Sromae makes some of the most popular French music. Le chanteur belge (the Belgian singer) has many tubes (hits) that have already been featured on this blog, including Alors on danse, Papaoutai and Carmen.

One of his biggest tubes of the last few years was Formidable. You could not walk around France in 2013 without hearing it! La chanson est tellement entrainante (the song is so catchy) it gets stuck in your head in no time. Even if you don’t want to, you’ll start singing, formidable, fooooormidable (wonderful, woooonderful) after hearing it. Ne vous inquiétez pas (don’t worry) all that singing is good practice, and luckily la chanson features useful things for French learners.

La chanson uses un jeu de mots (a play on words, pun) that Stromae often repeats.

Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
You were wonderful, I was so pathetic

The first time you hear la chanson, you may think he says formidable twice, but if you listen carefully you can hear the fort minable part of the second phrase.

La chanson (the song) is not too complicated, but does feature a lot of simple usage of l’imparfait. Stromae uses l’imparfait and contrasts it with le présent de l’indicatif all throughout la chanson.

Les paroles (the lyrics) are provided below and le clip (the music video) is in VOST, making it easier to follow along and catch all these small details.

Voici le clip vidéo Formidable :

Les paroles en français :

Formidable, formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables
Formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables

Oh bébé – oups ! – mademoiselle
J’vais pas vous draguer, promis juré
J’suis célibataire, depuis hier putain !
J’peux pas faire d’enfant et bon c’est pas – Eh reviens !
Cinq minutes quoi ! J’t’ai pas insultée
J’suis poli, courtois, et un peu fort bourré
Et pour les mecs comme moi, vous avez autre chose à faire hein
Vous m’auriez vu hier…
J’étais…

Formidable, formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables
Formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables

Eh tu t’es regardé, tu t’crois beau
Parce que tu t’es marié, mais c’est qu’un anneau
Mec, t’emballe pas, elle va t’larguer comme elles le font chaque fois
Et puis l’autre fille, tu lui en as parlé ?
Si tu veux je lui dis, comme ça c’est réglé
Et au p’tit aussi, enfin si vous en avez
Attends trois ans, sept ans, et là vous verrez
Si c’est…

Formidable, formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables
Formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables

Et petite – oh pardon ! – petit
Tu sais dans la vie y’a ni méchant ni gentil
Si Maman est chiante, c’est qu’elle a peur d’être mamie
Si Papa trompe Maman, c’est parce que Maman vieillit, tiens
Pourquoi t’es tout rouge ? Ben reviens gamin !
Et qu’est-ce que vous avez tous, à me regarder comme un singe, vous ?
Ah oui vous êtes saints, vous !
Bande de macaques !
Donnez-moi un bébé singe, il sera…

Formidable, formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables
Formidable
Tu étais formidable, j’étais fort minable
Nous étions formidables

Les paroles en anglais :

Wonderful, wonderful
You were wonderful, I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.
Wonderful, wonderful,
You were wonderful,
I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.

Hey baby, oops, Miss.
I won’t hit on you, I promise, I swear,
I’ve been single since yesterday — fuck.
I can’t have children and well, it’s not.. hey, come back here!
Just 5 minutes! I didn’t insult you, I’m polite, courteous,
And really quite drunk and for the guys like me
You have better things to do, you should’ve seen me yesterday
When I was…

Wonderful, wonderful
You were wonderful, I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.
Wonderful, wonderful,
You were wonderful,
I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.

Hey! Checking yourself out, you think you’re hot
Because you’re married? It’s only a ring dude, don’t get carried away,
She’ll dump like you they always do,
And the other girl, have you told her about it?
I can tell her if you want, then it’s settled,
And the kid too, well, if you have one
Just wait 3 years, 7 years, and then you’ll see
If it’s…

Wonderful, wonderful
You were wonderful, I was so pathetic.
We were wonderful.
Wonderful, wonderful,
You were wonderful,
I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.

Hey lil girl, oh sorry, lil boy
You know in life there are neither bad guys nor good guys
If mom is being a pain, it’s because she’s afraid of becoming a grandma,
If dad cheats on mom, it’s because mom’s getting old; hey listen!
Why’re you all red? Hey come back kid,
And what’s with all of you?
Yeah, you, looking at me like a circus monkey.
Oh that’s right, you’re all saints, you,
Bunch of monkeys!
Give me a baby monkey, he will be…

Wonderful, wonderful
You were wonderful, I was so pathetic.
We were wonderful.
Wonderful, wonderful,
You were wonderful,
I was so pathetic,
We were wonderful.

Translation from Lyrics Translate.