Mexican Pop and Rock
In case you didn’t know the contribution of French musicians to modern music has been vast. Some groups might fly under the radar & others, well, you’ve heard of them, but maybe didn’t know they were French. The real surprise is that the success they have had singing in what is not their native language English.
The real push started with electronic bands like Daft Punk and Air back in the 90’s. These days includes popular French born acts include Phoenix and David Guetta. Typical music contributions are to the electronica genre (Daft Punk, Télépopmusik), 60’s retro is often common as in Fabienne Delsol, and Britpop like recent band Skip The Use. Singing in English gets these French musicians more exposure for their great talents. So below we’ve included some of our favourites.
English: Manu Chao in Paris, Île-de-France (Guest from Les Ogres de Barback band) Français : Manu Chao à Paris, Île-de-France (Invité des Ogres de Barback) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Air- Air are a great chill out music band from the 90’s. Their album Moon Safari was a big success and had a few other great albums that are worth a listen from end to end. This is our favourite French anglophone band
Daft Punk– already having a huge list of songs to keep us dancing, their recent album has left us with 2 more great songs- Get Lucky and Lose Yourself to Dance.
We thought we’d leave you with this classic
David Guetta– these days probably one of the biggest names in house and club music, David has a big list of hits
Phoenix– have been providing great alternative rock to the English speaking world since 1999 with quite a few great hits. It’s very hard to pick a favourite from this group
M83– a recent arrival with great electronic style music Midnight City was one of 2013’s biggest indie music hits
Superbus– a great indie rock band
Justice- another popular French electronic group
Daft Punk performing at Bercy in Paris on 14 June 2007. Performance was recorded for their live album Alive 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Martin Solveig– another French electronic artist with a string of English hits
Telepopmusik– Breathe
Fabienne Delsol- A French born London based singer Fabienne had a big hit with her 60’s pop style song “Laisse Tomber Les Filles” , Fabienne more often than not sings in English. Here’s my favourite English song
I’m Gonna Haunt You
Dionysos– a great French rock band. Our favourite is
King of the Ghost Train
Skip The Use– This Britpop Arctic Monkey sounding band Skip The Use are definitely the best discovery whilst writing this post. Have a listen to their popular song: Ghost
Patrick Hernandez– France’s popular contribution to 70’s disco music
Born to Be Alive
Kavinsky– the Kraftwerk sounding electro house act which has a great song called:
Nightcall
Manu Chao– We’re not sure how to pigeon hole this popular singer. Manu grew up in France to Spanish speaking parents who were in exile from Spain. He is huge in Europe and the Spanish speaking world. These days Manu lives in Spain. Some of his biggest hits are in Spanish but also has a huge list of French hits. Manu has made only a few songs in English but here’s one of our favourites
Merry Blues
If you want more information on the French music scene this great blog French Kisses will keep you informed
While we are at it, let’s not forget 2 great French acts that have contributed to Spanish music. The band that brought flamenco to modern popularity the Gyspsy Kings, and the modern kings of tango Gotan Project. Between the 2 of them they are popular for many hits.
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