“People I've Been Sad” by Christine and the Queens

"People, I've Been Sad" arrived in February 2020 and turns up on the La vita nuova EP; Christine and the Queens wrote it alone and produced it with Ash Workman, who also mixed it. The French singer-songwriter slides between English and French over a cool synth-pop pulse, delivering a blunt confession of sadness with a shrug of ennui that makes the bluntness land even harder. Rolling Stone's Kory Grow heard a new starkness in it; Pitchfork's Stacy Anderson called it genuine and striking.

The year-end lists agreed: Paste and Time named it the best song of 2020, NPR and Pitchfork put it second, and the Guardian and Rolling Stone third. The singer also took it to the Together at Home pre-show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.