"Dernière danse" is a song recorded by French singer-songwriter Indila. It served as the first single from her debut album, Mini World. The musical motif is likely sampled from Charles Aznavour's song Parce Que Tu Crois.
Composition
The song is in the key of C minor and in a BPM of 114.
Music video
Background and Possible Synopsis
The music video was released on 4 December 2013, and is a short film directed by Sylvain Bressollette. This is a drama song which is full of despair and sorrow "here comes the pain". Despair may come from loneliness as the singer can be seen holding a picture of someone she longs for. Without him she suffers from low self-esteem "I’m just a worthless being", sense of separation from the one she loves: "without him I’m a bit troubled", from a painful past "a last dance to forget my great misery". It also comes from the fear of confrontation with the darkness. Darkness is represented by the city and internally represented in her emotional world by her "sweet" torment to find courage, feminine strength, and most of all, self-esteem. She also wants to reconnect with the one she loves or simply with a masculine energy "try as I might, without you my life is nothing but a meaningless shiny décor". Thus, she is confronted: "I’m afraid, is this my turn?", by the external and internal elements, external and internal storm that hits her and the city. She is fighting with her weaknesses, for she does not want to abandon hope for love and salvation from her misery: "In all of Paris, I abandon myself and away I fly, fly / a bit of love and I dance...". Then, in the climax, she realizes she paid off her dues and is fed up with the torment: "offences I paid in full". She challenges the world, "this is my last dance" to show how great her heart is, how ready for challenge, romance, appreciation of her feminine strength. "Listen to how great my heart is / I’m a child of the world". She is ready to become mature: leave her childish fears behind and make the world realize she is the embodiment of the divine universe: "I stir the sky, the day, the night, I dance with the wind, the rain." In the video she embraces the storm cloud and is elevated to a quiet spot where she is unaffected by its violence and noise. However, there is a catch, because up there the wind steals the photo of the one she was longing for. In the whole song, she seems to transform from a child, to a woman, to a spiritual consciousness: "In all Paris, I abandon myself and away I fly, fly, fly...".
Lyric video
A lyric video was uploaded on the artist's Vevo channel simultaneously on the release day of the song. The video starts off with the title and a sketched version of the singer and a fade-out to black after the song finishes. There is also a Germany-only re-release of the music video provided with German subtitles released after the premiere of the original music video.
Chart performance
On 1 March 2014, it entered the Greek charts at number-one and stayed at the first place for seven weeks. On 19 April 2014, it was knocked down to No. 2 by Pharrell Williams' Happy. It reclaimed No. 1 the following week, and remained there for another five weeks, totaling at thirteen weeks at No. 1.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Other versions
Natacha Andréani performed the song on the third season of the of The Voice.
In 2019, HIDDN & RudeLies put out a single of this song featuring vocals by Ester Peony, a songstress who has already covered this song in prior performances
