For Europe, I chose to share a song that I’ve known and loved for a very long time. Performed by Paul Van Haver, better known as Stromae, is a Belgian singer/rapper/performer who first began making music in 2007.

The first time I heard this song was back when I was in seventh grade, around 2012. This song is sung in French, and the lyrics tell the story of a boy searching for his absent father. The music video is really awesome and also adds to the story that the words are telling. Papaoutai: “Où t’es? Papa où t’es?” means: dad, where are you?

This song is interesting to me because it so heavily feels like a Western-style pop song.  There’s a solid baseline/beat in the background of the whole song, but then there’s a lot of fun different aspects that fit into the melody of the main chorus. This song follows the main structure of a Western-style pop song where there’s a beginning stanza, a chorus, second stanza, a second chorus, and even a bridge, before the final chorus. This was such an interesting thing to observe.