2022's biggest selling albums

 So what were the biggest-selling albums in France last year?

The SNEP website listed the top sellers of 2022, with French artists particularly rap acts - dominating the sales across the country.

Rap artists take the lead in 2022, with Orelsan at the top with his Civilisation album, released in November 2021. It's the second year in a row that Orelsan has topped the French annual sales chart, Civilisation being the best-selling album of 2021, shifting a record of almost 100,000 copies in the first few days of its release and producing two number-one singles including L'odeur de l'Essence, released just ahead of the album. Civilisation sold over 405,000 copies in France in 2022.

The second biggest seller came from Ninho, with his Jefe collection. It sold just over 283,000 copies in France, and while this might seem like quite a gap between it and Orelsan's album, it's a hugely impressive amount for his sixth album, a triple platinum seller that was released in December 2021. 

Stromae sits in third place, with Multitude not far behind the number two seller, amassing sales of just over 241,000. Multitude, released in March last year, followed his massive-selling Racine Carrée album from 2013. Multitude spawned four singles, October 2021's Santé, L'enfer - which reached number one in France in January 2022 - Fils de Joie reaching the top ten in June and Mon Amour, a duet with Camila Cabello.

Rap dominates the top ten, with other albums including Gazo's KMT,  Jul's Extraterrestre, Lomepal's Mauvais Ordre, Vald's V and Tiakola's Melo. For all they might be rap acts, there's a wide range of styles on display here and the figures reveal not only a genre that is commercially successful but is in fine artistic health. 

There are only two female artists in the top ten, with Angèle's  Nonante-Cinq at number six, selling over 185,000 copies in 2022 after its release in December 2021. A re-issue, Nonante-Cinq La Suite followed in November 2022 with six extra tracks.

Clara Luciani's second album Coeur sits at number 10, clocking up just over 155,000 sales over 2022 since its release in June 2021.  Mylène Farmer's L'Emprise is one place behind it with 146,000 sales, and although you would perhaps expect Farmer - probably the most significant performer in France - to be higher in the end-of-year-sales-chart, it's worth remembering that this number one album was only released at the end of November 2022. I'd be surprised if it doesn't feature as one of 2023's biggest sellers too.

What's significant is that out of the top 20 best-selling albums in France in 2022, the overwhelming majority are by Francophone artists. Of the 20 listed, only Ed Sheeran (no. 13), Imagine Dragons (no. 14) and Harry Styles (no.20) fall outside the francosphere.  A deeper look at the SNEP figures shows that in fact 77% of the biggest-selling albums of 2022 are French productions.

A look further down the list reveals many, many more French names. From the familiar - like Renaud, -M-,  Michel Polnareff and even Johnny Hallyday to new acts releasing their debut, it shows that it's not just the significant best-sellers who are Made in France. 

Looking at statistics and focussing on sales doesn't give the whole picture by any means, but it's hard to deny that the figures are very positive and they clearly show that French musical acts remain one of the country's most significant contemporary artistic achievements.

Angèle on the new Dua Lipa single

It's pretty cool to see a major francophone artist collaborate with a high-profile UK/international artist, and that's exactly what's happened with Angèle appearing on the new single from Dua Lipa.

Angèle, although massive in France and in her native Belgium, is still very much an unknown in the UK. Her 2018 Brol album may well be quadruple platinum on Belgium and a diamond seller in France, but in the UK she's likely to pass unnoticed in a late-night London chip shop, as the video shows.

Not so Dua Lipa, whose Future Nostalgia collection released in March reached number one, as it did in 13 countries, amid considerable critical acclaim.

Fever features on the French edition of the album, and the release of the track as a single will introduce Angèle to a wider anglophone audience who might be surprised by francophone rap's sharpest Belgian export making her first appearance on an English language track.

If anything the collaboration shows Dua Lipa's been paying attention to what goes on outside the anglophone music world, and that she's got a wider worldview than many others. 

Whether it establishes Angèle as the next breakthrough French-speaking act in the notoriously monoglot UK is uncertain, but the opportunity to hear some French rap on mainstream music radio is something to cherish.