Summer in Paris

In what may be the last in a while of my posts highlighting the latest in French music culture, here's a list of tunes for the northern summer.

Screenshot of Atheena in her and Kamelac's music video for "Pas Besoin."

What’s good in Paris this summer? The city’s airwaves of course. And it being France’s capital and its largest metropolis, the country’s most talented musicians congregate there. First up, representing the city’s music is Kamelanc’ (born in Oujda, Morocco) and Atheena (representing Senegal) with ‘Pas besoin‘:

Then Orelsan (born in Alençon). ‘La terre est ronde‘:

Kayna Samet’s (born in Nice) comes with her ‘Ghetto Tale Remix‘ feat. Youssoupha (born in Kinshasa, DRC), Médine (representing Algeria) and Leck (Mokobé’s protegé).

Alonzo (government name Kassim Djae, and originally from the Comoros Islands off Africa in the Indian Ocean, but who grew up in Marseille, Paris’s southern rival, brings ‘Avoir une fille‘:

Princess Sarah, from Avignon (with a Lebanese father and French mother) prefers autumn over summer.

Collectif Métissé’s (just above, many nationalities here but based in Bordeaux) brings us the heavily Caribbean influenced summer tune “Z dance” (I wouldn’t mind if we forgot about the song by autumn).

M.A.S ( Malik, representing Morocco) riffs off Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars’ ‘Mirror’ in his ‘Des regrets.’

Kenza Farah’s (born in Béjaïa, Algeria) presents “Quelque part.”

Tal (representing Yemen and Israel) featuring Mokobé (representing Mali) on ‘Je prend le large.’

Finally, there’s Matt Houston (born in Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe) collaborating with Nigerian superstar duo P-Square.

Further Reading

And do not hinder them

We hardly think of children as agents of change. At the height of 1980s apartheid repression in South Africa, a group of activists did and gave them the tool of print.

The new antisemitism?

Stripped of its veneer of nuance, Noah Feldman’s essay in ‘Time’ is another attempt to silence opponents of the Israeli state by smearing them as anti-Jewish racists.