What’s behind the runaway success of French-language music on Spotify?

English-speaking and Latin artists may still dominate the charts, but many other languages are making a strong impression on Spotify.

Portuguese, Italian and Hindi, especially the latter through the growing phenomenon of I-pop (Indian pop), are breaking new ground. However, it’s French-speaking artists that are making the biggest mark, winning over an ever-growing worldwide audience.

Hardly surprising coming off the bat of the Paris Olympics, with the closing ceremony propelling four French artists – Kavinsky, Phoenix, AIR and Angèle – to the top of Shazam’s most searched songs. Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’ became the song to be Shazamed the most times in a single day on the famous music recognition app, and 10:50pm on Sunday 11 August was the most Shazamed minute in history.

Not half bad.

Now, we have additional numbers which speak for themselves, as digital music service Spotify has unveiled new data regarding listening habits.

Since 2019, French-language music streams have surged by 94%, and between 1 August 2023 and 31 July 2024, over 100 million people worldwide – around one-sixth of Spotify’s global users – listened to French-language content on the platform.

North America loves French singer Indila and Les Cowboys Fringants; Aya Nakamura, Indila and rapper GIMS are dominating the Asia-Pacific scene; while in South Africa and the Middle East, R’n’B stars like Tayc, Gazo, Dadju and Soolking are proving to be incredibly popular. Belgian star Stromae continues to dominate streams around the world – especially in Latin America.

To date, 39 million Spotify users have added at least one track sung in French to a personal playlist, and in the span of 12 months, more than 83 million hours of French-language music resonated in more than 180 countries on Spotify.

In case you were wondering, the platform has unveiled the Top 5 most-streamed French-language tracks worldwide:

1. Patrick Watson – Je te laisserai des mots (Canada) 

2. Indila – Dernière danse (France) 

3. Stromae – Alors on danse (Belgium) 

4. Soolking et Gazo – Casanova (France) 

5. Yamé – Bécane – A COLORS SHOW (France)

Scroll down for the breakdown of the most popular artists per region. 

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So, what’s behind this growing international appeal for artists singing in the language of Molière?

Without physical constraints, a wider variety of music can meet their audiences around the globe. It also could be down to Spotify’s efforts to boost the export of French-speaking music and podcasts through programmes like RADAR. But in large part, the phenomenon seems to be driven the diversity of sounds and richness of the content by hitmakers from countries like France, Quebec, Belgium and Algeria.

“It’s really the architecture, the very philosophy of streaming and its technological fluidity that enables repertoires to be discovered by potentially anyone, anytime, anywhere, in high volumes”, Bruno Crolot, Spotify’s Director of International Music, told AFP.

Crolot highlights the “exceptional talent” of the artists and states that listeners for whom “understanding the language of the song you’re listening to is much less of an issue than in the past.” He adds that this trend is “only the beginning.”

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Jeremy Erlich, Vice President and Head of Music Content at Spotify, adds that it’s “a credit to French-speaking artists and the power of this music that these artists feature their peers from all over the world,” citing Angèle’s duo with Dua Lipa on ‘Fever’ and Aya Nakamura and Stormzy’s ‘Plus Jamais’.

Here are Spotify’s most-streamed French-speaking artists by region:

Europe 

North America 

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• Les Cowboys Fringants
• Patrick Watson
• Stromae
• Souldia
• Indila

Latin America

• Stromae
• Patrick Watson
• Videoclub
• Indila
• Adèle Castillon

South Africa, Middle East, and Asia

• Tayc
• Ninho
• Gazo
• Dadju
• Soolking

Asia Pacific 

• Indila
• Patrick Watson
• Aya Nakamura
• GIMS
• Stromae

Have you added any French-speaking artists to your playlists? And if not… Well, you’re missing out.  

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Additional sources • For The Record, MHP Group, AFP