France goes to America with Yseult at the Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show

In addition to the clichés of big burgers, Grease-style diners, and excess, the late-night show, a typical television format from our friends across the Atlantic combining humor and interviews usually aired late at night, is also one of the features that contribute to making American culture feel so distant from our European habits. While the concept was popularized in the 1960s by Johnny Carson and his show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, American television today is brimming with these types of programs, offering a wide range of hosts and something for every taste and color. A concept that France has also tried to implement on the other side of the globe, with shows like Ce soir avec Arthur or Le Late avec Alain Chabat, although they have not managed to rival the popularity the program enjoys in the New World. Instead of bringing America to us, it was France that went to America last Monday when French singer Yseult, the most-listened-to French-speaking artist in the world, stepped onto the stage of the famous The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Discovered in 2015 via the show Pop Star, the singer has since made a name for herself on the French-speaking music scene with her four albums Yseult, Rouge, Noir, and BRUT. However, her career recently took a different turn thanks to her performance at the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. With the eyes of the world focused on the French capital and the protagonists of the Olympic scene, athletes, and artists alike, the young singer performed My Way by Frank Sinatra on August 11th. A performance that contributed to boosting her popularity beyond France and its neighboring French-speaking countries, catching the attention of the USA and its entertainment industry. It was therefore on the stage of the Tonight Show that Yseult's American career truly took off, as she performed her latest song "suicide," wearing a trompe-l'oeil outfit by Acne Studios.

Has another one of our compatriots achieved the American dream? Indeed, artists from France and Belgium seem determined not to settle for a national career. Directly behind Yseult in the ranking of the most-listened-to French-speaking artists in the world is Aya Nakamura. The Djadja singer has been a unanimous favorite among our American neighbors since her debut and is the best-exported artist, both in terms of sales and streams, with over 7 billion streams worldwide. And her Belgian neighbors are not far behind: Angèle, who also performed at the Olympic closing ceremony alongside Kavinsky and Phoenix, in a modern rendition of Nightcall, is also experiencing tremendous success in the United States. Her tour to promote her second album Brol included 8 dates in North America, making a stop at one of the most famous festivals in the world, Coachella. This export also earned her an invitation to the very elitist New York Met Gala. Her fellow Belgian artist Stromae has also enjoyed unparalleled success in the United States for years, following his 2014 tour there, not to mention, of course, Daft Punk and French House, which managed to export the iconic French techno house of the 90s beyond France's borders.

However, this phenomenon is not recent; for decades, and well before the rise of digitalization and social media, French pop music has been known in America. Charles Aznavour, for example, was considered the most American of the French, a title that earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Édith Piaf also managed to win over American hearts after spending extended periods performing in cabarets. In the late 1960s, Jacques Brel also brought Europe and especially Belgium to the New World when he sang in Broadway "In the harbor of Amsterdam, there are sailors who sing" (although the French version with the Brussels accent is much more charming, let’s be honest). A phenomenon and a commercial strategy rooted in history, though at that time neither Aznavour, Piaf, nor Brel could benefit from their fifteen minutes of fame sitting in a talk show host’s chair, which would inevitably be followed by likes, reposts, and shares of all kinds.