I spent a year at a French primary school and my mother was a French teacher, so singing in French has always been a thing for me. So, for today's #ThreeTuneTuesday (HT @ablaze) I have chosen three songs in French that I love to sing along with.
If you know Soolking's other stuff, you'll know this isn't exactly his usual style. This supercool hip-hop artist has brought his incredible talent together with a heartfelt political cause, which I assume to refer to his native Algeria. But this song must surely resonate with any colonised or marginalised or oppressed people. Beautiful. The choir of men's voices singing in unison reminds me a bit of the revolutionary tunes of Palestinian singer Ahmad Kaabour. But he doesn't sing in French, so ...
My mum used to teach French kids who came over on exchanges to where we lived in Torquay and towns all across the U.K. They all carried bags like the one in the bottom right of this photo:
They would usually hate where they were staying because they get served things like baked beans on toast haricots en sauce de tomate - c'est quoi ca?. They would mess about quite a bit in class, be too shy to speak English (the girls were better but even more shy), then gather together and speak French to each other every chance they got. When we went on trips by bus (I used to tag along as the daughter of one of their teachers) there was always a couple or two snogging the entire time on the back seat. Best bit was the end-of-course disco when they would totally freak out and pogo around on the dance floor to this number (ooo-OOO-ooo-ooo!):
My last was always going to be by Khaled. It was a toss-up between Aicha and this one, which is another club anthem with a rousing French chorus to get a whole dance floor going, just for a different generation. But, like Khaled, I've still got it, honest! Especially when nobody's looking 😀
On va s'aimer, on va dancer
C'est la vie, la la la la
