Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson has revealed how his French-language track 'Je te laisserai des mots' became the first song in French to surpass one billion streams on Spotify, largely driven by its use in lockdown videos during the pandemic.
The song was originally composed for the 2009 French film 'Mères et Filles' (English title 'The Hidden Diary'), starring Catherine Deneuve. Watson, who is from Quebec, wrote the piece for a scene where a character leaves a letter under a door. The first verse is wordless, consisting only of vocal sounds, to avoid clashing with dialogue in the film.
Watson recalled a drunken recording session with a string quartet, where they struggled to find the right notes before everything fell into place. 'We were kind of half-drunk when we did the strings arrangement. It was a really fun night – but outside the film, I didn't think anyone would ever listen to the song,' he said.
Initially a bonus track on his debut album, the song gained traction during the pandemic when Watson was doing live Instagram sessions. A fan-made video with a million views triggered algorithms that propelled the track to viral status. 'Sometimes certain emotions hit at a certain time and a song can become the soundtrack of that moment,' Watson explained.
The track has since been used in over 200,000 TikTok videos and accumulated more than 60 billion TikTok plays. Despite its success, Watson remains humble: 'The song is much more famous than I am. I might be renting skis and they'll see the name and go: "Oh, you have the same name as the singer." I'm like: "It's me!" And they don't believe me.'
The string quartet, known as Mommies on the Run, have continued their collaboration with Watson for 15 years. Although not contractually entitled to royalties, Watson gives them a symbolic annual payment to acknowledge their contribution. 'It shows that he respects the fact that people pulling together in that moment created something special,' one member said.
