On Monday March 31st, Fabien Marsaud - better known to slam fans as Grand Corps Malade - was one of the morning’s first customers at the Virgin Megastore in Saint-Denis.

With La Grande Ouverture, their third album in ten years, Sacre du Tympan confirm their dazzling style, bringing singers like M, ...

The pianist Martial Solal, who has just celebrated his 80th birthday, mixes tradition and avant-garde in his highly creative pieces. His most recent work, Longitude, ...

At a time ripe with retrospectives and anthologies of Nigerian music, Seun Kuti, son of super-famous Fela, has brought out his first album, Many Things.

Cult Belgian rock band Deus - soon to be celebrating the 20th year of their career - are currently back in the spotlight with their fifth album, Vantage Point. ...

Albin de la Simone, renowned for playing keyboards with Vanessa Paradis and a number of other music stars, is now a respected solo artist in his own right.

After several years living in Berlin, Gonzales relocated to Paris in 2004 and since then the Canadian has found himself in great demand, arranging albums for Philippe Katerine, ...

Three years after breaking onto the music scene with her last album Le Fil, Camille proves she is as musically innovative and vocally audacious as ever. Her new album, ...

Dyaoulé Pemba are hotter than hot right now with their debut album, Moonlight chante Haïti, receiving a significant amount of attention. Not only that, but the group have been selected to appear in the ‘Discovery’ section at the Printemps de Bourges festival this weekend...

What do Miss Kittin, Missill, Mlle Caro and Jennifer Cardini have in common? All four have championed their own take on electro sounds, made a name for themselves at home and abroad and have recently released albums.

Mounira Mitchala, one of the rare female vocalists from Chad to emerge on the international music scene, is a woman full of surprises. Mounira, who won RFI’s "Découvertes" award in 2007, ...

Jean-Louis Murat’s new album, Tristan, turns the clock back several centuries, retelling the tragic medieval tale of those famously star-crossed lovers Tristan and Isolde.

The Cameroonian singer and bass-player Richard Bona - a much sought-after figure on the international music scene these days - has just released the first live album of his career. ...

Belgian rockers Zita Swoon remain relatively little-known and under-appreciated outside their national frontiers. But at home they have established themselves as one of the most prolific Belgian rock bands in recent years.

On their extraordinary new album Santhiaba, which mixes the full cultural diversity of Senegal with classical music and French 'chanson', ...

Barely four years after Les Beaux Dégâts, Francis Cabrel has taken us all by surprise, releasing his new album, Des roses et des orties (Roses and Nettles) on 31 March 2008. ...

How best to describe the album For Stéphane? Perhaps, quite simply, as a tribute paid by an exceptionally talented disciple to his late great mentor.

Alain Bashung’s new album, Bleu pétrole, has been one of the most eagerly-awaited album releases this spring. Five and a half years after L’Imprudence, Bashung has teamed up with songwriters Gérard Manset ...

The Martians have landed and Kent knows it! On his new album, L’Homme de Mars, Starshooter’s former frontman invites a little green man from outer space for a flying visit. And his Martian soon has enough...

Emile Biayenda formed Les Tambours de Brazza (literally the Drummers of Brazza) - the group take their name from Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo - back in 1991. ...

After winning a prestigious 'Académie Charles-Cros' award for his 2001 album Xel, El Hadj N’Diaye is currently back in the news with his third album, ...

Chart-topping French pop singer Raphael is currently back in the news with his fourth studio album. On Je sais que la Terre est plate (EMI), ...

"Ravinahitsy" is a local expression used in the Tuléar region of Madagascar to wish someone success. So it makes a fitting title for the latest album by Damily, ...

On 11 March 1978, Claude François died electrocuted in his bathtub in Paris, thus robbing French music of one of its most famous symbols of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Montreal’s cutting-edge electro producer Ghislain Poirier is currently back in the spotlight with No Ground Under, a dark but ultra-danceable album that mixes hip-hop, ...

The Djoliba National Ballet, a veritable institution in their native Guinea, are currently back on stage with a new show, ...

Sébastien Tellier, who rose to mainstream fame with La Ritournelle - an audaciously catchy piano melody lasting over seven minutes - has always been a master in the art of surprise. On past albums he has come across as moodily inconsolable (L’incroyable vérité), ...

Following the success of his acoustic album, Myamba, in 2005, Omar Pène hit the road on an extensive international tour. Then he was involved in lengthy celebrations for the 30th anniversary of his group, ...

Following a triumphant European tour, commercial success in Japan and a debut album (which has sold over 60,000 copies to date), it looks like there’s no stopping Girls in Hawaii. This hot young group from Belgium’s thriving rock and pop scene appear to have ...

In the run-up to the release of his third solo album due out at the end of March, rapper Kery James has been assuring a busy schedule on the road.

It’s official, the Orchestre National de Barbès - ONB to their fans - are not over and done with. After almost a decade’s silence on the recording front,

Henri Salvador died in his Paris home this morning, Wednesday 13^th February, in the wake of an aneurism. The French Caribbean singer could have gone down in music history as the musical court jester, ...

Joseph Kabasele, popularly known as Grand Kalle, died on 11 February 1983. Kabasele, author of the seminal African hit Independance Cha Cha, ...

Sometimes a whole life can be contained in the smallest of objects - an object such as the little tin box in which Juliette Nourredine collected her childhood treasures.

When it comes to hot Francophone rap releases, 2008 looks set to be a bumper year for Belgium. January saw the release of not one but two cutting-edge albums from Belgian rappers:  ...

Cali is currently back in the spotlight with his third album, L'Espoir (Hope), released a few weeks before he takes to the road on yet another mammoth tour.

Back in 2004, there was a huge buzz around Cocosuma, a nifty pop trio who recorded the theme tune to the French TV series Clara Sheller and appeared on a number of cutting-edge compilations.

Patrick Ruffino, one of the runners-up in RFI’s “Découvertes” talent contest in 2006, has just released an impressive solo debut, Ewa Ka Jo.

What do Feist, Ayo, Cesaria Evora and up-and-coming fado star Cristina Branco have in common? Strangely enough, their non-French albums have all been released on French labels.

In the space of two spellbinding albums and a series of raved-about concerts, Syd Matters - aka Parisian songwriter Johnathan Morali and his four musicians - have established themselves as the leading lights on France’s indie folk-rock scene. ...