When a Pop Concert Questions Our Collective Memory
This past weekend, all eyes were on two cities: Paris and Marseille. In the south, rap icon Jul drew a staggering 150,000 fans to the Vélodrome. Meanwhile, in Paris, Dua Lipa’s concert at the Défense Arena was buzzing with anticipation not just for the hits, but for one specific moment: her surprise song.
What happened next sparked more than applause. It triggered a debate about memory, music, and a generational shift that’s slowly rewriting what counts as a “classic.”
Dua Lipa, a Global Star with Local Touches
Since kicking off her Radical Optimism tour in March in Oceania, Dua Lipa has been giving her fans a gift at every stop: a cover song that pays tribute to the musical heritage of the host city. In Sydney, it was Highway to Hell. In Hamburg, 99 Luftballons. In Madrid, Me Gustas Tu. In Lyon, France, she thrilled the crowd with Daft Punk’s Get Lucky and Indila’s Dernière Danse.
So by the time she arrived in Paris, expectations were sky-high.
At her first Parisian date, Lipa covered Moi… Lolita, which landed well. But on her second night, she switched it up and chose Be My Baby by Vanessa Paradis. The crowd didn’t cheer. It froze.
A Classic Forgotten: Be My Baby and the Generation Gap
Released in 1992 and written by none other than Lenny Kravitz, Be My Baby was a global hit for Paradis already a star thanks to Joe le taxi. The song even made it to #6 on the UK singles chart. Despite being sung in English, it was cemented as a French pop milestone of the ’90s.
Yet at the Défense Arena, the reaction was… confusion. TikTok videos after the concert showed Gen-Z fans puzzled or unimpressed. Comments rolled in:
- “She could have picked something more well-known.”
- “Is this song even famous?”
- “I thought she was going to sing in French.”
- “Only 15 people recognized it.”
These reactions raise a tough question: is Gen-Z tuning out France’s musical heritage?
How TikTok Became France’s Unofficial DJ
The truth is, we’re living in the age of algorithmic memory. If a song isn’t trending on TikTok, it might as well not exist for much of Gen-Z. As Thomas Cerha, head of music at TikTok France, told Stratégies:
“80% of users discover new music on the platform.”
That doesn’t mean just new releases. Songs from decades past like T’en va pas by Elsa or Vois sur ton chemin from Les Choristes have been resurrected by TikTok trends. Indila’s Dernière Danse, already iconic, got another boost thanks to Dua Lipa’s Lyon concert.
Last summer, Aya Nakamura set TikTok on fire with her remix of Charles Aznavour’s Formidable. That’s the power of a platform: reviving the past with a 15-second clip.
But it cuts both ways. What’s not trending is forgotten.
Whose Job Is It to Remember?
This isn’t just about music taste. It’s about cultural memory. TikTok may be the primary gatekeeper of sound for the under-25 crowd, but should it also decide what a nation remembers?
If Be My Baby gets lost, what else might follow?
Here’s the thing reviving a classic doesn’t just take an algorithm. It takes intent. Artists like Dua Lipa and Aya Nakamura are already doing their part. But there’s room for more: teachers, media outlets, music labels. They all have a role to play not just in preserving the past, but in making it feel present.
What if record companies treated old songs not just as catalog material, but as living culture? What if schools played Johnny Hallyday alongside contemporary artists in music classes?
And yes, what if TikTok campaigns were designed not only to sell, but to pass on?
The Memory We Choose to Keep
The question isn’t whether Gen-Z is capable of remembering France’s musical past. The question is whether anyone is making that memory feel relevant, urgent, and alive.
Because if Dua Lipa singing Be My Baby feels like a miss today, it’s not necessarily a failure of the audience it’s a reflection of what we’ve chosen to spotlight.
The classics won’t survive on nostalgia alone. They need space in the present. And maybe it’s time we all start whispering to the algorithm: “Here’s what not to forget.”
