Discover the story of the song > Orly – Jacques Brel

- "Orly" is a song by Jacques Brel from his album Les Marquises (1977).
- The song is about the difficult separation of a couple where the man leaves by plane from Orly airport.
- The narrator is a spectator of the scene and underlines the unity of the couple by using sometimes terms that underline their duality ("both"), sometimes terms that underline what unites them ("they").
- The couple is isolated from the rest of the crowd ("there are more than two thousand of them and I only see the two of them").
- The end of the song suggests that this moment is fleeting and that the woman (who has remained in the terminal while he boards the plane for an unknown destination) will soon join the crowd from which she stands out for a few more moments.
- The refrain refers to the 1963 song "Dimanche à Orly" by Gilbert Bécaud, with lyrics by Pierre Delanoë: "La vie ne fait pas de cadeau / et nom de Dieu c'est triste Orly le dimanche / Avec ou sans Bécaud". Brel's song can be seen as an "anti-version" of Bécaud's song (the first one is sad, the second one is joyful: "Dimanche à Orly / Sur l'aéroport... / Y'a de quoi rêver").
- Claude Lemesle, who qualifies this reference as "useless", tells that Bécaud told him that Brel had apologized on the phone.