Paris in song is shorthand for love, art and a certain bittersweet glamour. This list keeps the great French chansons next to the English-language records that fell for the city just as hard.
Updated 2026
La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf 1947
The song that defined Paris, sung by the woman who became its voice.
Read the meaning behind the songApril in Paris by Ella Fitzgerald 1956
Jazz-standard longing for the city in its softest month.
Non, je ne regrette rien by Edith Piaf 1960
Piaf wiping the slate clean with no regrets at all.
Champs-Elysees by Joe Dassin 1969
A breezy stroll down the most famous avenue in the world.
I Love Paris by Frank Sinatra 1960
Cole Porter's love letter, sung in every season.
Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell 1974
The rare freedom of being nobody in particular in a big city.
La Boheme by Charles Aznavour 1965
An old painter remembering the broke, happy Montmartre years.
Paris by The Chainsmokers 2017
Two people using the city as a place to hide from real life.
Paris (Ooh La La) by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals 2010
A growling rock plea to be taken across the ocean.
Joe le Taxi by Vanessa Paradis 1987
A teenage smash about a cabbie working the Paris night.
Paris in the Rain by Lauv 2017
Finding the city romantic even soaking wet, because of who is there.
An American in Paris by George Gershwin 1928
An orchestral postcard, taxi horns and all.