In a poll conducted by regional press publishers, readers were asked to name their favourite French song "of all time" from a list of 30. Top by a small margin was "Mistral gagnant" by Renaud. First recorded in 1985 this nostalgic ballad was written for his daughter and takes its title from a former sweet shop. The second place went to a song more familiar to Anglophones, "Ne me quitte pas" by Jacques Brel and the third to a song by Barbara called "l'aigle noir" which is in fact about her memories of being abused by her father. All songs which could be classed as chansons - the kind of nostalgic ballad we are familiar with.
On the other hand it was not Renaud who topped the poll of favourite singers, that was Jean Jacques Goldman, ahead of Brel, then Georges Brassens. No prizes for guessing that Edith Piaf was top woman, followed by Barbara and then Celine Dion.
Malc says that in the Voices chorale they have been singing songs by Goldman and Barbara, both of which fit the chanson genre perfectly.
Here is a YouTube link to a version of Mistral gagnant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdjWMHAdYDU&feature=player_embedded
comments to taglines82@gmail.com
