French Love Songs: Get Romantic With These 15 French Love Songs

In the popular imagination, French is the language of love, the French are a passionate and amorous people and their capital, Paris, is among the most impossibly romantic cities in the world.

These statements may or may not be true – you may believe in such stereotypes or consider them no more than empty clichés. But there’s no denying the French language certainly has its fair share of songs to rouse the emotions and make the heart flutter.

In any case, listening to French love songs will give you an insight into this deeply ingrained aspect of French culture while also giving your language skills a boost.

Of course, there are many hundreds of French love songs, and with a post like this, I can barely scratch the surface.

However, to give you a broad selection of songs and artists, in this post, I list 15 French love songs that will provide a well-rounded introduction to the genre.

Classic French Love Songs

1. Ne me quitte pas – Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer, actor and director who was active from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. He sold over 25 million records, making him the third most successful Belgian recording artist of all time (behind only Salvatore Adamo and Frédéric François).

Ne me quitte pas (Don’t Leave Me) was the title single from Brel’s 1972 album of the same name and is considered by many to be his most iconic track.

The song, heavy with anguish and regret, was written after his mistress Suzanne Gabriello left him while pregnant with his child, a pregnancy that she subsequently terminated.

As well as being the song with which Brel is most closely associated, Ne me quitte pas has also been covered many times by artists including, among others, Céline Dion and Johhny Hallyday.

Brel died of a pulmonary embolism in 1978 at the age of just 49 and was buried in French Polynesia.

2. La vie en rose – Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf, a true giant of French music who performed in the cabaret and “modern chanson” genres, recorded some of the most timeless tracks in the French language.

La vie en rose is considered her signature song – it was written by Piaf in 1945 and then released in 1947.

The literal translation of the title is “Life in Pink”, but a better way to understand its meaning would be something like “life through rose-coloured glasses”.

The song, which is about the happiness of finding true love, was an uplifting favourite with her cabaret audiences in the post-war years.

This positive reception convinced her to release the song as a single two years after she wrote it despite others initially advising her against it.

A native of Paris, Piaf led an eventful life, and her story was made into a film in 2007. To English-speaking audiences, the film is known as La vie en rose, named after the song, but the French title is La môme, which means “the girl” or “the kid”.

Another of her most famous songs was Non, je ne regrette rien (No, I don’t Regret Anything). 

This typically defiant song, which was released less than three years before her death in 1963, may be familiar even to those who know nothing else about French music since it featured in the hugely successful 2010 film Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio. 

3. Je l’aime à mourir – Francis Cabrel

Francis Cabrel is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from the southwest of France. Active since the mid-1970s, his long and successful career has seen him develop into one of the most influential French musicians of all time.

Je l’aime à mourir (I Love Her to Death) was released in 1979 and went on to sell over 600,000 copies in France, topping the charts for five weeks. It also enjoyed significant success in Quebec.

As can be guessed from the title, the track is a classic love song, showcasing his evocative voice, his talents as a songwriter and his skills as a guitarist.

Although best known for his songs in French, Cabrel has also sung in Spanish, Italian (he is of Italian descent) and even Occitan, a French language spoken in the Southwest where he grew up.

He also released a version of Je l’aime a mourir in Spanish, entitled La Quiero a Morir (which means the same thing). The French version of the song was covered by Shakira and performed in French-speaking countries during her 2011 tour.

4. Comme d’habitude – Claude François

Although practically everyone in the English-speaking world and beyond will be familiar with Frank Sinatra’s My Way, the original version was actually a French song entitled Comme d’habitude (As Usual) performed by French singer and songwriter Claude François.

The song, released in 1968, is about a couple falling out of love after their relationship becomes stale and was written in one morning – along with three other songs – by François after his separation from the singer France Gall.

During his lifetime, he is thought to have sold around 20 to 30 million records. He would surely have sold far more, but his career was tragically cut short when he was accidentally electrocuted in 1978 at the age of just 39.

However, after his death, his music remained in demand and continued to sell well, making him one of the biggest posthumous record sellers singing in French.

5. Je te promets – Johnny Hallyday

It would be impossible to compile a list of French songs without mentioning the inimitable Johnny Hallyday, an artist who is fondly remembered and was treated as a national treasure during his long and illustrious career.

Credited with bringing rock and roll to France, Hallyday – usually referred to simply as “Johnny” – recorded an incredible 79 albums during a career that spanned 57 years.

