you know what immediately disappointed me, like, literally less than an hour into arriving in france? how american music is all over the radio. I love music, like most human beings, and I was really looking forward to being exposed to music that I wouldn’t listen to at home.

it took a little while, but I’ve slowly been listening to more francophone artists, or at least non-american anglophones.

“formidable” by stromae

I should actually apologize for not alerting you to this person sooner. he was the first francophone artist I heard here, just a few days after I arrived, since he was covering psychologies magazine at the time. he’s awesome and sort of like the french drake—moody and intent on bringing you down as you party. he’s already crazy famous in france, though, and americans do seem to be catching on.

“someday” by tinie tempah

this dude is also like drake, but in the uk. he’s crazy popular and has been for years, but I never hear people talking about him in the states. he’s pretty popular in every country except the united states, it seems, so I feel super late being like “oh, there’s this guy who’s super famous that I just discovered!”

“I’ve got that tune” by chinese man

this group is out of the south of france and they have also been around for forever. their songs are a cool mash up of vintage visuals and vintage-sounding lyrics with some classic hip-hop record scratching.

what should I be listening to here?