Vraag 2 | Why do Dutch artists like Claude also sing in French? (Dutch spoken)
Next week, Claude will represent the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel. A striking feature of his music: he sings in both Dutch and French. And he is not the only one. Why is it that Dutch artists love to sing French so much? You can hear it in the latest episode of Vraag 2, with associate professor of French literature Jelle Koopmans, on Spotify.
In the latest episode of Vraag 2, editor Jip Koene visits Jelle Koopmans, associate professor of French language and literature at the University of Amsterdam. According to Koopmans, the French chanson tradition is still an important source of inspiration for contemporary artists like Claude.
“In the 20th century, painters, writers, singers and other artists had to go to Paris,” Koopmans says. “‘Paris obligatory’, it was called back then.”
According to Koopmans, this cultural attraction still resonates in music. French chansons transcend borders and are translated into Dutch. Think, for example, of Wim Sonneveld’s Het Dorp and Ramses Shaffy’s Laat me - translations of Jean Ferrat’s La Montagne (1965) and Serge Reggiani’s Ma dernière volonté (1977).
“With this evocation of the chanson tradition,” Koopmans continues, “artists consciously choose the French life-song - and thus not Italian summer hits or modern pop music.”
Listen to the whole story in the latest podcast episode on Spotify (Dutch spoken).
