🇫🇷 A Beginner’s Guide to French Music

My Recommendations for French Learners

Feb 25, 2026

Yesterday, my belle-mère, who is also learning French, asked me if I could recommend some French music. Quelle bonne idée ! Listening to French music is a great technique for passive learning, especially when you’re not in the mood to engage your brain too much.

She’s also quite lucky, because I consider myself something of an expert in French music, though I’ll admit I have a few blind spots when it comes to the newer stuff.

So I decided to write this post so you can enjoy these recommendations.

And if this gets you excited, you should know that we are talking about French music next week in Le Cercle, my French conversation group. It’s a great opportunity to practise your French while discovering new artists together. You can book your spot directly below, and if it’s your first time joining us, use the code TIMO26 for 50% off your first session.

Book your seat at Le Cercle

Some of the French vinyl records from my collection.

The Old Stuff

You probably already know the big names: Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, and Charles Aznavour. They are classics for a reason, and if you haven’t explored them yet, please do. But here are some slightly lesser-known artists from that same era that I personally love.

(Click the song to listen on YouTube + lyrics when available)

Françoise Hardy is the definition of cool. Her soft, melancholic voice and effortlessly poetic lyrics made her an icon of the 60s, and her music still sounds incredibly modern today. Start with Message personnel, one of the most beautifully written French songs I know.

Nino Ferrer is a bit of an odd one, in the best possible way. He could do silly pop, deep soul, and everything in between. His big hit is Le Sud, and yes, it’s a classic for a reason, but my personal recommendation is La Rua Madureira, a gorgeous, melancholic song that not enough people know about.

Dalida had one of the most remarkable careers in French music history, with hits spanning from the late 50s all the way to the 80s. She sang in French, Italian, Arabic, German... a true international artist with an incredible voice. Start with Il venait d’avoir 18 ans, it’s impossible not to love.

Jacques Dutronc is witty, ironic, and very Parisian. His songs are full of wordplay and social commentary, which makes them a little trickier for learners but so rewarding once you get them. Il est 5h, Paris s’éveille is a perfect introduction.

Eddy Mitchell is a French rock and roll institution. Skip the country stuff and go straight to La Dernière Séance, a beautiful, nostalgic ode to the golden age of cinema. It will make you feel things.

Jean Ferrat was a poet first and a singer second. His settings of Aragon’s poems are stunning, and his political songs are some of the most powerful ever recorded in French. La Montagne is a good place to start.

Johnny Hallyday is simply impossible to ignore. France’s answer to Elvis, he was a national institution for over 50 years. I’ll be honest, I don’t love everything he did and his later career isn’t really my thing, but he has some genuinely beautiful songs. J’ai oublié de vivre is one of them. Understanding Johnny is understanding a huge part of French culture, full stop.

Léo Ferré was an anarchist, a poet, and a composer of extraordinary ambition. His music ranges from delicate chanson to full orchestral arrangements. Avec le temps is heartbreaking and perfect.

Pierre Vassiliu is one of my personal favourites and a real hidden gem. Qui c’est celui-là ? is one of the most joyful songs ever recorded. He’s playful, quirky, and surprisingly easy to understand.

Joe Dassin had a gift for writing songs that feel like a warm hug. L’Été indien and Les Champs-Élysées are feel-good classics, and his French is crystal clear, which makes him genuinely useful for learners.

Christophe is deeply strange and deeply beautiful. His 70s albums blend chanson with psychedelic pop in a way that sounds like nothing else. Les Mots bleus is a masterpiece.

And my guilty pleasure? Julio Iglesias. Yes, he’s Spanish, but he recorded a surprising amount of songs in French and they are wonderful. I’m enough of a fan that I once drove five hours from Chihuahua to El Paso just to see him live, so I think that earns him a spot on this list. Start with Pauvres diables and Ne t’en va pas, je t’aime. No judgement here.

Not So Old Stuff

This era, roughly the 80s through the 2000s, is where a lot of people who grew up in France have their deepest nostalgia. Here are some of my personal favourites.

Laurent Voulzy writes some of the most perfectly crafted pop songs in the French language. Start with Le Coeur grenadine, it’s pure sunshine in song form.

Étienne Daho is the prince of French indie pop. Elegant, slightly melancholic, always cool. Start withWeek-end à Rome and you’ll understand immediately why he’s been a fixture of French pop for 40 years.

Isabelle Mayereau is a hidden gem. Soft, tender, poetic folk music from the 70s and 80s. Start with Tu m’écris or L’Orange bleue, two songs I keep coming back to no matter what.

