Recommended French Pop Music

French pop music does not always have immediate appeal for those not brought up with it. But there is some very good music hidden away in France if you know where to look...

These 'top 5' are all my personal recommendations and cover a wide range of types of music.

 

Nouvelle Vague

Someone recommended this to me and you will love it, no question. Classic 'punk' songs of the late 70's and early 80's sung quietly by females, no raucousness at all. Sounds bad? I promise you it is brilliant (and all sung in English so no language problem either). If you like Goldfrapp, Julie Cruise etc you will recognise the general idea.

 

Calogero

This is one of the small number of records that my wife, my daughter and I are all happy to listen to. Calogero is very big in France. The music would be described as a kind of rock I suppose, and is quite mainstream, but is really noteable for the tunes themselves. There is another album '3' that came later which is also good but not quite as good as this one.

 

Kyo

Perhaps Kyo could best be described as a French Radiohead of 5 years ago. That is  - brilliant! With this album you get the very best of French rock/pop. Unmissable. The other Kyo albums are also very good.

 

Lara Fabian

Lara Fabian sings 'nice' songs  - ballads, love songs, that kind of thing all sung beautifully. Until I was 35 I would have refused to listen to it. Now I do and I can assure you that if you listen to a variety of music then you will love the tunes on this disc.

 

Natasha St Pier

I chose this album out of Natasha St Pier's most recent three for no particular reason - they are all more or less as good as each other. And that means very good. Pop / ballads very well sung. And if you have seen her on television you will know she is always the happiest looking person you've ever seen, which is nice!