This is a song that resembles us. Aya Nakamura, a colossus

Aya Nakamura is achieving scores abroad that have sometimes not been achieved since Edith Piaf – or even ever. With her textual audacity, her singular style and her stubborn freedom, she is part of a line of women who irritate conservatives in France and seduce abroad.

In partnership with the exhibition It’s a song that resembles us – Worldwide hits of French-speaking popular music At the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, these chronicles look in detail at each of the stories presented there.

In one part of the world, Aya Nakamura will forever remain the sumptuous woman striding through the Galerie Diane at the Château de Fontainebleau in a golden sheath dress. As if the splendor of the grand siècle of the French monarchy were embodied in the 21st century in an unexpected appearance that nevertheless conforms to the myth, like a black Marie-Antoinette in a new language. Ah, this language ! It has been widely said that Aya Nakamura does not really speak French. Besides, here, Pookiewhen she says “Pookie blah blah blah, close the door, you have Pookie in the airlock”this means that you have to be careful of the approaching chatterbox.

The word “pookie” comes from poucave, a word from the Roma language that designates what is called in slang a snitch. So, rather than saying pookie, she could have said pipelette. But she says that too. French, English, verlan, slang, Martinican Creole and the feeling that, contrary to what Aya Nakamura says, when she explains herself to journalists, it is not only the language of the neighborhoods or at least not more than when we believed that Renaud really sang the language of real thugs or that Michel Audiard wrote the language of real crooks…

In this episode of This song reminds me of usyou hear excerpts from:

Aya Nakamura, Pookie, 2018

Aya Nakamura, Pookie, 2018

Fababy (feat. Aya Nakamura), Love of a thug, 2015

Fally Ipupa (feat. Aya Nakamura), Bad Boy, 2017

Aya Nakamura, Behavior, 2017

Aya Nakamura, Djadja, 2018

Aya Nakamura, Girlfriends, 2018

Aya Nakamura, Pretty girl, 2020

Aya Nakamura, Baby, 2023

Aya Nakamura, Hyped, 2024

Aya Nakamura, Pookie, 2018

You can also extend this column with the book This song reminds me of us published by Heritage Publishing.

You can also follow the news of this column on X (ex-Twitter).