Galères is a very popular French slang term for "hardships," "struggles," or "troubles." While its literal translation relates to the 'galleys' (old ships rowed by prisoners), it's now used informally to describe any difficult or messy situation.
In the song, GIMS sings "Tu me suis partout, et même dans mes galères" (You follow me everywhere, even through my struggles). Learning this word is a great way to make your French sound more modern and authentic!
In CIEL, hitmaker GIMS talks directly to heaven, sounding both amazed and terrified by a woman who just appeared in his life. He sings, "Ciel, tu n'm'avais pas dit qu'c'était une magicienne" ("Heaven, you didn't tell me she was a magician"). Right away, he suspects trouble with the great French idiom "faire des siennes" ("Ça m'étonnerait pas qu'elle me fasse des siennes" / "It wouldn't surprise me if she plays tricks on me"). The lyrics swing wildly between luxury and total anxiety: one minute he wakes from a nightmare about being broke ("j'étais à découvert" means his bank account was overdrawn), and the next he snaps back to reality inside a bright green Ferrari ("J'ai retrouvé la vue dans le Ferrari vert").
Beneath the shiny cars and magical hooks, the relationship is a mess of broken glass and bad decisions. GIMS gets bluntly honest about faking feelings: "Tu lui dis que tu l'aimes mais c'est pour de faux" ("You tell her you love her, but it's fake"). He even admits to lying during a quiet moment watching the sea, stuck in his own "galères" (a handy French slang word for struggles or chaotic troubles). Even when things crash beyond repair, he chooses to keep only the good memories: "C'est fini mais je garde les plus belles images" ("It's over, but I'm keeping the best pictures"). It is catchy, slightly chaotic pop about falling for someone who feels out of this world while your real life is falling apart.
GIMS, born Gandhi Djuna in 1986 in Kinshasa, is one of the biggest stars in French music. His family left the Democratic Republic of the Congo for Paris when he was just two years old, and he grew up in the French capital.
He first made his name as the masked frontman of the rap collective Sexion d'Assaut, one of the groups behind France's rap revival around 2010. Since going solo in 2013 he has become a chart-topping, stadium-filling artist who blends rap, pop and R&B, and he has worked with international names like Sia, Sting, Maluma and Pitbull.