In “Elle me dit” (she tells me), Mika lists everything his mother tells him: write a happy song, not a depressing one; you're wasting your life; look at your friends; dance, why don't you dance? It's a cheeky portrait of a parent's nagging, set to a bouncy, theatrical pop tune.
Mika, born in Beirut, raised partly in Paris and London, had sung mostly in English until this song; it became one of his biggest hits in France. The video stars the actress Fanny Ardant as the mother.
The song is a goldmine of everyday French: “elle me dit…” followed by commands and complaints. Great for the imperative and for the informal French of a family argument.