French Rap as a Flash Point

– By Scott Sayare, for The International Herald Tribune –
PARIS — A gentlemanly patron of the arts, Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, seems an unlikely champion of rap. But when the French artist Orelsan called publicly for his support at the height of a months-long free-speech polemic around the rapper’s song “Sale Pute” (Dirty Whore), [...]

Listening to “Simple Gifts” in Paris

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — The talking heads fell silent, as if swept away by the beauty of the strings, the triumphal harmonies, the graceful bombast of American political theatre. As they watched Obama, live, bundled against the Washington cold, as he smiled to the no-doubt familiar tune of “Simple Gifts,” the French commentators [...]