A flag and songs

After the Palestinian flag affair in the National Assembly, let’s see if the blue-white-red flag takes precedence over all others. In the song, in any case, it is celebrated as much as contested.

“From the French flag, how much glory flows forever” : it’s perhaps a little outdated, but this song performed by the children of La Maitrise de Radio France, in 2014, meets what is more or less a consensus: yes, the blue-white-red flag evokes a lot of glory – military glory, football glory, glory of heroes in uniform, glory of Olympic and Paralympic athletes… And also national unity – like those millions of flags on the windows and balconies of France, after the attacks of 2015.

So this song written for school children, in the painful circumstances of the year 1916, puts a little solemnity in the love of the three colors. But we are also the country that also regards its flag with hedonistic casualness.

In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:

Master’s degree from Radio France, This is our flag, 1916 (2014 recording)

Claude Nougaro, Blue white blues, 1985

Gérard Berliner, Flag, 1994

Raggasonic, Blue White Red, 1995

Marcel Amont, Blue white red and fries, 1972

Marc Ogeret, The Red Flag, 1879 (1994 recording)

The Sheriffs, Raise the black flag, 2012

Léo Ferré, The Anarchists, 1969

Moussu T e Lei Jovents, My red flag, 2013

Guylaine Guy, Blue White Red, 1959

Gnawa Diffusion, Blue white rotating beacon, 1997

Master’s degree from Radio France, This is our flag, 1916 (2014 recording)

You can also follow the news of this column on Twitter.

And you can also find the podcast on this link Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.