Métis In the Mainstream: The Ambivalent Blackness and Legacy of Henri Salvador

Existing studies of musical blackness in France either focus on inter-war jazz or on post-1990 rap and "urban pop." This article bridges the gap by studying the songs and career of Henri Salvador (1917-2008), a singer and guitarist of Guadeloupean origin who successfully transitioned, in metropolitan France, from the 1930s fashion for Creole music to mainstream pop in the 1950s and beyond. His success as a métis or mixed-race artist straddled racial stereotyping and abstract Frenchness, revealing complexities around race that problematize the relevance of blackness and métissage (French-style multiculturalism) for framing the work of Black pop musicians in France.