Bernard Lavilliers brings together reggae, soul, world music, and chanson in a way that feels completely natural. His lyrics are vivid and cinematic, full of stories about faraway places. I’d recommend starting with Les Aventures extraordinaires d’un billet de banque, which is exactly as fun as the title suggests.

Alain Bashung is, in my opinion, one of the greatest French artists ever. His later albums are dense and poetic, almost surreal, but Gaby oh Gaby and Vertige de l’amour are great accessible starting points.

Yves Simon is gentle, introspective, and deeply underrated. Start with Au pays des merveilles de Juliette or Amazoniaque, both are lovely entry points into his quiet, dreamlike world.

Pierre Bachelet is best known for Les Corons, an anthem for the mining communities of northern France that can make a whole room (or a stadium) of French people go quiet. But don’t miss Sans amour either, which shows a completely different, more tender side of him.

Gérard Manset is a mysterious figure who released records sporadically and never performed live, but his music is genuinely extraordinary. Il voyage en solitaire is haunting and beautiful.

Renaud is one of France’s most beloved singer-songwriters, with a sharp tongue and a big heart. His 80s albums are essential French culture. Mistral gagnant, written for his daughter, is one of the most touching French songs I know.

Mano Solo was raw, intense, and completely honest. He wrote about illness, love, and life with no filter whatsoever. Start with Pas du gâteau, which captures everything that made him so special. Not easy listening, but deeply moving.

Mylène Farmer is theatrical, dark, and completely over the top in the best way. Désenchantée is her anthem and one of the defining songs of 90s France. Fair warning: once it’s in your head, it stays there.

New Stuff

Okay, this is where I’ll be honest with you: I’m a little out of my depth with the very latest releases. I will not recommend the typical stuff like Stromae, Zaz, Aya Nakamura, or Gims, because tons of teachers have done it before me. Here are my more personal picks.

Coeur de Pirate is a Quebec artist, so technically not French, but her music is gorgeous and her French is clear as a bell. Comme des enfants is the perfect starting point, a simple, beautiful song that sticks with you for days.

Sébastien Tellier makes dreamy, slightly bizarre, deeply French pop music. His most famous song is La Ritournelle but it’s largely instrumental and in English, so for French learners I’d point you towards L’Adulte instead.

Ben Mazuet is a lovely recent discovery. Gentle, warm, very singable chanson pop. Start with La Mer est calme, which is as soothing as the title suggests and genuinely great for learners.

L’Impératrice is a Parisian synth-pop band with a retro 70s/80s feel and incredibly catchy songs. Their international breakthrough Agitation Tropicale is the place to start.

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Learn French with Timo on Instagram: "Odyssée – L’Impératrice

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If you’re more into rock music, I’d point you towards Louise Attaque (raw, energetic, poetic), Noir Désir (intense and literary, Le Vent nous portera is essential), Indochine (the French new wave institution), Eiffel (clever and underrated), Saez (angry, passionate, and deeply French), Tryo (reggae-influenced and very feel-good), and Manu Chao et son groupe La Mano Negra (technically Spanish but raised in France, and a legend).

I won’t recommend heavier bands because it’s not the kind of music my readers usually listen to, but if you do, send me a PM and I’ll be happy to share some with you!

And if hip-hop is more your thing, the French rap scene is seriously one of the best in the world. Start with IAM and NTM, the two giants of French hip-hop, then explore MC Solaar for his extraordinary wordplay, Stupeflip for something genuinely unique and a little unhinged, La FF, a Marseille crew bringing raw southern energy to the scene, and Java for a brilliant mix of chanson and hip-hop that is very hard to describe but very easy to love.

How to Work With French Music

As I mentioned in the introduction, listening to French songs is perfect for passive learning. But if you want to go a little deeper, here’s what I recommend: choose a song or album you enjoy, then head over to Genius to find the lyrics and explanations — or just activate the lyrics if you’re using Spotify — so you can learn new vocabulary and really decrypt what’s being said. And if you can, sing along a little! The lines of a song are sentences you might actually use in your next French class or a real conversation. Finally, write down in your notebook the lines you like so you can reuse them in real life.

The beautiful thing about music is that it teaches you rhythm, intonation, and natural phrasing in a way that no textbook can. You’ll find yourself knowing instinctively how something sounds in French, which is honestly half the battle.

Now it’s your turn! Drop your favourite French singers or bands in the comments, I’d love to discover new things through you, and I’m sure other readers would too.

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