In total, he sold around 140 million albums, including five that went diamond, 40 gold and 22 platinum.

Je te promets (I Promise You) is one of his best-known French love songs and was originally released in 1987. On its initial release, it only made it to number six in the French charts. However, it was re-released in 2017, when reached number one.

Hallyday died in December 2017 at the age of 74 and was buried on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy.

6. La déclaration d’amour – France Gall

France Gall (real name Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall) was a French singer who was active from the early 1960s up until the late 1990s.

Coming from a musical family, Gall was perhaps always destined to sing – her father Robert Gall had previously written songs for Édith Piaf, and her mother was also a professional singer.

She released her first single at just 16, and a year later, in 1965, she won the Eurovision Song Contest representing Luxembourg, cementing her position as a rising star.

Gall performed in the so-called yé-yé genre, a style that was inspired by British and American rock and roll. The term yé-yé is derived from the English “yeah! yeah!”, an exclamation made popular by the likes of The Beatles in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

La declaration d’amour (The Declaration of Love) was released in 1974. The song was written by Michel Berger who Gall later went on to marry. From this point until Berger’s death in 1992, Gall only sang songs written by her husband.

Sadly, Berger died in 1992 at the age of 44. Their daughter Pauline, who had been born with cystic fibrosis, subsequently died in 1997, and following these dual tragedies, Gall was rarely seen in public until her death in 2018 at the age of 70.

7. J’ai encore rêvé d’elle – Il était une fois

Il était une fois (meaning “Once Upon a Time”) was an extremely popular French pop band who were active throughout most of the 1970s.

They were formed in 1972 by Joëlle Mogensen, the lead singer, who was of Vietnamese, French, American and Danish descent.

The band experienced several changes of personnel, but Mogensen was ever-present. Between 1972 and 1979, the band recorded four full albums and released a number of singles before splitting up at the end of the decade when Mogensen decided to leave.

J’ai encore rêvé d’elle (I Dreamt of Her Again) was released in 1975. The song featured band member Richard Dewitte as the main vocalist singing alongside Mogensen and is an easily recognisable and highly nostalgic classic of the time. 

Mogensen herself died suddenly of pulmonary oedema in 1982 after enjoying a short solo career in the years after leaving the band.

She was only 29 and joins the list of French artists who passed before their time, something that seems to be an unfortunate recurring theme in this roundup.

8. Besoin d’amour – France Gall

Although I’ve already included one song by France Gall on this list, there’s a good reason for including another. And that’s because this track is taken from Starmania, a Canadian-French musical “rock opera” that became a cultural phenomenon from the 1970s on.

The music was written by Gall’s husband Michel Berger – so it’s no surprise to find her as one of the vocalists on the production – and the lyrics were penned by Luc Plamondon.

Set in a dystopian near future, the musical tells a tale of conflict, forbidden love, intrigue and a struggle for power played out against the backdrop of a bizarre science fiction universe.

The upbeat and energetic Besoin d’amour (Need for Love) is one of the outstanding songs from the production. And it will be familiar to many, even if they have never seen Starmania or even heard of it.

In 1992, an English version of the production was created and starred the likes of Céline Dion, Cyndi Lauper and Tom Jones in prominent roles.

Contemporary French Love Songs

9. Pour que tu m’aimes encore – Céline Dion

Undoubtedly the most famous name on this list outside of the francophone world, Canadian Céline Dion is renowned for her songs in both English and French, which she performs with her distinctive and unmistakably powerful voice.

Pour que tu m’aimes encore (So That You’ll Love Me Again) was a single taken from Dion’s 1995 album D’eux (meaning “of them”, “about them” or “from them”) – the album was her 13^th studio album and her 10^th album singing in French.

As well as topping the charts in France, French-speaking Belgium and Quebec, Pour que tu m’aimes encore also broke into the top 10 in the UK, the first French-language song to do so. 

To this day, the track represents her biggest success when singing in French and in the francophone world is considered her signature song. Although for English speakers, she is probably most famous for The Heart Will Go On from the soundtrack to Titanic (1997).

Listening to this song will be of particular interest to fans of Dion who are only used to hearing her sing in English. And for more advanced learners of French, you should easily be able to pick out her Canadian accent in her delivery.

10. Je t’aime – Lara Fabian

A precocious talent, Belgian singer and songwriter Lara Fabian was enrolled in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from the age of eight after her parents became aware of her abilities and decided that she should attend music school.

She represented Luxembourg in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth behind eventual winner Céline Dion who was competing for Switzerland.

