Lendemain means "the next day" or "the day after". It's the key word in this song's beautiful and mysterious title, "L'île au lendemain" (The Island of the Next Day).
This phrase creates a poetic image of a place you can only reach tomorrow. However, the lyrics tell a different story: "On a coulé l'île au lendemain" (We sank the island the next day). This suggests a dream or a future that was destroyed before it could be realized, making lendemain a powerful word full of hopeful and tragic meaning.
Imagine waking up on a tiny island called Tomorrow, only to discover it has already sunk beneath the waves. That bittersweet image sits at the heart of “L’île au Lendemain,” where Julien Doré and Clara Luciani trade tender lines about shattered hopes. They ask “Il reste quoi ?” – “What’s left?” – and find that dreams have washed away, leaving only the fragile comfort of “Il reste moi” (“There is still me”). Their duet feels like a quiet conversation at dawn, equal parts resignation and devotion.
Behind the hypnotic refrain “Tout ça n'sert à rien” (“All of this is useless”), the song sketches a world where people strike poses in the mirror, talk instead of act, and ultimately let the future sink. Yet the presence of the two voices keeps a small flame alive: if everything else fails, we can still be here for each other. It is a melancholic love song and a gentle wake-up call wrapped in dreamy pop – reminding us that tomorrow survives only when we care enough to keep it afloat.