *

And I agree with Lisnaholic that this French pop song sounds cool!

Stromae - "Sommeil"

Good to see you posting in this forum again, VEGANGELICA.

That first song is really nice; soothing voice and beautiful piano with nothing else to clutter it up. Yes, "I carry you around like a belt of explosives or a baby kangaroo" is certainly an unusual take on romance. :laughing:

I'm curious as to why a song in French has been titled "Mayday". As I understand it, this otherwise inexplicable distress call is an Anglicization of the French original, "M' aidez", meaning "Help me", which is a far more logical thing to say when you are lost at sea. Has Émile P-C's song title been changed in the same way, I wonder?

Thanks, Lisnaholic. :)

I checked on Émile Proulx-Cloutier's French websites to see if his song "Mayday" was originally titled "M'aidez," which certainly would make sense! However, it always appears as "Mayday," one of only two of his songs given English titles.

If ever there were a time, as a French speaker, to title a song using a French word, one would think it would be for "Mayday," since that distress call was created simply because it sounds like "M'aidez," like you said! :p:

I looked up the origin of the "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" call and learned this:

Hey, thank you for doing the research into the real origins of “Mayday” VEGANGELICA :) At last, Frederick Stanley Mockford gets his fifteen minutes of fame !

A lot of the French-language songs that get international recognition seem to come from sultry-voiced pin-ups singing about love:-

........


Recent releases from Souad Massi might give the impression that she is just following in that same romantic tradition:-




… but that’s deceptive because she is concealing an earlier, troubled career as a female rock singer in Algeria. For seven years she fronted a rebellious band called Atakor, for which she was effectively hounded out of the country. Unfortunately, I can’t find any evidence of that on YouTube; this is about the closest I can find to Souad Massi rockin’ her Algerian roots. Enjoy!