Carmen, by Stromae is an adaptation of a song from the famous French opera “Carmen.” Stromae’s Carmen interprets the aria “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Love is a Rebellious Bird). Stromae’s Carmen came out in 2013 and it examines our problematic relationship with social media, and the dangers that social media can pose. The opera Carmen tells the story of the downfall of a Spanish soldier who is seduced by a fiery and seductive woman named Carmen, consequently abandoning his childhood sweetheart and deserting his military duties, only to lose Carmen’s love to another man and then to kill her in a jealous rage.
First I’ll present the Carmen (by Stromae) song lyrics and translation, and immediately after I’ll embed the official Stromae music video for Carmen, which also has English subtitles. Then I’m going to do a deep dive into the song’s lyrics and meaning, complete with some analysis of the opera Carmen so that we can understand the significance of Stomae’s allusions to the opera.
Carmen, Stomae Lyrics and Translation
| French | English |
|---|---|
| [Couplet 1] | [Verse 1] |
| L'amour est comme l'oiseau de Twitter | Love is like the Twitter bird |
| On est bleu de lui, seulement pour 48 heures | The sky is blue, only for 48 hours |
| D'abord on s'affilie, ensuite on se follow | First we meet, then we follow each other |
| On en devient fêlé, et on finit solo | We go crazy, and we end up solo |
| (Prends garde à toi) | (You'd best beware!) |
| Et à tous ceux qui vous like | And to all those who like your posts |
| Les sourires en plastique sont souvent des coups d’hashtag | Plastic smiles cut like a hashtag |
| (Prends garde à toi) | (You’d best beware!) |
| Ah les amis, les potes ou les followers | Oh Twitter friends and followers |
| Vous faites erreur, vous avez juste la cote | You've got it wrong, you’re just popular |
| [Pré-Refrain] | [Pre-Chorus] |
| Prends garde à toi | You'd best beware! |
| Si tu t’aimes | If you love yourself |
| Garde à moi | I'd best beware! |
| Si je m’aime | If I love myself |
| Garde à nous, garde à eux, | We’d best beware, they'd best beware |
| Garde à vous | You'd best beware |
| Et puis chacun pour soi | And then every man for himself |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça, consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça, consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| [Couplet 2] | [Verse 2] |
| L’amour est enfant de la consommation | Love is the child of consumerism |
| Il voudra toujours toujours toujours plus de choix | It always, always, always wants more choice |
| Voulez voulez-vous des sentiments tombés du camion ? | Do you want feelings that fell off the back of a truck? |
| L’offre et la demande pour unique et seule loi | Supply and demand is the one, single law |
| (Prends garde à toi) | (You'd best beware!) |
| "Mais j’en connais déjà les dangers, moi | “But I already know the dangers |
| J’ai gardé mon ticket et, s’il le faut, j’vais l’échanger, moi" | I've kept my receipt and if need be, I'll return it” |
| (Prends garde à toi) | (You'd best beware!) |
| "Et, s’il le faut, j’irai m’venger moi | “And if need be, I would get my revenge |
| Cet oiseau d’malheur, j’le mets en cage | I would put this bird of misfortune in a cage |
| J’le fais chanter, moi" | And make it sing for me” |
| [Pré-Refrain] | [Pre-Chorus] |
| Prends garde à toi | You'd best beware! |
| Si tu t’aimes | If you love yourself |
| Garde à moi | I'd best beware! |
| Si je m’aime | If I love myself |
| Garde à nous, garde à eux | We'd best beware, they'd best beware |
| Garde à vous | You'd best beware |
| Et puis chacun pour soi | And then every man for himself |
| [Refrain] | [Chorus] |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça, consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça, consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| Et c’est comme ça qu’on s’aime, s’aime, s’aime, s’aime | And that's how we love, love, love, love |
| Comme ça consomme, somme, somme, somme, somme | How we consume, -sume, -sume, -sume |
| [Outro] | [Outro] |
| Un jour t’achètes, un jour tu aimes | One day you buy, one day you love |
| Un jour tu jettes, mais un jour tu payes | One day you throw it away, but one day you pay |
| Un jour tu verras, on s’aimera | One day you will see, we will love each other |
| Mais avant on crèvera tous, comme des rats | But before that, we will all perish like rats |
Carmen by Stromae, Official Music Video
Watch the animated music video (with English subtitles below) and then we’ll talk more about the significance of the opera Carmen and the song “l’amour est un oiseau rebelle” afterward.
