Clara Luciani
Françoise Hardy inspired French singer Clara Luciani is the epitome of a pop star. Her trendy style made up of pastel silk shirts and red leather jackets mirrors her timeless music, which manages to incorporate several different genres into one song. Luciani’s greatest success yet Le Reste stems from her latest album Cœur, reaching number 2 in the Belgian singles charts.
You can listen to Le Reste here:
Cassius
Cassius are in no way underrated when it comes to their recognition and consistency in France, being on almost every French playlist on Spotify, but it’s been more than two decades since they earned themselves a UK top ten with Cassius 1999. Unlike many bands of the 90s, Cassius still made music twenty years later, releasing their album Dreems in 2019. Unfortunately since then one half of the duo Zdar passed away, resulting in the other half Boombass to produce remixes during 2020.
You can listen to their 2019 album Dreems here:
Kavinsky
I first heard of Kavinsky from The Weeknd’s Kiss Land (Deluxe) album, where they collaborated on a electrified song titled Odd Look. I then came across him again today, oblivious to his French success and curious as to why he hadn’t broken the Uk or US market like fellow French EDM artists David Guetta and Daft Punk. Kavinsky clearly has a huge influence on the artists he works with, considering the similarities between Kissland’s cinematic feel (particularly on Tears In The Rain) and the atmosphere on Night Call.
You can listen to his latest single Renegade here:
Data
Ironically, I couldn’t really find much data on DATA. I nevertheless added them to my list purely for their musical-esque vocals and Electronica blend. Their last release, a collaborative single with one hit musician Sacha Sieff dates back to 2016. It’s a shame that no music from DATA has been released since then, but fortunately they provided their dedicated 106,836 Spotify fans with three albums beforehand: Don’t Sing (2015) Skywriter (2009) and Strada Bianca (1974 – I know, I was confused by this too).
You can listen to their title track Skywriter here:
Phoenix
Phoenix are arguably the most famous artists on this list, being extremely well known in the world of Indie. Just as I was going to mention their unexplainable lack of success in the UK, let alone the US, I noticed that their highest hit in France ‘If I Ever Feel Better‘ only reached number 12. On the bright side, however, the synth-pop band have still released music two decades later in 2020, and are set to play at a festival in Paris this year.
You can listen to one of their more recent singles Goodbye Soleil here:
Jieska
Jieska seems to have proved my theory right that everything sounds better in French, especially with his November single Dos à Dos, where he fuses velvety vocals with countless sleek R&B sounds. The song is truly a highlight of his career, already close to surpassing his most popular single Baby Mama which was released in the February of last year.
You can listen to Dos à Dos here:
Beaumont
Similar to DATA, it was incredibly hard to find information on this genre-indescribable group. In 2012, Beaumont released a five song EP entitled Bobo Saloon, amassing over 3 million steams on Spotify with the track L’orientale. How Beaumont did this with such little promotion and never continued to release music I don’t know, but it’s undeniable that their soft unique sound deserved a lot more recognition on a chart scale.
You can listen to the EP here:
