How did it end?
Maybe your situationship has just told you they’re “not looking for anything serious”.
Maybe the love of your life got cold feet.
Maybe you’re the one who knows it’s not working out, and you’ve got that sick guilt-ridden feeling in your stomach as you arrive at their door ready to break the news.
Or perhaps this is merely an amicable “conscious uncoupling”, in which case good for you.
French is the language of love and so it makes sense they know a thing or two about heartbreak too.
Without further ado, WAT presents a run-down of the best French heartbreak songs for every stage of the breakup.
Grégoire – Ta Main (2008)
Feeling sad? Be more sad. No era does ugly crying music quite like the mid-noughties. Released in 2008, Ta Main (Your Hand) navigates the painful reality of being separated too soon. If you need to sob into your pillow, crank this up. In an interview at the time, Grégoire commented that while the song was originally written in memory of his late brothers Nicolas and Ludovic, he deliberately made it ambiguous enough that it could be applied to any situation, including romantic. How thoughtful.
Léa Castel – À Cause de toi (2021)
This is your club request dance-floor filler for your big night out post-split. À Cause de toi is France’s answer to Kelly Clarkson’s smash hit Because of You. Get messy and howl along to the lyrics by all means: “À cause de toi, mon cœur saigneeee, tous mes rêves t′appartienneeent” (Translation: “because of you, my heart bleeds, all my dreams belong to you…” you get the idea). No judgment, it’s an integral part of the grieving process. Keep your friends close, and whatever you do, don’t text them.
Jean-Louis Cormier – Si Tu Reviens (2015)
Has your boo ghosted you? This song is for you, my friend. The protagonist of this song is clearly trapped in the bargaining stage, AKA the delulu phase. In the poignant chorus, he pleads, “I’ll lay bare my mind, my eyes, my heart and my hands, if you return.” This is the song for the late-night ruminations, when you lie awake and wonder, if only I’d shown more interest in skiing or signing up for that half-marathon, would the outcome have been different? Girl, no. You could’ve twisted yourself into a pretzel trying to be what you thought he wanted, but there’s nothing you can do if even he doesn’t know what he wants. He’s a commitment-phobe, case closed.
FrançoisE Hardy – Il n’y pas d’amour heureux (1968)
Do you find yourself stuck in an on-and-off situationship? Would “it’s complicated” accurately describe your current relationship status? If so, your search for a song that encapsulates the torturous state of being unhappy in love is over. This list would not be complete without some of the French classics. Il n’y pas d’amour heureux (originally published as a poem by Louis Aragon in 1943) sits alongside Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas as one of the saddest songs ever written. Add in Comment te dire adieu and Partir quand même from Hardy’s back catalogue and you’re set! Top tip: speaking from personal experience, this song is best enjoyed while sitting on a bench in the drizzle of Paris’s Parc de Buttes Chaumont.
Therapie Taxi – Salop(e) (2018)
Congratulations, you’ve reached the angry stage. This is arguably one of the more fun phases of a break-up. As long as you’re not harming anyone, no one will bat an eyelid if you act unhinged and, say, hold a party and burn all your exes’ belongings in a ceremonial bonfire as a friend of mine once did. Fronted by Zaoui and Adé, Therapie Taxi is the undisputed champion of the infectious French pop banger. This song is completely bonkers. I won’t type any of the expletive-laden lyrics, but please do have a read of the translation here. Better still, the bracketed (e) of Salop(e) makes this gender neutral, so you can personalise it to suit your needs.
Zaho de Sagazan – Tristesse (2023)
Of the stages of grief, the depression stage lasts one of the longest, and it’s the most draining. Over jittering synths, Zaho de Sagazan personifies her sadness as an omnipresent stalking presence. She is locked in an endless power struggle with her tristesse (sadness), “no matter how much I do, no matter how much I say, to make her go away, she stays. And in the end, I even wonder if she’s not here all the time.” She reflects in the devastating middle 8. Her debut album La symphonie des éclairs is full of angsty gems just like this one, and is well worth a listen.
Patrick Bruel – Je te l’dis quand même (1989)
Acceptance. Not all break-ups have to be acrimonious and dramatic. Maybe you both recognise it’s not going to work, because on some level, deep down, you know that you can’t possibly expect to build a future with a guy who once accidentally left his toothbrush at yours and instead of, you know, buying a new one, he just went four days without brushing his teeth until you saw each other again. Ahem. Anyway, while having your rose-tinted infatuation goggles on really does wonders for filtering out the red flags, after a while, it is time to face the facts and find a new partner who cares more about their dental hygiene. Je te l’dis quand même (I’ll tell you anyway), is a bittersweet farewell, where the couple recognise their shortcomings and words left unsaid. Although this is goodbye, Bruel declares he loves his former beau regardless.
