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I-cafe is an on line magazine from Oxford University Press. It is full of articles in French, Spanish and German, fully differentiated, with quizzes and games. Simply log on by using the user name and password given by your French teacher.

MUSIC

Explore their websites, listen to the music, watch videos and tell us who you like best.

French pop music is the pop music sung in the French language. It is usually performed by singers from France, Belgium, Quebec, or any of the other francophone areas of the world. The target audience is the francophone market (primarily France), which is considerably smaller and largely independent from the mainstream anglophone market.

French pop singers usually do not cross over to become a mainstream anglophone pop singer and vice versa, largely due to the language barrier. A notable exception is Jane Birkin from the United Kingdom, who became a leading French pop singer during the yé-yé era of the 1960s. A more recent example is Tina Arena from Australia, who released an all French album, Un Autre Univers, a big hit of 2006, in France.


Alain Souchon (born Alain Kienast on May 27, 1944, Casablanca, Morocco, a French speaking country) is a French singer, songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in seven films.

Six months after Souchon was born his family returned to France. When he was 15 his father died in an accident.

Souchon signed his first contract in 1971, but had no success until he began to collaborate with composer/arranger Laurent Voulzy (b. 1948); they would write together, but each released albums under his own name. Souchon's first hit was "J'ai 10 ans" (1974), from the album of the same name. Souchon's biggest hit was probably "Foule Sentimentale" from 1995's C'est Déja Ça.

Souchon returned in 2005 with the hugely successful album La Vie Théodore which contained the hit single "...Et Si En Plus Y'a Personne".

He wrote the theme for François Truffaut's 1979 film Love on the Run (L'amour en fuite).

Florent Pagny was born on November 6, 1961 in Chalon-sur-Saône in France. He is a French singer. He records work in French, Spanish and English.

N'importe quoi (1987) - first single

Laissez-nous respirer (1988)

Merci (1990) - first album -Ça fait des nuits -Presse qui roule

Réaliste (1992) -Tue-moi -Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait ?

Rester vrai (1994) -Est-ce que tu me suis ? -Si tu veux m'essayer

Bienvenue chez moi (1995) -Caruso -Oh happy days -Bienvenue chez moi

Savoir aimer (1997) -Savoir aimer -Dors -Chanter

RéCréation (1997)- new versions of old songs -Jolie môme (Léo Ferré) -Requiem pour un con (Serge Gainsbourg)

Châtelet les Halles (2000) -Et un jour une femme -Châtelet les Halles


Lara Fabian (her real name is Lara Crokaert) was born on January 9, 1970 in Etterbeek, Belgium. She is an international Belgian-Sicilian francophone singer, known for her vocal prowess and skilled technique. She often sings in Italian, Spanish, and English in addition to French. She has also sung once in Portuguese, though she is not fluent in the language, and also once in German back in 1988 for a German version of "Croire" ("Glaub"). She does not speak German either. She has sold over 12 million records worldwide so far. She also possesses a Canadian citizenship achieved in 1994 at the time she began her career in Québec.

Gérald De Palmas (born Gérald Gardrinier, on October 14, 1967 in Saint-Denis, Réunion, (DOM) is a French singer. His father was a land surveyor from France and his mother was a French teacher from Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean.

At the age of 10, De Palmas' family left Réunion, to live in Aix-en-Provence, France. At the age of 13, he discovered ska music, and became a fan of the UK band The Specials. Then he met Étienne Daho and formed a group called Les Max Valentins. But De Palmas was uncomfortable with this group, and went solo. After 7 years of writing and singing solo, Da Palmas won a talent contest on the French M6 TV network. In 1994, he released his first album La dernière Année (The Last Year), which contains the hit song Sur la Route (On the Road). He won a Victoires de la Musique award in 1996.

De Palmas released his second album Les Lois de la Nature (Laws of Nature) in 1997; during the same year his first child, Victor, was born. The album was less successful than his debut album, probably due to the dramatic change in his style. He was in the slumps for 2 and a half years, until 2000. That's when Jean-Jacques Goldman restored his confidence and wrote a song for him titled J'en rêve encore (I still dream about it).

De Palmas composed and wrote 10 of the 12 songs in his third album Marcher dans le sable (Walking in the sand). 2002 was the year he was reborn as a star, as he won the Victoires de la Musique and the NRJ Music Awards, while touring over 180 concerts. His songs even crossed the Atlantic, when Céline Dion sang his hit song Tomber (falling) in English, titled Ten Days. At the end of that year, Live 2002 was released on DVD and on CD, to commemorate his great tour of 2002.

Two years later, De Palmas returned with his fourth album Un homme sans racines (A man without roots), a more intimate album with less music, but still in the same melancholic style.

Patrick Fiori (23 September 1969-) is a very popular French singer.

Fiori was born to an Armenian father (Jacques Chouchayan) and a Corsican mother (Marie Antoinette Fiori) in Marseille, France. When he was only 12 years old, he was offered his first role in the musical La légende des santonniers. At the age of 16, he recorded his first single, entitled Stéphanie. In 1993, Patrick came fourth place in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Mama Corsica. The following year, his first album was released, entitled Puisque c'est l'heure. However, it wasn't until 1997 that Patrick's career really began to take off. His successful audition for the musical Notre Dame de Paris enabled him to originate the role of the Captain, 'Phoebus' both onstage and in the recording studio. The following year, Patrick signed a contract with Sony and recorded his 3rd album Prends Moi (Take me). Patrick finally decided to end his role in Notre Dame de Paris in the year 2000 in order to dedicate more time to his fourth album, Chrysalide. Two years after, his fifth album was released and most recently, the album Si on chantait plus fort in 2005.

Refrain:

J'ai une maison en chocolat

Quand il fait chaud,

Les murs me fondent entre les doigts

J'ai une maison en chocolat

Je ne veux plus rester chez moi

Je la tapisse en pain d'épice

Ou je l'arrange en peau d'orange

Je l'a décore multicolore

Et la moquette, c'est des gaufrettes

(Refrain)

Dans ma cuisine, il y a des tartines

Dans mon jardin, du romarin

Dans mon salon, il y a Léon

Et dans ma chambre un gros bourdon

(Refrain)

Quand je partirai au pays d'eau

J'emmènerai les murs du grenier sur mon dos

J'en donnerai à tous les enfants

Car on dit qu'ils sont très gourmands

J'ai une maison en chocolat

Quand il fait chaud,

Les murs me fondent entre les doigts

J'ai une maison en chocolat

Vous devriez venir chez moi

The big trip

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