Balivernes is a fantastic French word for "nonsense," "rubbish," or "idle talk." It's a bit old-fashioned and literary, which makes it a unique and fun word to add to your vocabulary.
In the song, Gims sings, "je subis tes balivernes" (I endure your nonsense), expressing his frustration and exhaustion with the trivial and meaningless things in the relationship. It's a powerful and elegant way to describe feeling fed up.
This song asks a simple question in its title, but the answer is anything but simple. Gims kicks off by remembering a time when things were great. He and his partner were so in sync that "Pour te faire comprendre, t'avais juste à lever le cil" (For me to understand you, you just had to raise an eyelash). He was so devoted, he says he was ready to tattoo her face on the inside of his eyelids so he could see her even in an "sommeil éternel" (eternal sleep). It's a dramatic, almost extreme, way to say 'forever'.
But then, something changes in a flash. As he puts it, "J'ai cligné des yeux, tu n'étais plus la même" (I blinked, and you weren't the same anymore). The feeling is gone, replaced by total confusion. The chorus is just him asking himself and her, "Est-ce que je t'aime? J'sais pas si je t'aime" (Do I love you? I don't know if I love you). He even compares getting married to getting arrested: "Quand je t'ai mis la bague au doigt, j'me suis passé les bracelets" (When I put the ring on your finger, I put on handcuffs). It's a blunt and powerful image for feeling trapped in a love that has faded.
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.