“la parole exportée”

However irritating the French may appear to the rest of the world at times, one of the few things that are really appreciated in some remote countries, Japan, for instance, is French pop singers.

Here is an example of a song that traveled worldwide, to strike a lighter note on this day of francophonie, when official speeches are better left at the door.

In 1965, an obscure 18-year-old, France Gall, won the Eurovision contest with a song written by the great Serge Gainsbourg. It can’t have been too strenuous for him, but it was an instant success. I remember how my friends and I would spend every recess singing (well… shouting) this with youthful enthusiasm.

The first video clip is a copy of the original recording.

A recent Japanese version, by Ishikawa Rika. She is so sweet, putting all her energy into pronouncing those terribly difficult words, yet with such a smile:

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 9:50 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.