I made a selection of 15 popular French music artists you should listen to now. I try to select different styles of music. Some of them sing in French, in English, or mix both.

It might sound weird but the French singers let down the French language for their songs. For the last few years, we can observe a comeback of the French language for some singers. For a very long time, French music artists had the feeling that French songs were a little bit lame. It might be explained by the “has been” image of the popular French songs from the 80s.

1 – L’Impératrice

This French music band was founded in 2012, in Paris. This group goes in the category of pop disco, the music is perfect to relax under the sun. The music produced is influenced by everything that was done in the 70s, and 80s, from funk to disco through the first electronic music. They love to sing either in French or English. Here is my favorite video clip and music from them:

2 – Thérapie TAXI

Thérapie TAXI is part of a popular French music group started in 2012. The lyrics of their songs are mostly about love and heartbreaking with a lot of French slang in a straightforward way. This is the big hit of Thérapie TAXI: Hit sale. They decided to stop their adventure with the last EP released on the 8th of January 2020 after becoming one of the most popular french bands.

3 – Nekfeu

Nekfeu belongs to the French rap scene all of his albums were a big success in France. He loves to speak about French society, inequality, and friendship. Songs like “On verra”, “Ma dope”, “Reuf”(Version Five) were at the top of the French chart. Recently, he released an album with the trendy song “Tricheur” featuring the Belgian rapper Damso.

4 – Angèle

I know she is not French but she is from Belgium.. nobody can be perfect 😉 Her songs are 50% in French and 50% in English. Her flow is just great! For your information, she is the little sister of the famous Belgian rapper Roméo Elvis. This is the music that makes her famous in France, La Loi de Murphy (2017). I like La Thune (2018). The word “Thune” is French slang for money. Another one that I enjoy to listening is “Tout oublier”. She did a featuring with her famous brother Roméo Elvis.

5 – Eddy de Pretto

This French musician has a charismatic voice and the lyrics are so well made that it reminds me of the lyrics of the singer Stromae. He sings in French and his songs are perfect to work on your French comprehension. His big hit is the French song “Fête de trop” but I prefer the songs “Random” or “Normal”. Recently in 2021, he released a new album “À TOUS LES BÂTARDS”. In this album, he comes back to his exclusion when he was younger, because he was different from the others. He invites all the excluded of society to be proud of themselves.

6 – Polo & Pan

Polo & Pan is a band composed of two French musicians “Polocorp” (Paul Armand-Delille) and” Peter Pan” (Alexandre Grynszpan), which started in 2012. I would say that their style is close to the group of l’Impératrice. It is super complicated to tell what type of music is the group Polo Pan, probably a mix of electro and psych-rock. I let you figure out the type of music 🙂

7 – Petit Biscuit

Petit Biscuit is a young French DJ from Rouen in Normandy, producing melodic electro music. His songs are perfect to relax. Now, he starts to be famous around the world, he played in the US at the prestigious Coachella festival in 2018. I wrote an article about Petit Biscuit if you want to learn more about him.

8 – Bon Entendeur

The collective was founded in 2012 by three friends: Nicolas Boisseleau, Arnaud Bonet, and Pierre Della Monica. They remix old French audios into new fresh disco, electro songs. For them, it all started with a basic YouTube channel.

They released, in 2013, a song with the voice of Dominique Strauss-Kahn explaining the case of the Sofitel. They continued with the voice of Depardieu, de Gaulle, Cantona, Jacques Chirac, and Jean Dujardin … cult lines or interviews that they mixed with music. They started to make their own interviews, they made one with the French actor Pierre Niney. I particularly enjoy this song from Bon Entendeur:

9 – Lomepal

One of my favorite French rappers. He really became famous in France with his album “FLIP” in 2017. One fun fact, besides being a French rapper he is also really good at skateboarding.

His nickname comes from the fact that his friends were calling him a white man (Since he has super white skin). The explanation is: L’Homme pâle (transformed into “Lomepal”, same pronunciation) translated into English “Pale man”. Here is one song, “Mômes” from his last album “Jeannie” 2018.

10 – Feu! Chatteron

This is a French music band composed of five French musicians. The band was created in 2011. Their songs are made with excellent melodic French lyrics. Their last album “L’Oiseleur” (2018) put a light on this French rock band.

11 – La Femme

A group that I enjoy listening to, it was founded in Biarritz in 2010 I found on their website, their biography that I am going to quote the beginning:

“We became friends with some Californian surfers who were in Biarritz for surfing contests. We wanted to travel and play outside France so our new friends helped us make connections; we earned a little money with summer jobs and flew to California a few months later. It was crazy; we ended up doing 27 gigs in 3 months! Since hitting the West Coast, the gang’s reputation for finely tuned and taught stark anthems has spread like sea spray. No sooner than their debut album was released, it hit No.1 in the French digital charts and La Femme became the cover darlings for Magic, this summer they made crowds dance across Europe’s premier festivals.”

Their first hits from their first album Psycho Tropical Berlin (2013) with “Sur la planche“.

I particularly enjoy listening to two other songs from this album “ Si un jour ” and ” Welcome America “.

They released 2016 another great album “Mystère” (to me) with the song “Exorciseur”. Also, two songs that I like “Tatiana” and this one is probably their biggest hit on the album “Ou va le monde”.

12 – Clara Luciani

One of the rising French artists in France. She is linked to the group La Femme. She sang on two of their songs, on the album Psycho Tropical Berlin, on the tracks La Femme and It’s Time to Wake Up (2023). Also, the French singer made a featuring on the album Cyborg of the excellent French rapper Nekfeu “Avant tu riais”.

On April 6th, 2018, Clara Luciani publishes her first album, “Sainte-Victoire”. Then, on January 11th, 2019, she was named to the “Victoires de la Musique”, in the Revelation category for her album “Sainte-Victoire”. She won the award on February 8, 2019, and she was surprised by winning this award.

In this one, she is talking about her new image and how she lives the celebrity “coming” to her with the song “Nue” (=Naked).

Two more songs that I really enjoy listening “La Baie” (Cover in French: The Bay – Metronomy) and“La grenade”.

13 – Alice et moi

The name of the artist is Alice and me but there is only Alice. She was a student at the prestigious public university Science Po. She went through a master’s degree and after that, she made a deal with her parents: take a gap year to try out a music career. In the end, it went pretty well for her she released 2017 her first EP Film moi. Recently, she released her second EP Frénésie”Je veux sortir avec un rappeur” (2018).

14 – Pépite

This French band is composed of two French musicians Thomas and Edouard. They met in 2009 in Brittany. They released an EP in 2016, “Les Bateaux” composed of four songs. Then, in 2017 they released a second EP named “Renaissance” with the excellent song “Renaissance” and my favorite one “Reste avec moi”.

Recently, they released 2019 their first album “Virages” with the excellent song of “Les bateaux”.

15 – The Pirouettes

French music group composed of Leo Bear Creek and Vickie Chérie. They are together since the last year of High School. They already released three albums, the last one was in 2018 “Monopolis”. Their two big hits are from the album “Carrément Carrément” in 2016. There are the songs “L’escalier” and “Jouer le jeu”.

I hope you enjoy reading this article about French music. Do you know other trendy French music artists? Let me know in the comment section! 🙂 If you like it, I invite you to read one of my previous articles about:

Work cited:

https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/musique/bon-entendeur-ces-jeunes-qui-mettent-a-la-mode-la-musique-de-papy-13-05-2019-2312150_2946.php