After the new fine that C8 will have to pay, due to insults by Cyril Hanouna against Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, let’s explore how the song insults – or does not insult.
Ah, if only we were insulted only by voices as tender as that of Elodie Frégé, and on a tune of bossa-nova. But, in real life, it’s not often like that, especially on certain television channels, such as the one that employs Cyril Hanouna, once again sentenced for comments by the host – in this case 300,000 euros fine, for insults uttered on the air against Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.
So, if you wonder what’s going on in song, you have to admit that popular culture has always kept below the language of the street. If you think about it carefully, moreover, you have to realize that you can affirm the intention to kill someone, and yet be very restrained in the insult.
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Elodie Frege, My tongue to the cat, 2013
Serge Gainsbourg, old scoundrel, 1979
Jacques Dutronc, The Hymn to love (me the knot), 1980
The Honeymoon Killers, D4, 1980
berry, Bastard’s child, 2008
Vanilla, Endlessly, 2021
Bridget Fontaine, blessed ass, 2006
Bach and Laverne, traffic jam, 1930
France Gall, well-bred people, 1969
Merlot, Bastard, 2008
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And you can also find on this link the podcast 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.