Antoine HLT Laughs off Autumn on Vive l’automne, French Chanson-Pop for Listeners Who Dread the Season
5 min read
Antoine HLT Laughs off Autumn on Vive l'automne, French Chanson-Pop for Listeners Who Dread the Season
A French Songwriter’s Humorous Pop-Rock Single, Dressed up with Clarinet and Cello
The official clip for Vive l’automne has passed 10,600 views on YouTube in its first six weeks. Antoine HLT released the humorous French pop single Vive l’automne on 18 September 2026, and it turns the gloom of the season into a joke.
Antoine HLT’s Vive l’automne now sits in our pop playlist, and Antoine HLT’s artist profile keeps the coverage in one place. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a listen, then read on for who it was made for.
Who Vive l’automne Is For, Fans of Witty French Chanson Who Dread the Shorter Days
The song is for anyone who feels autumn arriving and sighs. The idea is simple: the season can be gloomy, but not while this song is playing.
Antoine HLT is a songwriter from Nancy, France, born Antoine Thabault in 1989. The stage name dates from 2010 and takes the three silent letters of that surname.
Words came first. Before music took over, there was a master’s degree in letters and a run of published drawings. Since then, the lyrics have won several prizes, including the Grand Prix Georges Chelon de la chanson poétique from the Société des Poètes et Artistes de France in 2020.
So the natural audience is French-speaking listeners who like a clever lyric. It also takes in pop and pop-rock fans who enjoy a song that does not take itself too seriously.
How Vive l’automne Found Its First Listeners, From a Lorraine Video Shoot to Regional Press
The video went up on 23 September, five days after the single. Antoine HLT directed and edited it, and it was filmed across eight towns and villages in Lorraine, with friends in the cast and local shops in the credits. Two of the musicians on the record, Antoine Bridet and Pierre Merciol, also appear on screen.
There is a bloopers video as well. Meanwhile, the artist’s website offers autumn memes for fans to drop into their own posts.
Antoine HLT wrote the words and music and sings the song. Josse Gérard arranged it with the artist, played the keyboards and programming, and mixed it at the Josse’Singer studio. Antoine Bridet plays the guitars, Pierre Merciol the clarinet and Bruno De Vuono the cello.
Alex Gopher, a French Touch producer whose mastering work at Translab includes records for Angèle and Clara Luciani, mastered the track. The result moves the sound towards pop-rock, with guitars, keyboards, clarinet and cello in the arrangement and a bright, polished finish.
The first reactions came from regional and independent press. L’Est Républicain featured Antoine HLT on 2 October, and Indiefferential Magazine included the artist in its What’s New round-up on 22 October.
Wit and pop hooks have a long history in French song. Alain Souchon released Foule sentimentale in October 1993, a single that mocks a materialistic society, and it won song of the year at the 1994 Victoires de la Musique. Antoine HLT covers it on stage, and Vive l’automne aims for the same mix of a light tune and a sharp eye.
Antoine HLT Builds a Community Around Vive l’automne With Workshops, Covers and Live Shows
Antoine HLT has played over 100 concerts and runs songwriting workshops. Bookings go through LiveTonight and Linkaband, and the stage work has its own prize too: a special jury award at Chansons sur scène in Homécourt in 2022.
The live sets lean on French song history too. The artist’s video page includes covers of Anne Sylvestre, Alain Souchon and Daniel Balavoine, plus a guest spot with GrandLarge on La Jument de Michao.
Anne Sylvestre studied literature at the Sorbonne in the 1950s and started out singing in cabarets. Antoine HLT, who also trained in letters, has performed her song Cul et chemise live.
The catalogue gives new listeners plenty to explore. Le Sens des Marches came out in 2017 and Petits Morceaux in 2020. Then Acrostiche, a 29-track album, followed in January 2024, and Vive l’automne is the first song of a new project.
The single suits fans of French pop and chanson who want humour with their hooks. It also suits curators in France and beyond who are building autumn playlists.
BestMusic.News’s curator team: “Vive l’automne comes with its own instrumental version, a sign of how much care went into the arrangement. The joke lands because the music is played straight.”
Start with the clip on this page, then play the single on Spotify. After that, go back to Acrostiche to hear the electronic side the new project moves away from.
Follow Antoine HLT on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Bandcamp, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, and find workshops and concert dates on the official website.
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