“Danser encore” is a song by singer HK (stage name of Kaddour Hadadi; 1978-). It was recorded live on December 11, 2020 in the streets of Avignon, and published that day on social networks. Subsequently, the song has been widely covered in France and in several other countries during flash mobs, in the context of rallying people against the absurdity of the lockdown measures. HK remembers precisely the evening he composed it: “It was at the time of the announcement of the second confinement, I was rehearsing a show in a residence in Avignon with friends and then our show was cancelled, because we were not considered ‘essential’. On the contrary, we think that we are all essential. It was a terrible message that was sent to us, as if, in France, we could only work and consume. And it is wrong to say that we cannot do otherwise: there are European countries, like Spain or Germany, which, at the time, did otherwise.”
Refrain
Nous on veut continuer à danser encore
Voir nos pensées enlacer nos corps
Passer nos vies sur une grille d’accords
Oh, non non non non non non
Nous on veut continuer à danser encore
Voir nos pensées enlacer nos corps
Passer nos vies sur une grille d’accords
We still want to keep on dancing
See our minds entwine our bodies
Spend our lives on a chord grid
[‘accords’ can refer to music chord as well as the agreements/rules imposed by the government; and it rhymes with ‘encore’ et ‘corps’]
Oh no no no no no no
We still want to keep on dancing
See our minds entwine our bodies
Spend our lives on a chord grid
Nous sommes des oiseaux de passage
Jamais dociles ni vraiment sages
Nous ne faisons pas allégeance
À l’aube en toutes circonstances
Nous venons briser le silence
We are birds of passage
Never docile nor really wise
We do not pledge allegiance
At dawn in all circumstances
We come to break the silence
Et quand le soir à la télé
Monsieur le bon roi a parlé
Venu annoncer la sentence
Nous faisons preuve d’irrévérence
Mais toujours avec élégance
And when in the evening on TV
The good king [President Macron] has spoken
Come to announce the sentence
We show our irreverence
But still with elegance
Refrain x 2
Auto-métro-boulot-conso
Auto attestation qu’on signe
Absurdité sur ordonnance
Et malheur à celui qui pense
Et malheur à celui qui danse
Working, buying the daily grind
[auto=car / métro / conso=consommation; a variation around the saying ‘métro, boulot, dodo’]
Self-certification that one’s signs
[a form that has been used to control people’s movement]
Nonsense on prescription
Shame on the thinker
Shame on the dancer
Chaque mesure autoritaire
Chaque relent sécuritaire
Voit s’envoler notre confiance
Ils font preuve de tant d’insistance
Pour confiner notre conscience
Every measure of authority
Every whiff of security
Sees our confidence vanish
They show so much insistence
To confine our conscience
Refrain x 2
Ne soyons pas impressionnables
Par tous ces gens déraisonnables
Vendeurs de peur en abondance
Angoissants, jusqu’à l’indécence
Let’s not be impressed
By all these unreasonable people
Sellers of fear in abundance
Harrowing to the point of indecency
Sachons les tenir à distance
Pour notre santé mentale
Sociale et environnementale
Nos sourires, notre intelligence
Ne soyons pas sans résistance
Les instruments de leur démence
Let’s keep them at bay
For our mental health
Our social and environmental well-being
Our smiles, our intelligence
Let’s not be without resistance
The instruments of their insanity
Refrain x 4