From Beats to Fluency: How Music Made Me Fall in Love with French

Guest post by Guillermo Manzano Fabré

“Le Rap à Paris, Le Rap à Paris, le rap c’est bon!”

Those were the first words I soaked up like an aural sponge while taking an early dip into the French language. And you know what? That line never left me. I remember it like it was yesterday,during my first French lessons at school in southern Germany, with the Tous Ensemble book from Verlag Klett. In class we always repeated it, so often that all of us learned it by heart and created that chanting melody every time!

I get asked all the time: “Oh, you speak so well! Did you live in France? Are you a native?” The truth is: no, I was never there. I didn’t do a year abroad in Paris or study at the Sorbonne. What I did have was music and an intrinsic motivation for the language. Being a Spanish native speaker and growing up with Italian, I always liked how French sounded to me. French has always been melodic, softer, classier. It didn’t matter if I was listening to it on the radio or while watching the original Asterix & Obelix cartoons. To me, it was music to my ears. That’s what fascinated me and made me curious enough to look further.

I discovered that German “school French” was too slow for me, so I needed and wanted to find a way that would push me to learn faster and in a more fun way. Let’s be real: grammar drills and reading random texts that weren’t interesting but just part of the school curriculum was not my cup of tea. So, I turned to music, because that was the natural way for me. And why? Because I’m from Cuba, and music and dance have always been part of our culture. I even remember learning English through U.S. and Caribbean music.

And that’s how it all started. My first song was rap by the artist Sexion D’Assaut, Désolé. What I loved about that song was that it was fast, very rhythmic, and had a storyline that reflected real issues in French society. Music like that became my daily teacher.

Not only did I listen to French artists like MC Solaar, Ninho, Jul, and Gims, but also to other French-speaking artists such as Stromae, Angèle, Jacques Brel, Céline Dion, and Amine. Of course, there were many more, but these were the ones I kept coming back to. Their songs became the soundtrack of my learning journey: MC Solaar with ‘La Belle et le Bad Boy,’ Ninho with ‘Lettre à une Femme,’ Stromae with ‘Papaoutai’ and ‘Formidable,’ Céline Dion with ‘Destin,' and Angèle with ‘Tu Me Regardes,’ ‘Oui ou Non’, and ‘Bruxelles Je T’aime. I also kept listening to Jul with ‘J’oublie Tout,’ Jacques Brel with ‘Ne me Quitte Pas,’ and Amine with ‘Ma Vie.’ And of course, Black M with ‘Ma Direction’ and ‘Sur ma Route,’ and Gims with ‘Bella.’

My Simple but Powerful Method

As simple as it sounds, it took regular dedication and deep learning to get the best results out of it. Don’t get me wrong, that was the method I used to learn and improve my French through music. I wouldn’t say it was the only way I learned, but it influenced me in a positive way until now and has helped me with other languages as well such as Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese and Swahili. To understand how I did it, here are the steps I followed:

1. Listen First, No Pressure

I’d let a French rap song play two or three times just to feel the beat and catch random words and phrases. I cared about the vibe and, if I liked it, then the meaning.

2. Sing Along with the Artist

Then I’d bring up the lyrics (I even printed them out back in the day; there’s something powerful about holding paper in your hands!). I’d sing line by line, replicating the tone and flow of the artist. At first, it was messy. My tongue stumbled over the words, but gradually I started sounding more like the real thing.

3. Memorize by Heart

After a couple of sessions, the lyrics stuck. I do admit that most of the times I could memorize it very fast- memory is a muscle that I work on regularly! It is a great asset when it comes to language learning. And here’s the magic: those words weren’t just lyrics anymore, they had become part of my vocabulary.

4. Bring It to Real Life

Because my ear was already “trained with music,” conversations with native speakers came more naturally. When they used lines from songs I knew, I instantly recognized them. That gave me the courage to keep going, keep improving, and even attend full coaching sessions in French with native speakers. I did that last year in Paris, and it was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done but also the most rewarding. Seeing myself combine my professional skills with the language I love was incredible. You can combine any skills or hobbies, like learning how to code or watching swimming tutorials in your target language. I did that, and yes, there are even songs about coding and swimming! That’s the beauty of it.

From Music to Conversations; Why it Works

To be fair, I understand if it feels unbelievable or out of reach, having real conversations with native speakers, or recognizing patterns from music in conversations. But that is indeed what can happen if you listen a lot to music. It’s massive input for your brain that creates neurons and eventually connects the things you already know to new things, making it easier to reproduce them.

But how did I get there? As I mentioned before, music helped me a lot in improving and combining learning with other methods like writing, reading, comprehensive input, and speaking in conversations. It made things easier. And I would say that music helped me master the tricky French “r” much more than any textbook or pronunciation tips from school teachers. And why? Because while listening to various music genres and artists, you learn how the words are pronounced and mimic the artists, and for me, that was the best effort I could have ever made. That’s why every song became a story, and every lyric was a new expression I could try the next day in conversation.

The best part is you don’t have to live in the country. I learned to speak French with confidence without ever setting foot in France. Music brought France to me. Now that I can communicate, however, I tend to go to France just to keep practicing and to get different ways of how French people use the language.

My Message to You

So, if you’re learning a new language, start with music. Choose a song you love, play it on repeat, and get lost in the lyrics. Print them out if you like, sing them out loud, and once you have fun with it, you can combine other methods that push you toward fluency.

See music as a catalyst to start speaking right away from the beginning, no matter what level you are. You’ll then find yourself speaking with more confidence when talking to other people. Maybe one day you’ll find yourself, like I did, sitting in a room full of native speakers, smiling because you realize that you can now understand what people are saying, no matter how fast they speak.

Guillermo is a language coach looking for a few new clients in order to complete his certification hours! Contact LTM if you’re interested in turbo-boosting your learning with customised support.