Aya Nakamura (2/5): Do you speak Aya?

The Franco-Malian singer's fame exploded after the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. She had already garnered recognition for hits with lyrics that were not always easily understood, such as the famous "Djadja," which often earned her criticism from French song purists.

" Pretty girl looking for a pretty DJ " or "I'm not your mother, I won't lecture you, you're talking about me, there's R" ... It's not easy to decode Aya Nakamura's words. Some even say that she doesn't speak French or that she harms the language of Molière, this is what we heard from the National Rally, especially when the star's participation in the Olympic ceremony became public.

But the Franco-Malian singer doesn't want to write to please everyone: "Some French people don't understand, but I tell myself that music speaks and maybe in the end, my voice will simply please them," the singer confides in an interview.

As in rap, if adults are lost, many young people understand perfectly this reinvention of the French language which popularizes their language. "I sing as I speak ," explains the singer, "I'm not going to pretend, write a song in good French and come to an interview speaking in verlan."

Verlan is just one of its influences. There is also slang and African, Creole, and Arabic influences, as well as Anglicisms and expressions used on social media. All of this creates an "outsider language," that is, a new language that evolves academic language. Just as Renaud, Michel Audiard, and Frédéric Dard did before it... Each generation plays with its language and its environment; this is what makes a living language unique.