Indochine: Sanna Sur La Croix video

A new video from Indochine, marking the end of 2025 and the start of a new year. A video for the track No Name emerged two months ago, and now it's the turn of the song Sanna Sur La Croix, both from the 2024 album Babel Babel.

Sanna Sur La Croix is dedicated to former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, a political leader who Indochine singer Nicola Sirkis voiced his admiration for. During her term in office footage of her at a private party was leaked, which led to opposition right-wing politicians to call for her to undergo drugs tests. Marin was strongly opposed to Putin's invasion of Ukraine and led Finland to become a member of NATO.

The voice at the beginning of the video is Marin, explaining "I am a human being. And I too, sometimes want joy, light and fun in the middle of these dark clouds. 

"And that involves all kinds of photos and videos that I wouldn't want to see, and yet they're showing them to all of us. It’s private, it’s joy and it’s life."

The band are plain in their support for Marin in the song, and the unfairness of those who criticised her, who they say did not deserve her.

The band performs on the back of a lorry in the Finnish capital Helsinki, the footage interspersed with brief live clips of Indochine playing at Bercy in Paris.

Indochine have toured pretty relentlessly in 2025 and have dates in January, February and March this year to bring their arena tour to a close, including an astonishing eight dates at the Accor Arena in Paris. Meanwhile, the Babel Babel album has sold over a quarter of a million copies since its release.

It's kind of funny to see a crowd of maybe two dozen people applaud the band at the end of the performance in Helsinki, given the size of the audiences the band has played to during their latest tour. 

Indochine: Un été français

A new single from Indochine one of France's most successful rock acts, with a video that gives a breathtaking view of Paris from a vantage point from the roof of the Grande Arche de la Défense on the outskirts of the city.

For all the Grande Arche is one of the capital's most recognisable landmarks, the viewing deck of the 110m tall structure was closed to the public for a number of years. La Défense was constructed as a home for many of France's top businesses and a place where international companies could build their office spaces on the edge of Paris.

The video makes the most of the area's modern strangeness, with its obvious nods towards both the Beatles on the roof of Abbey Road or U2's Where the Streets Have No Name video.

You can't help but wonder what those performances might have looked like if the same drone filming technology had been available in those days. And if they'd had more fireworks.

The song itself is a powerful piece that features on the recent Indochine album 13, Nicola Sirkis inspired by events in the 2017 election that saw the Front National through to the second round of the presidential elections.

Indochine are in the middle of a massive tour with arena dates ahead of outdoor shows this summer, and a second round of shows later in the year including two nights at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris on November 16 and 17.

Indochine: La vie est belle

A notification from Indochine HQ this week that one of France's biggest rock groups is back in action, with a single, new album and tour on the horizon.

Since the 90s, Indochine have been one of the country's biggest rock acts, with a commercial and artistic credibility that few can equal. It's hard to think of an Anglo equivalent to indochine, the closest would be someone like U2, a post-punk act who went on to fill stadiums, but unlike U2 they never became a parody of what once made them great.

Indochine's last studio album was 2013's Black City Parade, a number one album in France that included the track College Boy, a tarck that showed that even a band that had been around for a few decades was still capable of raising difficult and controversial questions.

Their subsequent tours supporting the album saw them play two shows at the Stade de France, as well as a gig in London. Two live albums, Black City Tour and Black City Concerts documented the dates, both collections reaching the top ten.

So some new materiais quite a big deal, and the band unveiled their new track on prime time French TV show Quotidien avec Yann Barthes.

Their new track La vie est belle come from their forthcoming 13th album, which is due to appear on September 8.

They've confirmed a tour of arenas in France in February 2018, with a show at the Zénith on Paris on February 16 and 17. Tickets go on sale on June 21.

Jacques Dutronc and Nicola Sirkis: L'opportuniste

A revival of a Jacques Dutronc song L'opportuniste by Dutronc himself and Indochine singer Nicola
Sirkis has emerged as a single and video.

The track comes out ahead of an album of covers of Dutronc numbers, to be released at the end of March to celebrate his 70th birthday.

L'opportuniste was originally the title track of an Dutronc album from 1968, the song again becomong popuar in the early 90s with the release of the Dutronc live collection Dutronc au Casino.

Dutronc was always one of France's most skilled songwriters, and his mocking of the ways of the politician has not really aged at all.

In November last year Dutronc toook to the stage in Paris alongside Eddie Mitchell and Johny Hallyday under the name Vieilles Canailles, for a run of sold-out shows at Bercy.

The album Joyeux anniversaire M'sieur Dutronc comes out on March 30.