Is Gen-z starting to forget the great classics of French music?

This weekend, whether in the south or the north, two events captured the attention of all of France: the Dua Lipa concert in Paris and Jul’s in Marseille. While one broke attendance records at the Vélodrome with no less than 150,000 spectators, the other was highly anticipated at La Défense Arena for one very specific song: her surprise song. On March 17, the Anglo-Albanian singer kicked off her Radical Optimism tour in Oceania, and has just made several stops in France. In addition to offering a sensational show and a memorable concert, Dua Lipa decided to add a special touch to her tour: each night, she covers a song by an artist from the city where she is performing. From Highway to Hell in Sydney to 99 Luftballons a few weeks later in Hamburg, and Me Gustas Tu in Madrid, it's safe to say expectations were high for France. But after making the crowds go wild with Get Lucky by Daft Punk and Dernière Danse by Indila in Lyon, Parisian fans were left disappointed. While her cover of Moi... Lolita seemed to win over the audience on her first Paris date, it was not the case for her rendition of Be My Baby by Vanessa Paradis, performed at her second Paris show. Why? Simply because the audience didn’t know it.

Released in 1992, Be My Baby was the lead single from the third album by Vanessa Paradis, who was already enjoying great success after Joe le taxi in 1987. Written by her then-partner Lenny Kravitz, Be My Baby quickly became a global hit and reached number six on the UK singles chart. Although the song is in English, it still became a classic of 1990s French music, both in France and beyond. So how is it that a young audience like Dua Lipa’s doesn’t know this bop? Indeed, TikTok videos posted after the concert by Gen-Z users showed confused, disappointed, or even disgusted faces, along with comments like “She could have picked another well-known song, there are plenty of other French artists”, “I know the song but it doesn’t surprise me that others don’t. Is it really that famous? I don’t think so”, “We were all surprised and disappointed except for the 15 people who recognized the song”, or “I thought she was going to sing in French”. All these comments raise a question: is the new French generation starting to forget — or even erase — the best of its musical classics?

Let’s be honest: even in 2025, with all the new releases in the Francophone music scene popping up like daisies, nothing beats a good old karaoke night where we sing Johnny Hallyday like our lives depend on it. Yet it seems that the French classics that manage to survive new trends and Gen-Z filters are carefully selected, their fate now determined by one key factor: TikTok. It’s no secret the Chinese app plays a decisive role in music exposure, whether the song is 50 years old or five days. And France is certainly no exception, with TikTok trends reviving songs like T’en va pas by Elsa, Vois sur ton chemin from Les Choristes, or Dernière Danse by Indila — which Dua Lipa herself covered to the delight of her audience. Let’s also not forget last summer, when queen Aya Nakamura dominated TikTok for weeks after her reinterpretation of Formidable by Charles Aznavour. According to Thomas Cerha, head of music at TikTok France, “80% of users discover new music on the platform,” as he explained in an interview with Stratégies. But beware: classics that don’t get their fifteen minutes of fame on TikTok may be left behind.

So what can be done to counter this slow but very real disappearance of some of the best French hits from the playlists of Gen-Z? Perhaps artists themselves, like Dua Lipa and Aya Nakamura, need to keep this heritage alive by bringing it back into the spotlight. Perhaps schools, media, or record labels should seize TikTok not only to sell, but to pass down. Because if algorithms decide what we listen to, it’s urgent we whisper to them what must never be forgotten.