In the video the bird is supposed to look like the Twitter logo (which is a little blue bird) and represents social media in general.
Carmen, Stromae: Lyrics Meaning and Analysis
In order to really understand the lyrics of Stromae’s song Carmen, we need to talk a bit about the famous French Opera called Carmen. Stromae’s Carmen uses the melody and some lyrics from a song in this opera called “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Love is a Rebellious Bird).
The opera “Carmen” takes place in Seville, Spain and is about a super hot, sexually charismatic woman who seduces a soldier named José. José’s infatuation with Carmen leads him to desert his childhood sweetheart, go to jail for letting Carmen go after she is arrested, desert the army and run away with Carmen’s bad of thieves, and finally murder Carmen in a jealous rage after she falls for another man.
Here is a performance of “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (with English subtitles) from Act 1 of the opera “Carmen,” where Carmen is dancing around and flirting with all the men in the square, including the soldiers. José is the guy who is ignoring her (for now!). You can hear the townspeople singing “prendre garde à toi” (“watch out” or “beware”) like a Greek chorus, and this line is echoed by Carmen who says “if I love you, watch out!” You can hear this same line in Stromae’s Carmen.
This video has English subtitles, and even if you just listen to the first few seconds, you’ll immediately recognize the melody as it’s exactly the same as Stromae’s song Carmen.
The whole song is reflecting on the untameable nature of love – that a person can love someone and that love may not be returned. Or one person might be indifferent to another and still end up being the object of their love somehow. Carmen says that begging, pleading and threatening can do nothing in the face of the “rebellious bird” that is love. Love just can’t be controlled.
But the song is also meant to foreshadow the downfall of José should he give into the VERY powerful allure of Carmen. She is telling everyone “if you fall in love with me… BEWARE.” And all the villagers are standing around repeating “beware” (“prendre garde à toi”) in a powerful Greek chorus. But José does NOT take the hint!
Stromae takes this Greek chorus line “prendre garde à toi” and repeats it throughout his Carmen song. I think this is what he wants to capture – that social media is as alluring and as dangerous as the very sexy Carmen.
In the opera “Carmen”, José is seduced by Carmen, ends up in jail for freeing her when he was supposed to arrest her, and then deserts the army to run away with her. Prior to this he had planned to marry his childhood sweetheart but once he gets a taste of Carmen he runs off with her immediately after getting out of jail. But after a couple months Carmen has tired of him and wants to run off with another man. José loses it and stabs Carmen to death. So now he is a deserter, a murder, and alone after having abandoned his childhood sweetheart and murdered his beloved Carmen. The curtain falls and the opera ends at this point but it’s hard to see how José is going to come back from all that. His life is basically over.
Likewise, at the end of Stromae’s Carmen music video the Stromae stand-in character is literally eaten by a giant bird and shit out. Like José, he has been consumed and destroyed by a powerful force outside himself – social media is the Carmen of Stromae’s world.
So by choosing to call his song Carmen (despite never using the word in the song lyrics) Stromae seems to be liking the allure and danger of social media to the allure and danger of the woman Carmen. The consequences of falling for Carmen/social media can be your downfall.
Now let’s breakdown the verses.
Stromae, Carmen Verses and Chorus
I just want to note that in the video, the little blue bird flies in the window and it’s sweet song slowly becomes distorted into a low, aggressive synth melody. That synth melody then plays throughout the whole song, giving the song a sense of foreboding.
Verse 1
So the first line of the first verse of Stromae’s Carmen is:
L’amour est comme l’oiseau de Twitter
Love is like the Twitter bird
The first line of the song “L’amour est comme un oiseau rebelle” in Carmen is:
L’amour est comme un oiseau rebelle
Love is like a rebellious bird
So we can see the parallel between the two song is set up from the very beginning – the title of the song is literally the same as the title of the opera, and the first lines of these two songs are almost identical. In both songs the protagonist is about to be seduced by something that will lead to his destruction.
Stromae’s music video shows him growing up with the Twitter bird – the implication being that he starts using social media as a child, an innocent.
