French music for the days of Corona

A story about three Francophiles who decided to gather during the "cheerful" Corona days using the Zoom software and talk about French music.

• Miriam Edri: A native Parisian and the owner of the website Spend time in Paris like a Parisian And from which some of you already know thanks to theGreat articles Hers deals with the secret places of Paris and everyday life there.
• Olivia Dulcenaal: Remember Yoav Kutner's corners in "This Is It"? So, welcome Olivier. He's a kind of French Yoav Kutner. He works for one of the big record companies. France And he has a crazy collection of vinyl records, a handful of which can be heard today.
• Sabin Jakubowicz: Lecturer and expert on French culture (you are invited to enter)Her Facebook page to learn more about her).

During the following charming video hosted by Miriam, Olivia brings together some of his favorite French singers and musicians and lets us hear small samples of their works. Sabine, for her part, tells us about the lives of each of these musicians, including some secret stories that you probably didn't know.

So you are welcome to grab a glass of red wine, sit back and start watching the video. After you finish, you can find a little information about each of the musicians and the full songs mentioned below (the video itself only contains samples to keep it reasonable in length).

Enjoy!

We start our virtual trip on July 29, 2026!

Secrets of Le Marais: A Journey into the Historic and Chic Heart of Paris

Join us on a virtual journey to the most fascinating district in Paris. Together we will discover hidden courtyards, French nobility, and the true stories behind the magnificent facades.

✓ Three lectures on the secret places and stories of the Mara ✓ Watch Zoom live or recorded at a time that is most convenient for you

Discover the secrets of the district

Serge Gainsbourg

Serge is one of the greatest and most original French musicians of the 20th century. He had a very interesting life that included a childhood in Holocaust-era Paris and romances with Brigitte Bardot, Jane Barkin and quite a few other beautiful women. During the video we heard a snippet of the song Black Trombone, which can be found here:

And if you would like to read more about Serge Gainsbourg on my website, you are welcome to visit these articles:

• Serge Ginzburg: A Musical Journey and a Parisian Trip by Hadar Gabay and Zvi Hazanov – An article containing several unknown facts you didn't know about Serge Gainsbourg (or Serge Ginsburg or Ginsburg), including a small itinerary following him.
• The love story of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot by Gil Kesari – I guess the title says it all, doesn’t it? 🙂

Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand, who died last year (2019), was considered one of the best film composers in the world and left behind many classics such as “The Maidens of Rochefort” or “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” from which this immortal song is remembered:

https://youtu.be/Rq0yhizu0y8

But Michel Legrand was not only a film composer but also a brilliant jazz musician. During our video, Olivia brought us a piece of music from the early 20s with the Francophile name “I love Paris.” This tune is part of an album that Michel Legrand composed at the age of 22, which sold eight million copies in 1954 and became a legendary instrumental album:

Django Reinhart

Django Reinhart was an amazing guitar player, who was greatly influenced by gypsy music and jazz. Sabine tells how one day he was seriously injured in a fire that broke out in the caravan where he lived, resulting in both of his hands being burned. In order to cope with the injury, Django invented a series of movements and sounds that were adapted to his limitations and which became an integral part of his music. During the video we heard a small excerpt from his most famous piece Minor Swing and here is the excerpt in full:

Françoise Hardy

Without a doubt one of the most Parisian singers out there. She broke out during the sixties and seventies and became a very successful singer. However, unlike many singers, who after a short period of fame pretty much disappeared from the pages of history, Françoise Hardy continues to maintain her status as an iconic singer even today. Françoise Hardy's most favorite songs are songs about breakups, so there's nothing more appropriate than to bring up the song Comment te dire adieu, which became very famous in the 80s after Jimmy Summerville remixed the song and turned it into a disco hit.

And here is Jimmy Summerbill's disco version that made the song so famous.

And we'll end with a relatively new song by Françoise Hardy that I particularly like:

If you would like to get to know Françoise Hardy in more depth, you are welcome to read the article. Françoise Ardi – A New Face of Loneliness.

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot is undoubtedly the most famous French icon of the 1955s and XNUMXs. She did not intend to become a film actress, but her first husband, Roger Vadim, realized that she was a very extraordinary woman. He made a film for her called “And God Created Woman” in XNUMX that made her an international star.

Few people know that Brigitte Bardot did not have the makings of a star and that she loved to live a simple life and go barefoot. In 1973, she left her film and music career to establish a foundation for animal rescue. For the benefit of this foundation, she sold all her possessions and even returned briefly in the early 80s to record two new songs created to raise money for the foundation.

The song we heard a small part of this evening is La Madrague:

Brigitte Bardot became the partner of Serge Gainsbourg, whom we talked about earlier, and this love story created some of the most recognizable French songs of the 1960s.

Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg met for the first time in1959, on a film set, he was amazed by her but was too shy to approach her. In the end 1967, they met again, this time he dared to propose a song to her. They became lovers because Bardot was married at the time. From a stormy and short love story between Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg was born an album that Serge wrote for his “muse,” Brigitte.

One of the songs on this albumI LOVE YOU, I DON'T CARE."It reached number 12 (!) on the American song chart (the famous Billboard) and became one of the most successful French songs in the world.

However, this evening Olivia decided to play another of their songs (which was also very successful) called Bonnie and Clyde:

That's it, that was the plan for this time. I hope you enjoyed it and you are welcome to continue following us because we will be uploading more plans here very soon 🙂

Au Revoir and take care of yourselves!