French Bands or French Lyrics

InTheTrees

I'm learning french... so i'd like to find some bands with lyrics in french whether its english speaking bands that release french versions or actual french alternative/indie bands. And I'd like to find originals rather than french covers.
I've tried using the googles but the best(yike!) I can find are celine dion and edith piaf and thats not going to do it for me.

It was finding a Portishead song in french that inspired me to try looking a bit more.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gTYDV8P1A

S.M.B.

Placebo have both English and French versions of the same song.

Protege moi /protect me from what I want.

UsedToWait

Nada Surf too..

RodVelvet

Air have songs in French being a French Band, my favourite being Sexy Boy.

Sexy Boy

seachto7

Noir Desir, Louis Attaque. Chris Cornell, Can't Change Me is in French too.

Merowig

Space in Your face (love their Album Emosphere)
http://www.sam-music.com/index.php/CD/space_in_your_face_emosphere_3883.html
e.g. Prier le ciel and Elements essentiels

Joe Dassin is also old - but he has some good stuff.

Charles Aznavour - also classic
e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A314PVRSQIM

Tonton David - Il marche seul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlXNeCboE9A


Fatal Bazooka - Fous ta cagoule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in81GJebnXc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_-AuBmp6Q

IAM - Je Dans le Mia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ceNf9qJjgc


Stromae - Formidable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_xH7noaqTA

Le Boudin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6-AhOmnCk

loyatemu

Sebastien Tellier - his stuff is in a mix of English and French (famously he entered the Eurovision with an English-language song, much to the chagrin of French activists).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiD4r38AnyU

and obviously Serge Gainsbourg, though some of his lyrics are a bit, eh, "fruity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3WeNexb2a8

CelticRambler

The French don't sing in French anymore! :pac: Well, the youngsters don't - they all speak and sing in MTV-ish. :rolleyes:

To get an idea of what's current, tune in to France Bleu - France's local radio network - which is obliged to broadcast a certain minimum of French language music. You can pick out some bands/singers that you like from their playlist, then see if you can find the lyrics on www.paroles.fr , www.paroles.net , www.paroles-musique.com or search for other "paroles" sites.

If it's for language learning, modern bands are pretty useless as their diction is dreadful, their grammar is sh1te, their vocabulary is makey-up, and (as mentioned above) the French content is pretty low. Despite your misgivings, you're better off going with the old crooners like Gainsbourg, Piaf, Aznavour, etc. Or try Georges Brassens - a kind of French Percy French. Otherwise, "lyrical" singers like Emily Loizeau or Angélique Kidjo give a modern twist to the old style.

If none of that works for you, go out on a limb and delve into the world of trad/folk where the songs are made to be listened to and sung along with. Your only problem there will be avoiding the odd French dialect words. By way of example: Julien Barbier/La Machine, or Anne-Lise Foy

(the "bird" theme running through those examples wasn't intentional)

seachto7

I forgot about a band called Malajube from Quebec. Well worth checking out, at toutes en francais.

Roger The Alien 1974

When I was working over there (around 2002), there was a band on the rise, Dionysos.

Just checked and they're still going strong - they sing between French and English. Guess you'd loosely call them 'alternative rock', or at least they were in 2002!

InTheTrees

CelticRambler wrote: »

If it's for language learning, modern bands are pretty useless as their diction is dreadful, their grammar is sh1te, their vocabulary is makey-up, and (as mentioned above) the French content is pretty low.:

Something I'm learning is that French in particular is very "slurred" which doesn't really lend itself too well to modern music.
You have to annunciate clearly or it could end up as gibberish.

ger vallely

Projet La Faille are a fantastic band, well I think so. Alternative, great vibe and from around Perpignan or Marseilles I think.

CelticRambler

ger vallely wrote: »

Projet La Faille are a fantastic band, well I think so. Alternative, great vibe and from around Perpignan or Marseilles I think.

Yeaaaahhhhh ... but with songs like "Flashback" "Sock it to me" "Celebration" "Moonlight" etc, they're a perfect example of what passes for French music these days, and not much use to the OP!

ger vallely

CelticRambler wrote: »

Yeaaaahhhhh ... but with songs like "Flashback" "Sock it to me" "Celebration" "Moonlight" etc, they're a perfect example of what passes for French music these days, and not much use to the OP!

