French Music, Joe Dassin
Et si tu n’existais pas is one of Joe Dassin’s most iconic songs, released in 1975. With its gentle melody and deeply romantic lyrics, it perfectly embodies French love—sincere and poetic.
This song conveys a universal idea: love gives life meaning. The artist describes a world where the loved one doesn’t exist—a dull, flavorless world. Through this, he highlights how love can be a vital driving force in life.
Joe Dassin, of French-American origin, is known for many hit songs like Les Champs-Élysées and L’été indien. Et si tu n’existais pas remains one of the most beautiful love declarations in French music, touching generations of music lovers worldwide.
Lyrics
And if you didn’t exist
Tell me, why would I exist
To linger in a world without you
Without hope and without regret
And if you didn’t exist
I’d try to invent love
Like a painter who, under his fingers,
Sees the colors of the day born
And can’t believe it
And if you didn’t exists
Tell me, for whom would I exist
The passersby asleep in my arms
Whom I would never love
And if you didn’t exist
I would just be another point
In this world that comes and goes
I would feel lost
I would need you
And if you didn’t exist
Tell me, how would I exist
I could pretend to be myself
But I wouldn’t be true
And if you didn’t exist
I think I would have found
The secret of life, the why
Simply to create you
And to watch you
And if you didn’t exist
Tell me, why would I exist
To linger in a world without you
Without hope and without regret
EAnd if you didn’t exist
I’d try to invent love
Like a painter who, under his fingers,
Sees the colors of the day born
