ABSTRACT
A special case must be made for Occitan and Breton folk-singers. South of the Loire valley, folk music became the instrument or the context of a revival of Occitan cultural identity, with Marti, Patric and Joan Pau Verdier. In Brittany, Alan Stivell led the rise of Celtic folk and pop, followed by Glenmor and Gilles Servat, whose Blanche Hermine (White Ermine) became the hymn of minorities neglected by central government. The Breton folk-singers survived the doldrums of the 1980s and early 1990s, in which folk music in France seemed to have declined, drawing their strength from their traditional Celtic musical heritage mixed with modern idioms. Since 1994, there are signs of a revival in folk music in France, and again some regions with a strong singular cultural identity are providing the talents: Brittany (with Tri Yann and Dan Ar Braz), the Basque country (with Peio Serbielle), Alsace and Corsica.
