Discover the story of the song > Lily – Pierre Perret

- In the mid-1970s, Pierre Perret was known in France as a comic singer thanks to some popular hits (Les Jolies Colonies de vacances, Le Zizi).
- In 1977, he published Lily, a song dealing with the themes of racism and the integration of foreigners, marking an evolution towards more committed songs.
- The song tells the story of a woman from Somalia (now Djibouti) who, like other immigrants, "came to Paris to empty the garbage.
- Losing her illusions, she courageously confronts racism and emigrates to the United States, where she is confronted with the same difficulties and finds some comfort in Angela Davis.
- Pierre Perret got the idea for this song after attending one of Angela Davis' conferences in New York.
- At the time he began writing the song, France was still in favor of economic immigration.
- When Lily was published in 1977, France had ended economic immigration 3 years earlier in favor of family reunification, at the initiative of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.