The French idiom Ă petit feu literally translates to "over a low flame". It's used to describe something that happens very slowly and gradually, often in a painful or torturous way, like something being slowly cooked.
In the song, Jul uses this powerful imagery to describe a relationship in crisis, singing "On se déchire à petit feu" (We're tearing each other apart slowly). This phrase perfectly captures the slow, painful burn of a love that is falling apart due to constant arguments.
French rapper Jul gives us a super honest look at a relationship that's going through a rough patch. He's not trying to be a perfect hero here. He admits he comes home late at night and that his girlfriend tells him, "Je sers Ă rien" (I'm useless). When she gets mad, his solution is to escape into video games: "Alors j'allume FIFA" (So I turn on FIFA). It's a real and sometimes funny look at how guys can mess up and avoid their problems.
But even with all the fighting, this is a love song at its core. The main message is right in the title: "C'est dur d'aimer" (It's hard to love). He knows they hurt each other and contradict themselves. Yet, in the very next breath, he tells her, "Tu sais que je t'aime Ă l'infini" (You know I love you infinitely) and wants to be with her his whole life. The song is all about that contradiction: love is messy and difficult, but he's not giving up on it.
Jul, born Julien Mari in Marseille in 1990, is a rapper who came up with the local crew Ghetto Phénomène before going solo with the 2014 album Dans ma paranoïa. His half-sung, Auto-Tune-heavy delivery and Marseille slang made him one of the most prolific artists in French music, releasing new albums at a rapid pace and landing most of them near the top of the French charts.
In 2017 his album My World won Urban Music Album of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique, and he is widely reported as the best-selling rapper in French chart history. He releases his music through his own label, D'Or et de Platine.