Do you hear the people sing? It will soon be le 14 juillet, as we call Bastille Day in France, which commemorates the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the storming of the Bastille fortress in Paris. Now it is marked with a frenzy of parades, fireworks and festivities. Some of the liveliest will be Le Bal des Pompiers, the Firemen’s Ball, where the fire stations in Paris throw spirited parties, with music and drinks, that fill the streets. Here are five French songs to soundtrack the upcoming national holiday.
La grenade by Clara Luciani
Clara Luciani wrote a war cry to independence and empowerment with this 2018 song, which rapidly became an angsty feminist disco anthem and is the artist’s most streamed single. The song uses a pomegranate (grenade) as a metaphor to explore how women’s internal power is easily overlooked.
La Seine by Vanessa Paradis and M
An ode to the river that flows from near Dijon to Le Havre, this pop ballad is the standout song from the 2011 animated film A Monster in Paris (Un Monstre à Paris). In this sci-fi musical, Lucille, an angelic cabaret singer voiced by the famed singer Vanessa Paradis, and Francoeur, a giant flea voiced by another popular French musician M (Matthieu Chedid), bond over their love of music. It’s hard not to think of the Seine glittering in the sun when the jazz-infused beat kicks in.
La groupie du pianiste by Michel Berger
The opening bars of Michel Berger’s 1980 hit transport you to a frenetic underground club where couples two-step the night away. The punchy piano chords bring the same carefree energy as the song’s protagonist, a devoted young female fan who dances at the altar of her beloved musician, but without the judgment usually attached to a groupie. Berger wrote a complementary song the same year, focusing on the eccentric piano player, Il Jouait du Piano Debout (“he played piano standing”), which is sung by his wife and muse France Gall.
Arrivée des camionneurs (From Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) by Michel Legrand
The sumptuous Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort), starring Catherine Deneuve and her late sister Françoise Dorléac in the titular roles, opens with one of the most joyful expositions in film. The pastel-coloured coastal town opens for the summer, and in roll the navy and a travelling band of performers. Michel Legrand’s 1967 score inspired La La Land and could almost be a surreal opening for the Bastille military parade along the Champs-Élysées.
Jolie Nana by Aya Nakamura
Newsletters
Choose the newsletters you want to receive
View more
For information about how The Observer protects your data, read our Privacy Policy
Performing under grey skies at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in 2024, Aya Nakamura delivered a medley of her Afrobeat, and R&B songs accompanied by the French Republican Guard band, and gained a host of new international fans. Nakamura’s 2020 song about a “pretty girl” (the translation of jolie nana) reclaiming her self-worth didn’t feature, but it’s an infectious floor-filler.