We were on vacation in Ondres, on the French Atlantic coast near Bayonne and Biarritz. It was 2014 and it was clear from my mother's cancer that it would be our last vacation with her. Probably because of this (as well as my general penchant for music with a wistful tone, as I was diagnosed with by my Spotify annual review this year), I was susceptible to this somewhat melancholy song, which deals with the experiences between mother or father and child.
The original was created by Renaud Séchan and dates back to 1985. Mistral Gagnant is a powdered sweet that you suck out of a green paper wrapper with a straw until you "win". Renaud must have loved it very much as a child.
The song itself was voted the favorite chanson of the French in a survey in 2015, i.e. after the re-release by Coer de Pirate.
The Canadian singer-songwriter Béatrice Mireille Martin contributed this version to the album "La bande a Renaud", on which well-known French artists sang songs by Renaud. Her fantastic piano playing, which she started at the age of three, and her iconic voice make this song a wonderful new version of the chanson.
Béatrice Martin began her career in 2008 by uploading her own songs to the now defunct MySpace website and was able to attract so much attention that she released a solo album. Since then she has been releasing very noteworthy and excellently produced albums and I can only recommend listening to them. The last track "Concept flou" definitely made me want to recommend some French rap to you.