Teresa Bigioli

Home of the most famous museums in the world, venue of one of the most renowned and dreamy cuisines, and paradise in all its marvelous natural and manmade landscapes, France and its culture are among the most famous and studied on the entire planet. However, there is often one aspect of the culture that, however fundamental for locals, goes unnoticed. It is music, with its persistent and indisputable role in the social, political, artistic and historical side of the country.

Among the genres that are currently defining the “sound of France,” there is one that can’t go unnoticed: the Caribbean-imported Shatta.

Let’s start our journey to discover the sounds that characterise the different countries in the world with France and its Shatta, and the incredible singer that made it popular in North America and around the globe.

French Music Culture

French music—of language and nationality—has always been captivating and charming enough to have often overcome the language barriers, landing in English-speaking countries with hits such as “Alors On Dance” and “Papaoutai” from Belgian Stromae, the unforgettable and nostalgic “Est-ce que tu m’aime?” signed GIMS, or the number 1 for football fans, the love anthem to the French team: “Ramenez la coupe à la maison.” And of course, we can’t forget the classic “La Vie En Rose,” which you surely have dreamily associated with your pending trip to Paris.

Although a good part of the French music is created on a solid basis of indie pop, strong thanks to artists such as Pomme, Clio, Zaz and his iconic “Je Veux,” there is another genre that recently shook the national music scene. It is called Shatta, a dancehall genre born and shaped around the culture of the Caribbeans in the Antillean Island of Martinique.

Shatta in a Nutshell

Shatta is a genre that’s defining the music scene way beyond the French-speaking world through its soulful, charismatic and pronounced energy.

It is a catchy genre, able to conquer one’s body and soul by making people dance like they couldn’t even think they could. Birthed through the same process that created Reggaeton and made it one of the major musical phenomena of the last 20 years, Shatta is moving in the same direction starting from its home region, the Caribbeans, reaching first the French overseas coasts, and eventually expanding into the largest clubs on the European continent.

Not to be confused with the sound of Ghanaian reggae-dancehall artist Shatta Wale, Antillean Shatta è un genere exotic—fervent, uncontrollable. With its unstoppable energy, Shatta is vibrant, capable of fully controlling the spirit of those who’re ready to be immersed in a surreal and otherworldly experience, getting lost in a fever dream of energy, movement and passion.

From the Bottom to the Stars: Origins and Rise of Shatta

Born in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the tropical and warm Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Shatta rose fast, embracing the local spirit to its core, melding together the rhythms of Jamaican dancehall, the local language (in particular Martinican Creole) and open discussions on social matters and hot themes.

What is Martinican Creole?

The language that first defined and shaped the genre was Martinican Creole, a local language originating from French. More specifically, Creole is a language that develops from the simplification and fusion of different languages into a new one, then fully spread among locals in a brief period of time. In Creole, the particularity is the systematic simplification of grammar. In this case, Martinican Creole is a form of Antillean Creole, which embraces not only French, but also the influences of neighbouring English-dominated islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica.

However, as much as Shatta revolves mainly around this language, with its warm, welcoming and catchy sound, there is no lack of English and French here and there.

Themes and the Social Context

A subgenre of dancehall, Shatta was born in a context of impoverishment and decay, in which music was not only a hobby but, above all, a tool to detach and withdraw the mind from the harshness of the surrounding social, political and economic context. In fact, as with many other underground genres, Shatta was first born on the street and for the street. Rising from the lower divisions of society, the genre naturally embraced the essence of local life, notoriously discussing unapologetically and ruthlessly social issues and struggles, as well as the sense of love, resilience and community that sparkle from local living conditions.

As the genre made itself a name, more and more people found their own lives represented in the sound and themes narrated in Shatta. Encapsulated in these notes was the beginning of a subgenre ready to catch the local and international community by storm.

From the Antilles to France

From the small islands of the Caribbean, Shatta immediately gained popularity—and not only in the European continent. French-speaking countries soon started embracing the new genre, vibing on the tropical sound that felt so remote to many on the mainland. In particular, the genre received special attention and appreciation in France itself, where it soon went from a rising sub-genre to the main sound at nightclubs.

Shatta in Nightclubs: From Day-to-Day Life to Nightclubs

One of the main merits for which Shatta has approached the European continent so quickly is sure to be attributed to the internet and social media, widely used by young audiences that today represent the largest percentage of listeners of the genre. In a span of months, France became aware of the existence of this sound, and young partygoers didn’t wait to hear it twice to require the sound in their favorite clubs. From Paris to Nice, from Lyon to Bordeaux, the genre became an immediate hit one just can’t resist loving!

Aya Nakamura: When Shatta Makes it to the US

Is the sound of the genre somewhat familiar to you? There is a reason for that, or better, a name: Aya Nakamura.

Aya Danioko was born in the Malian capital of Bamako into a family of griots (storytellers). Her family settled in the Parisian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, where she grew up and started her music career in 2014 with the Facebook release of her first “Karma.”

The singer immediately became popular in France. And as the genre crossed the ocean from the Antilles to Europe, so it did with the Caribbean Sea, headed north to the United States. There, the singer landed her biggest international success, 2018’s “Djadja” and the consequent Nakamura. In the album, other massive hits included “Pookie,” “Jolie Nana” and “Copines.”