Se balancer means "to swing" or "to sway". While it can refer to physically swinging, it often carries a more nuanced meaning of being carefree, indecisive, or even emotionally unstable.
In the context of the song, the singer wonders if she's been replaced by "Quelqu'un qui aime se balancer" (Someone who likes to swing/sway). This could imply someone who is more playful, less grounded, or perhaps someone who easily moves from one thing to another, contrasting with the singer's more stable, yet heartbroken, state.
This song feels like a lonely Christmas card that will never be sent. The singer, Pomme, finds herself in a cold Montreal, thinking about someone who is no longer in her life. She knows they won't come back and won't reply, but she can't help but wonder what they're doing for the holidays.
She looks back on their relationship, which she saw as a "refuge," a safe place. Now, she feels like she's drowning in the silence left behind. The lyrics reveal a deep sense of loss and confusion, as she asks, "You never loved me / How can I hate you?" It's a bittersweet and melancholic reflection on a connection where one person gave all they had, only to realize it might not have been love at all.
Pomme is the stage name of Claire Pommet, a singer and songwriter born in 1996 near Lyon, France. She began solfège lessons at six and sang in a children's choir before turning to guitar, drawing early on chanson artists like Michel Polnareff that her father played around the house. She played her first Paris show at La Boule Noire in 2017, the same year she released her debut album, À peu près, which reached the French charts.
Her second album, Les failles, came out in 2019 and gave her a French top ten album. She has won two Victoires de la Musique, in 2020 and 2021, and followed with the albums Consolation, En cavale, and Saisons. In 2024 she recorded music with Stromae for Netflix's animated series Arcane. She married Quebecois singer Safia Nolin in 2022, after the two first met and dated back in 2016.