Bad Bunny, PLK: how did Monaco become a source of inspiration for musicians around the world?
For artists, Monaco represents the embodiment of luxury and social success © Unsplash
From Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl to French pop classics, Monaco has fascinated artists from around the world for decades.
Less than a month ago, in front of some 125 million viewers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Puerto Rican singer and rapper Bad Bunny opened his Super Bowl halftime show with a single note: the melody of Charles Aznavour’s ‘Hier encore,’ sampled in his hit ‘Monaco,’ released in 2023 and number one worldwide upon its release. A report by TVMonaco indicates that plays of the track jumped by more than 200% on streaming platforms in the hours following the show, leading to a 37% surge in interest in Aznavour’s classic itself. An unexpected bridge between French chanson of the 1960s and contemporary Latin trap, with the name of the Principality as the common thread.
Monaco, a universal metaphor for success
TVMonaco explored this phenomenon in a recent report. In hip-hop, Monaco has become much more than just a city name; it is ‘a metaphor for social advancement,’ according to the media outlet. In 2018, rapper PLK scored a diamond single with ‘Monégasque’. In 2023, Central Cee shot the video for ‘Sprinter’ on the Rock, racking up 350 million views and making it the longest-running British rap track to reach number one in the UK. More recently, rapper Guy2Bezbar released a music video entitled ‘Monaco’ in 2024.
This fascination is nothing new. As the Monegasque channel points out, in 1971, Monaco won Eurovision for the first and only time in its history. In 1978, Jean-François Maurice’s ‘Monaco, 28° à l’ombre’ became a pop classic, regularly covered, notably by the electro collective Bon Entendeur. Since then, the Principality has continued to fuel the imagination of artists on both sides of the Atlantic.