Before Henrik's computer crashes (whiwh wouldn't be too cool for us), I make a second thread
Please go to the first one if you want to see and hear artists as varied as Boudewijn de Groot, Jacques Brel, Evan Selevan, a history of Hungarian pop music, Paco Ibanez, Fabrizio De Andre, etc..

Thanks to Lonesome Panda, you had a good overview of modern French music.

There are 3 French contemporary artists/groups that I like :

1) Moussu T E Lei Jovents

From the Marseille area in the south of France, they are close to the Fabulous Trobadors : a regional group singing sometimes in their own dialect
between occitan tradition (from the South of France, same as Fabulous Trobadors), black music (blues, jazz but also music from the Carribean and Brasil) and a do it yourself punk attitude, this band re-invent "la chanson marseillaise" and carry the message of a cosmopolitan harbor.

Their Myspace

2) Dick Annegarn : Born Dutch, he was a folk singer in the '70s and made an excellent comeback in 1998.
He mixes folk, rock and world

This is his most beautiful song of the '70s, called "Bruxelles"
The clip sucks, but what a song !



Link to his site

3) Les Fabulous Trobadors

A duet from Toulouse, they mix rap, world music and Occitan tradition from the South of France
there is no clip on Youtube, but type their names on Songza and listen to "Demain, demain" (Tomorrow, tomorrow)

Have many of you guys heard the Jayhawks? They are criminally underrated even when people talk about alt-country. In my opinion, they are #1 when it comes to alt-country and #2 behind the Replacements when it comes to Minnesota music. Yes, I'm including Dylan and Prince! They haven't had a real good album in a long time but when it comes to alt-country their first 5 or 6 cds are staples.

I love the Jayhawks
They are indeed my favorite ALt country band and "Hollywood Town Hall" is in my top 100

Awesome! I didn't notice that in the poll.

"Hollywood town hall" is in my CD collection, it's a very fine record and the song "Waiting for the sun" is great.

Here's Marit Larsen. She used to be one half of girly popgroup M2M, together with Marion Raven (last seen in an duet with Meat Loaf).

Now she's grown up, and she has made a great album full of bittersweet little melodies. This one is particularly great. It's called Under the Surface.

Marion Raven's solo album is pretty great too.

I'm listening to a good folk/rock Norwegian group called Minor Majority. they had an excellent review in "Telerama"

Yes, Minor Majority is a nice little band. They really have a talent for making beautiful melodies.

Check out their breakthrough hit here:

No surprise why everyone likes this girl here