"Putain Putain" (literally "Whore whore" in French, though also a common curse word) is a 1983 song by Belgian rock group TC Matic. It was written by Arno Hintjens (known by the mononym Arno) and Jean-Marie Aerts.[1] Released on the band's album Choco (1983), it was released as a single, with "Living On My Instinct" as the B-side.[2] At the time, "Putain Putain" was a minor club hit in Belgium and France. It remains one of the band's biggest hits.[3]
| "Putain Putain" | |
|---|---|
| Single by TC Matic | |
| from the album Choco | |
| B-side | "Living On My Instinct" |
| Released | 1983 |
| Genre | Pop, Rock, Dance |
| Songwriter(s) | Arno Hintjens, Jean-Marie Aerts |
"Putain Putain" is a trilingual song, mostly sang in French, but with phrases in Dutch and English. The lyrics are mostly a series of non-connected, silly observations. The singer claims he is not a communist, cyclist, Catholic or a "footballiste" (association football player). He mentions he likes women and boys and "like I already said: I like dicks.". Singing in West-Flemish dialect he makes observations about the length and girth of penises, concluding: "Ik heb een kleintje, maar 'k schiet verre" ("I have a small one, but it shoots far.").[4][5] Returning to the French language, the singer then claims that some people talk a lot, but do little, while there are people starving from hunger. In the final verses he invites a jolly girl to take his hand, because "Saturday Night the entire world will take a bath", concluding with lines in English: The rich may be rich, the poor may be poor. They all beat the shit out of each other.".
The refrain of "Putain Putain" loosely translates to: "Damn, damn, it's darn O.K., we're all Europeans after all.". As a joke, a female singer (Julia Lo'ko [1]) hums Marc-Antoine Charpentier's composition "Te Deum", best known as the theme song of the Eurovision Song Contest. Interviewed by Ray Cokes in 1986, Arno explained that he feels European, because in daily life he speaks several languages. He talks French with his girlfriend and Flemish, French, English and a little German with his friends.[6]
In 2021, Arno recorded a new version of "Putain Putain" on his solo album Vivre.[7]
"Putain Putain" has been covered by: