Friday's French music break - Zaz, "La Fée"

Friday's French music break this week comes from a singer who over the past year has had phenomenal success in France.

Zaz (screenshot from Le Figaro video)

Zaz fair burst on to the country's music scene in 2010 with her self-titled debut album totting up sales of 500,000 +

It spent over two months in the top spot and generated two hit singles; "Je veux" and "Le long de la route".

The 31-year-old was nominated in the category "Best newcomer" at the French equivalent of the Grammys - les victoires de la musique - losing out to the group Lilly Wood & The Prick, but she picked up "Song of the year" for Je veux.


Clearly Zaz isn't an overnight sensation. She has worked long and hard to get where she is and has probably been helped by a voice that is markedly different from anyone else's and a style of music that is distinctive with its jazz, folk, pop and street influences.

Her latest single, La Fée (the fairy) is also taken from her debut album and is one of three tracks written for her by singer-songwriter Raphaël.

La Fée (screenshot from lyricstranslate.com)

It is - quite appropriately - enchanting, and once again displays the unique quality of her voice and her ability to use it almost as an instrument.

So without further ado here's La Fée

For those of you who understand French enjoy the magic of the video.




If you need a translation of the lyrics, you'll find a rather good one here.

And just to compare and contrast, here's the version as sung by the person who penned the song, Raphaël.



Bon weekend.