Her breakthrough came with her 1994 album Carpe Diem. Following this, Pure, her third studio album – which was released in 1997 and from which Je t’aime (I Love You) was taken – sold over three million copies.

This track, a melancholy love song, is a typical example of Fabian’s style and is among her most successful and enduringly popular singles.

11. Si tu veux – De Palmas

Si tu veux (If You Want) is a track taken from the 2000 album Marcher dans le sable (Walking in the Sand) by Gérald De Palmas – an artist usually known simply as De Palmas.

Born on the French island of Réunion, De Palmas moved to mainland France when he was 10. At the age of 13, he discovered ska music, an influence that can be detected in some of his music, including Si tu veux.

His first album, La dernière année (The Last Year) was released in 1994 and was well received; however, his next album, Les lois de la nature (The Laws of Nature) performed less well.

Following Marcher dans le sable, his third studio album, he enjoyed some of the most successful years of his career, winning accolades and playing a large number of concerts.

De Palmas is still active as a musician today, although his last album, La beauté du geste (The Beauty of the Gesture), was released back in 2016, and he hasn’t produced anything since.

12. Roméo kiffe Juliette – Grand Corps Malade

Grand Corps Malade, or GCM for short, is the stage name of Fabien Marsaud, a French lyricist who also performs slam poetry, a type of competitive poetry recital.

GCM is responsible for several albums, and Roméo kiffe Juliette is a reworking of the Shakespearean classic taken from his third release. In the song, the play is reimagined as the forbidden love story between a Muslim boy and a Jewish girl from a Parisian banlieue (suburb).

The verb kiffer is French slang for “to love” and gives a good indication of the kind of street language and lyrical style employed by GCM in this and many of his other tracks. 

13. Savoir aimer – Florent Pagny

Another of France’s best-selling recording artists, Florent Pagny is a singer, songwriter, musician and actor.

Although he began his career in acting, he released his first song in 1987 and since then has seen more success as a recording artist than on screen.

Savoir aimer (Know How to Love) was released in 1997 and was the title track from his album of the same name.

During his career, Pagny is thought to have sold around six million singles, and this track is still his best-performing number to date, topping the charts in France for nine weeks.

The album Savoir aimer was Pagny’s fourth, and he has since gone on to release many others. Notably, in 2007, he released a collection of Jacques Brel covers entitled Pagny chante Brel (Pagny Sings Brel).

Savoir aimer marked the first time Pagny reached number one in the album charts – and since then, none of his studio albums have failed to reach the top five in France.

14. Donne-moi le temps – Jenifer

Jenifer Yaël Juliette Dadouche-Bartoli – as an artist known simply as Jenifer – came to prominence after winning the televised talent show Star Academy France in 2002.

Since then, she has enjoyed success in both the singles and albums charts in France, Belgium and Switzerland with her particular brand of pop and pop rock.

Donne-moi le temps is the fourth single taken from her debut album and is a sentimental love ballad that suits her vocal style well. The album, simply entitled Jenifer, eventually went on to sell over a million copies.

She has since gone on to release a further eight studio albums, the most recent of which was No 9, a record that came out in 2022. None of her albums have failed to reach the top 10 in France – and she reached number one with both her second and third offerings.

15. La lettre – Renan Luce

A singer-songwriter from Paris, Renan Luce is responsible for such hits as La lettre (The Letter) and Les voisines (The Neighbours). 

He has also released three full studio albums, with his most recent, D'Une Tonne à Un Tout Petit Poids (From a Ton to a Very Small Weight), appearing in 2014.

La lettre was taken from his first album Repenti (which can be translated as “reformed” or “redeemed”), a record that peaked at number two in both the French and Belgian charts.

Counted among his most popular songs, La lettre perfectly encapsulates his musical style coupled with his lively songwriting that deals with themes from everyday life and often displays a wry and insightful wit.

French Love Songs FAQ

Listen For Pleasure And To Improve Your French

In this post, I’ve tried to bring you a selection of singers from various francophone countries who sing in a range of styles and who were active in different musical eras.

My advice is to try some of these French love songs songs to see which ones you enjoy – and then simply to listen to them for pleasure. After that, you can also explore some of the other songs from the artists that catch your attention.

However, looking up the lyrics online and even learning to sing the songs yourself can be a great way of enlarging your vocabulary, all while ensuring the new words you pick up become fixed in your long-term memory, right where you want them.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.