Thanks to artists from today, like Aya Nakamura, Dadju, Soolking, Angèle, or from yesterday, like Charles Aznavour, the export success of French music increased by 30% in 2023, revealed, Monday April 29, the National Music Center (CNM). These are singles and albums produced in France, not necessarily sung in French or by a French artist – the Belgians Angèle and Pierre de Maere are, for example, produced in France.
The CNM, in partnership with the National Phonographic Publishing Union, lists successes outside France according to thresholds crossed by integrating physical sales (CD, vinyl) and digital, as well as free listening, according to equivalences. The thresholds are, for albums: gold (50,000 sales equivalent), platinum (100,000 sales equivalent) and finally diamond (500,000 sales equivalent), with variations such as 2 x diamond. For singles, listened to digitally today, a gold disc is equivalent to 15 million streams (1 download is equivalent to 150 streams), a platinum disc is equivalent to 30 million streams and a diamond disc is 50 million streams. streams.
Aya Nakamura, heavyweight of French music in the world, is a hit with her album Nakamura (2018), which now exceeds one million copies sold for export (2 x diamond), while her very latest album, DNK ( 2023), is certified gold. The CNM also welcomes the breakthrough made abroad by artists like Tiakola and Dadju, with their respective albums Mélo (2022) and Cullinan (2022), which also achieved gold export status.
Soolking and Gazo see their title Casanova (2023) certified diamond for export, as does Bob Sinclar with the title World, Hold On (2006 title remixed in 2022 by Fisher). Pierre de Maere, with his title Un jour je mariai un ange (released in November 2021), is certified gold for export, accumulating, among other things, more than 60 million views on TikTok.
For female artists produced in France, however, Aya Nakamura is the tree that hides the forest. The CNM thus regrets “a low representation of women despite some great successes”, with only “20% of the titles” entered on the radars which include “a female presence (4% solo and 16% mixed)”. Among the satisfactions, Angèle’s album Nonante- cinq (2021) is platinum with more than 100,000 copies sold abroad. And the title Paro (2021) by Nej’ is certified “2 x export diamond”. More than eight years after its release, Jain’s single Makeba (2015) is certified “6 x diamond”, with 429 million streams worldwide and nearly 60 billion views on TikTok.
The song Yesterday Again (1964) by Charles Aznavour, who died in 2018, is certified diamond for export thanks to its use in the series Lupine on Netflix with Omar Sy as well as in the last album of the megastar of reggaeton Bad Bunny, where we hear Aznavour’s famous refrain in the title Monaco (2023).
