Over the past few years, a new musical sensation has emerged in France. His name is Vianney and, at the age of twenty-four, he was one of the youngest French artists to ever be awarded artiste interprète of the year at the 2016 Victoires de la Musique.

Courtesy of Pixabay.

Vianney’s first single was “Je te déteste,” which was released in 2014. The song begins “Je ne suis pas musicien/Je ne suis pas chanteur/Dieu m’a donné des mains/Pour consoler mon cœur.” (I am not a musician/I am not a singer/God gave me my hands/So I could console my heart.) The song follows the emotions of a jilted lover; he writes, “Alors je laisse aller les doigts sur mon clavier/Je viens gifler mes cordes plutôt que ton fessier/Je crie de tout mon être sur un morceau de bois/Plutôt que dans tes oreilles qui n’écoutent que toi/Je laisse couler mes larmes sur un papier froissé/Où de la main j’écris ‘je te déteste‘.” (So I let my fingers fly over my keyboard/I hit the cords on my guitar rather than your behind / I scream with my whole being on a little piece of wood / Rather than in your ears that listen only to you / I allow my tears to flow on a crumpled paper/ where I write by hand “I hate you.”

This song was a modest success and reached 113 on top French music charts. Soon after, Vianney released “Pas là,” his second single which topped the charts at number 18. Vianney’s second studio album was released in 2016 and peaked at number 1 on the charts. One of the singles on this new album is “Moi Aimer Toi.” In an interview with the French music magazine Pure Charts, Vianney spoke about how he wanted to break out of the typically French romantic songs he typically wrote for “Moi Aimer Toi.” He said, “Je voulais que musicalement cet album soit épuré, avec une grande place pour la guitare, la voix, l’acoustique. Le reste, c’est vraiment du kif, et pour les sonorités parfois worldy (…) je vais vers ce que j’aime.” (“I wanted this album to be more musically refined, with a large place for the guitar, the voice, and the acoustics. The rest was really just for fun, and to allow some musicality that is sometimes worldly.”)

You can watch the clip for “Moi Aimer Toi” below. Enjoy!