Beauty from Misery Listening Post 23. Barbara was one of “Les 3 B,” a triumvirate of singer-songwriters—including Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel—who defended French chanson from the onslaught of American and British pop/rock in the Sixties. Her melancholy songs of...
First Magnitude Listening Post 19. Louane Emera knows success and sorrow. She turned all four judges’ chairs at her audition for the French version of The Voice, she won a César Award (the French Oscar) for her first film and saw her debut album go to number 1. She...
Platonic Challenge Listening Post 7. Can a man and a woman be Just Friends? The question has launched countless novels, films and songs—some that make us laugh or cry and others that induce yawns. Bastien Lanza, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter, has turned this...
Thank You Notes Listening Post 1. One of the great French-language singers of the twenty-first century, Québec-born Isabelle Boulay devotes her latest album to the work of her role model—and one of the masters of chanson française—of the twentieth. Like her...
