Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.
–John Lennon
It’s French and old, not classic old, but old enough.
Derniere Danse was released off her debut album in 2013 by Adila Sedraïa, a French singer-songwriter known professionally as Indila. She is of Algerian descent but claims a mixed heritage that includes Cambodian, Indian, and Egyptian. Indila attributes her stage name to her love for India.
It’s never too late to discover a really good oldish song. Strangely, it was not on YouTube where I stumbled upon Derniere Danse, which has reached 1.2 billion views, but on Tidal, my music streaming app. Incidentally, it’s the only French song to get that many views on YouTube.
I was drawn to the powerful, bittersweet lyrics and raw emotions expressed in the vocals, even though I didn’t understand any of it, apart from the word danse, which means dance. The song is categorized as operatic pop or popera, and although the title alludes to dancing, I doubt it will slay in a dance club.
Darby, another blogger does a great job of translating the lyrics into English on her blog, French Lyrics & Translation, but also explains that:
Dernière Danse is about the emotions that a young immigrant woman feels in Paris, having to cope with racism and discrimination day in and day out.
There’s something about the French language that’s not just seductive, but stirring, like their national anthem. Dernière Danse is pure poetry as can be seen from the first verse alone:
Head on over to Darby’s blog for the complete English translation. Enjoy!
lenny unencumbered 