When I saw them play on Collioure beach a couple of years back they sang purely in French. You tube is your friend here op..

Merowig

seachto7 wrote: »

I forgot about a band called Malajube from Quebec. Well worth checking out, at toutes en francais.

Speaking about Quebec

CuréLabel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHeo14MeNmg&list=PL954540F5E7E32E97
http://www.curelabel.com

InTheTrees

ger vallely wrote: »

You tube is your friend here op..

Found this one...

Bowie. Heroes. in french. I wish he'd done more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcFIj56KL6g

Dandelion6

Autour de Lucie are quite good in that jangly, Sundays sort of way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZKl6Pvh078

evani1976

“Refractions In The Plastic Pulse” (from Dots & Loops, 1997) by Stereolab who have a french born singer.

Welsh Megaman

evani1976 wrote: »

Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (from Dots & Loops, 1997) by Stereolab who have a french born singer.

Letitia Sadler - she also performed on 'To The End' by Blur.

Blur recorded an alternative version, with Damon Albarn singing the song entirely in French - well worth checking out.

EDIT:-

https://youtu.be/EVHx71-fqfo

InTheTrees

CelticRambler wrote: »

If it's for language learning, modern bands are pretty useless as their diction is dreadful, their grammar is sh1te, their vocabulary is makey-up, and (as mentioned above) the French content is pretty low.

Thats what I'm finding alright.

The best for learning seems to be english speaking bands doing songs in french. They try and sing more clearly and its a bit easier to understand.

Save

CelticRambler

What's your objective, if you don't mind me asking? I get the impression you're past the Leaving Cert stage. Is it just for fun, for holidays, for a new job? I had a girl from Sligo over working for me in the summer, who we got from "no French, at all, ever" to "enough for the job, and a bit of small talk" in three days. We did that with music and dance vocab.

Birneybau

InTheTrees

CelticRambler wrote: »

What's your objective, if you don't mind me asking? I get the impression you're past the Leaving Cert stage. Is it just for fun, for holidays, for a new job? I had a girl from Sligo over working for me in the summer, who we got from "no French, at all, ever" to "enough for the job, and a bit of small talk" in three days. We did that with music and dance vocab.

I did it for four years at school...er twenty + years ago, but never really understood what I was doing. Lately I got inspired to give it a serious go again. I'm about A2 level only. I can read pretty well, but listening and conversation are still very rough. I'm primarily using duolingo an online course.

Save

endacl

Somebody had to....

endacl

And the announcer reminded me!

BPKS

Saw this lot on Jools Holland the other night, not bad


https://youtu.be/SB_QT2gKmzA

CelticRambler

InTheTrees wrote: »

I did it for four years at school...er twenty + years ago ...Save

Same as meself!

... but I've had a bit more practice since.

The standard courses are grand if you stick with them, but sometimes it can seem like a hard slog for not much return. A commom complaint amongst anglophone immigrants in France is that even the better courses still only teach "tourist" vocab, which isn't much use when you want to buy twenty four sheets of plasterboard, a bag of cement and a drive belt for the lawnmower. :pac:

The girl I referred to above was once of seven youngsters we had over for a week working with the public (see here), who all made a point of saying how much they appreciated being able to actually use the vocab we gave them, talking to real people. On average, they only needed three days before having the confidence to start a conversation.

iomega

An album I like a lot, April March - Triggers. She's american but sings in french & english. Love the production.

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

UrbanSprawl

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

A translation at 1.07 would be great! There's a test for you.

loyatemu

bit of French electro-hiphop from Modeselektor (who are German, obviously)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ZUspBCFWc

UsedToWait

loyatemu wrote: »

bit of French electro-hiphop from Modeselektor (who are German, obviously)

Did the Erasumus year - my French pals' rap went down much better than my German pals'... there's something about being shouted at in German that just doesn't sit right

InTheTrees

Maybe not Alt-Indie, but I did a double take when I saw this one and wanted to post it, Mumford and Sons en afrique.

I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWiMgsRmxg0

emo72

i like les rita mitsouko. they have a good song called cest comme ca.

Pighead

La Fille Danse by Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan is in French. Short and Sweet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fBnJEoRPqU