Ways of singing French
VOICE CLINIC
Retro, American-Québécois, urban, French variety. Four families for the studio. The five pivot points remain the same instrument.
IN THE STUDIO
It is hard to know how to say it
The language has changed. The codes for singing it have changed too. When an artist arrives in the studio, it is hard to guide them on what will suit their vocal style. It has not been formalised.
Adeline Toniutti takes this from a conversation with her manager. In Anatomie du Chant she groups these ways into four families. That is the point: not “articulate French”, but choose how you sing it.
The five pivot points remain the same instrument. The family is the colour you ask for.
RETRO
The retro style
You roll the “r”, Édith Piaf’s way. You cut the words so the silence can live. The vowels are pure. The vibrato is owned.
Barbara Pravi and Zaho de Sagazan have taken up some of these codes, the rolled “r” in particular. Chimène Badi covers Piaf with her soul style, and the vibrato stays owned. It is not “doing old”. It is a French that lets silence work, that does not swallow the vowels, that is not afraid of an “r” you can hear.
AMERICAN-STYLE
The American-Québécois style
This is also what Adeline calls, in the room and on television, “singing American-style”.
Big-voiced singers take on anglophone ways. A more nasal placement. Syllables are cut like an American diphthong. Céline Dion, Natasha St-Pier.
English helps this gesture: many diphthongs, long vowels that move with a single tongue motion. That is why twang, taught from the five pivot points, is called “singing American-style” in her room. Céline Dion and Diane Dufresne put twang into French: a particular colour, vibes, virtuosity, in a francophone repertoire. A professional must be able to put it on and take it off, according to whether they want brighter or more intimate.
The palate stays raised. This is not nasalising to “do Céline”. Nasalising the sound, palate down, larynx dropping: that is the counterfeit of twang, and it puts the folds at risk. To find the flow of that French, Adeline sometimes has people sing a French song in English “yaourt”, onomatopoeia, until the line runs. At the Star Academy château, Claudia Tagbo’s yaourt with Michèle Laroque made the whole room laugh. The exercise is there to find that cutting of syllables.
Illustration © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
URBAN
The urban style
Some sounds, in the way of pronouncing or linking, come from rap or the urban.
Vitaa: an urban musicality, and a purity of timbre that is hers. Yseult, Angèle: they personalise the vowels according to the emotion. Here French is not “less sung”. It is linked differently. The vowels move with what you feel, not only with the written vowel.
FRENCH VARIETY
The French variety style
Pure vowels. Vibrato absent, or discreet. A style close to the natural of the text. Mylène Farmer, Françoise Hardy.
No rolled “r” to make a period colour. No American diphthong. French stays near the spoken sentence, but it is still singing: the five pivot points hold the gesture, the vowel stays clean. The tongue between the molars, the nasals thought upward: the same pivot point 5, another dose.
Illustrations © Emma Blanc-Tailleur, Anatomie du Chant, Adeline Toniutti
THE PALETTE
It is not a costume. It is a choice of colour
You do not change larynx to go from Piaf to Céline. You change what you ask of the vowels, the “r”, the silence, the vibrato, the link between syllables.
As long as the gesture is healthy, you have the whole sound palette. When the choice shrinks, the gesture is less optimised, sometimes dangerous.
In the studio the question is therefore not “are you articulating enough?”. It is: which family are you in, today, for this song? The same artist can cross several. Chimène Badi shows it: Piaf plus soul. Céline can take the twang off. The professional is not stuck to one family.
A TIRED VOICE
If the voice is tired
Whispering is not advised. Adeline would rather have you speak with accents that favour a good placement, for an organic result with minimum effort: Québécois, Marseillais, or an actress like Chantal Ladesou. A technical virtue, and it loosens the room.
That meets the American-Québécois style without forcing it: the accent puts the voice where it carries, without squeezing.
IN PRACTICE
Name the family before the take
1. One family per phrase
Retro, American-Québécois, urban, French variety. One only for the phrase you are recording. You can change on the next verse. You do not mix everything in the same vowel.
2. Check the marks
Retro: rolled “r”, held silences, pure vowels, owned vibrato. American-Québécois: syllables cut like a diphthong, more nasal placement, twang you put on and take off, palate raised. Urban: rap links and grain, vowels that follow the emotion. French variety: pure vowels, discreet vibrato, close to the text.
3. If it will not flow in American-Québécois
English yaourt on the French song, then back to the text. You look for flow, not imitation.
4. The five pivot points stay the frame
Whatever the family: posture, free larynx, held exhale, cavities, articulation.
Pathology of the folds: see a specialist.
CALYP
Work a family at CALYP
The method is in Anatomie du Chant (Marabout, 2024). To work it with the team: book an appointment.
Frequently asked questions
What are the ways of singing French in Anatomie du Chant?
Four families: retro (Piaf, Pravi, Zaho), American-Québécois or American-style (Céline, Natasha St-Pier), urban (Vitaa, Yseult, Angèle), French variety (Mylène Farmer, Françoise Hardy).
Is singing American-style the same as twang?
Yes, in Adeline’s jargon. Twang is taught from the five pivot points. Palate raised. You put it on and take it off according to the colour.
Must you roll the r to sing in French?
Only in the retro family. In French variety the vowels are pure and the vibrato discreet. In American-Québécois you rather cut the syllables like a diphthong.
Can you change family from one song to the next?
Yes. A professional is not stuck to one family. You name the family before the take. You do not mix everything in the same vowel.