The first verse compares the stages of love to how people connect on Twitter (the social media platform) – you meet, you follow each other, then you are crazy for one another, but you end up alone. There is some alliteration at play here, with “s’affilie” (to meet, like the English word “affiliate”), then “se follow” (using the English word “to follow” in the same way we do, to mean that you follow each other’s social media accounts), then “se devient fêlé” (to go crazy/be crazy for one another), and then “on finit solo” (we end up alone/break up).
Then the narrator cautions that some of the likes you get on social media can be from “fake people” (“des sourires plastiques” – plastic smiles) and he likens getting likes to being cut up with an ax.
This is a play on words where the French phrase “coups de hache” (being hacked with an ax, can also be used to mean “a hatchet job” or more generally “a blow”) is replaced with “coups de hashtag,” which sounds very similar. The implication here is that the likes you receive on social media can actually be acts of violence against you, like being attacked with an ax.
Then the narrator says “no, you’re wrong! I’m just popular!” He clearly doesn’t see the violence that the song is warning against.
Pre-Chorus
The pre-chorus echos the warnings in both “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” and in this song “Carmen.” A chorus chants the lyrics, seeming to warn everyone that they are in danger.
The pre-chorus is meant to sound like the opera Carmen to remind us that certain kinds of love are very alluring but can have devastating consequences if we’re not careful. Hence the repeating message to everyone to “beware!”
[Note: “garde à toi” can translate as “watch out” or “beware.” In this case I use beware because I think it sounds like a stronger warning and therefore makes more sense in context.]
Chorus
The chorus utilizes a lot of repetition and plays off the similar sounds of “qu’on s’aime” (to love each other) and “consomme” (to consume).
I have read in some places that “consomme” also sounds like “qu’on sommes” which is certainly true. “Nous sommes” means “we are” and in French speech “on” is used instead of “nous” most of the time (both words mean “we”). But personally I have never heard anyone say “on sommes” – but if that is a play on words I imagine it’s to show the merging of the person with their consumption.
Either way, the chorus is contrasting love and consumption and seems to be suggesting that the two are not that far apart – or even that they are the same act – when one engages in the love of social media, chasing likes and retweets instead of human affection.
Verse 2
Continuing on the theme of the chorus, the first line of the second verse translates as “love is the child of consumption” but this is again a play on words because in French the same word is used for “to consume” and “to consummate” as in “to consummate the marriage.” So here we’re saying that love is the result of both a human consummation of a relationship (obviously) but also of a desire to consume.
Then Stromae sings that the love wants “always, always, always more choice. What do you want feelings that fell off the back of the truck?” I take this question to be asking “what do you want just any crappy love that fell off the back of a truck?” Sometimes in black markets you can buy goods that “fell off the back of the truck” (like fake designer handbags and watches) but you’re never sure if they’re real or just convincing fakes being passed off as real designer goods. This line and the next one about supply and demand being the one true law seem like a satire or criticism of capitalism – that love is so commodified that the only law that applies to it is supply and demand.
The rest of the verse is the speaker in the song insisting that he is in control and can stop posting if he wanted to (“I’ve kept my receipt and if need be, I’ll return it”) but in the music video we can see that Stromae’s follower count goes up, the Twitter bird gets bigger and bigger.
Final Chorus and Outro
In the final chorus, in the music video we see the Twitter bird is now so big that it carries Stromae. He is no longer deciding the direction he goes it, but it’s being decided for him by social media, which has taken on a life of its own. And the bird dramatically feeds him to a giant Twitter bird monster that chews him up and promptly shits him out. Much as José in the opera Carmen was destroyed, the Stromae character in the music video is literally chewed up and shit out.
We see other notable figures such as Barack Obama (the first President to be active on social media and use it in his campaign) and the Queen of England being chewed up and shit out too. It seems this song wants to warn that NO ONE is too powerful to be destroyed by social media.
In the outro Stromae is clearly saying that in life, no matter what you do (love, buy, throw things out), one day you have to pay for your actions. And he suggests that when we do pay the price, we will all die like rats. Harsh! But then the poor soldier who fell in love with Carmen lost everything, and Stromae called this song “Carmen” for a reason.
What do you think of this song? Any questions or comments on the translation? Leave them below – I read them all!
Please check out the full list of Stromae translations that I have done at the link.