Pascal Obispo (left) and Florent Pagny (screenshot from official clip)And even if there were no lyrics to the song you would probably be able to tell from the opening bars that it was French.
It's the accordion that gives it away; not an instrument that features regularly in French pop songs, although if you're a lover of Bal-musette you might beg to differ.
Pagny, now 49, released his first album back in 1990 and since then has tried just about every musical (and hair) style.
They (musically-speaking) have included (among others) the dreadful faux-opera "Baryton" album, one dedicated entirely to Jacques Brel songs - "Pagny chante Brel" (he should have known better) and most recently "Tout et son contraire".
But his biggest - and arguably best - songs have come from the pen of Obispo.
It's not the first time the two men have worked together - far from it.
They go back a fair number of years and Obispo, along with his longtime songwriting partner Lionel Florence, has provided a fair number of songs for Pagny including his biggest hit to date, "Savoir aimer" in 1997 and the cleverly catchy "Ma Liberté de penser" in 2003.
In fact Obispo has been a prolific singer-songwriter since the 1980s, recording songs himself such as "L'important c'est d'aimer" (1999), "Millésime" (2001) and "Fan" (2004), a tribute to Michel Polnareff, that have become firm favourites with not just the French but other artists too - given the number of times they've been covered.
The 46-year-old has also written for a host of other singers including Calogero, Johnny Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, and Canadians Natasha St Pier and Garou.
His 2000 hit musical" Les Dix Commandements" (music by Obispo and lyrics by Florence, and Patrice Guirao) spawned several hits including "L'envie d'aimer" sung by Daniel Levi and Yael Naïm's "L.I.B.R.E".
Prolific, as you can probably tell, is something of an understatement when it comes to Obispo, and what's the betting that his new musical, "Adam et Eve, la seconde chance" won't also spin off a hit or two when it opens in January 2012.
In fact the first track from the show "Rien ne se finit" by Thierry Amiel and Cylia is already getting plenty of airplay.
Anyway that has given you some background to the two men.
You can check out Pagny's official website and (an unofficial) one dedicated to Obispo for more info. They're both in French.
In English there are also the rather incomplete Wikipedia entries for the two men: Pagny and Obispo.
And finally there's an excellent biography on Pagny on the Radio France Internationale site, which also includes a little info on Obispo.
For now though, here they both are performing "Je laisse le temps faire" a jolly boozy breeze of a number. HEY!
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