While the Anglo-Saxon Christmas songbook takes over the global charts and established non-Christmas hits like Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather’ remain on the charts as strong as the first day, an unusual hit manages to break through. This is ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ by Stromae and Pomme, a song performed in French that has conquered the world.
‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ is one of the recordings included in the soundtrack of the second season of ‘Arcane’, the famous Netflix animated series. It is the same soundtrack that features ‘Heavy is the Crown’, one of Linkin Park’s latest hits. The soundtrack of the first season of ‘Arcane’ left a macrohit the size of ‘Enemy’ by Imagine Dragons and JID, one of those songs that exceed one billion views on Spotify alone.
‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ plays in episode 7 of the second season of ‘Arcane’, in the scene in which the characters Ekko and Powder share a dance. During the series, Ekko and Powder go from hate to love and ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ chronicles this evolution in their relationship. “My best enemy is you,” go the lyrics, in which Stromae and Pomme exchange verses and explore the attractive contrast produced by their voices.
Meanwhile, the powerful production of ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ sounds in tune with the cyberpunk aesthetic of ‘Arcane’. The initial percussions of ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ evoke an Afro-Caribbean influence, but soon the sound design of Stromae, Luc van Haver and Alexander Seaver is dominated by futuristic and warlike synthesizers: the epic soundtrack of ‘Tron’, signed by Daft Punk, could have been as much a reference as The Weeknd’s work with the French robot duo.
The numbers have accompanied Stromae and Pomme from day one, and ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ already has more than 100 million streamings in just 15 days. ‘Ma meilleure ennemie’ has spent several days installed in position 3 on Spotify overall and, although it has now dropped to 13, as the Christmas tunes are gaining ground, it continues to add more than 4 million daily reproductions. It has been a while since Stromae achieved a success of this magnitude, while the singer Pomme, known above all locally, is experiencing a tremendous moment of glory: it is already the biggest success of her career.
