FIP Autour du Reggae streams curated reggae music around the clock, a thematic channel from France's eclectic public radio network FIP. It is free to listen right now, anywhere in the world, no account required.
Nearly Half a Century of French Reggae Devotion
Reggae's hold on France runs deeper than casual fandom. The relationship began in earnest at the tail end of the 1970s, when Serge Gainsbourg became infatuated with the genre and traveled to Jamaica's Dynamic Sounds studio to record with Sly and Robbie, the legendary rhythm section, alongside Bob Marley's own backing singers, the I Threes. The resulting 1979 album, "Aux armes et cætera," became a smashing success back home. That same year, five friends from the West Indies and North Africa formed Trenchtown Meditation, a Creole-speaking reggae band heavily inspired by Marley that became one of the pioneering acts of France's homegrown scene. Reggae spread through the 1980s largely through diasporic communities from Africa and the Caribbean, with the first French sound systems emerging during that decade and raggamuffin and sound clash culture following in the 1990s and 2000s. Nearly 50 years on, reggae remains one of France's genuinely favorite genres, carried forward by acts like Danakil.
A Natural Fit on FIP
FIP launched in Paris in 1971 as a commercial-free antidote to city noise, building its reputation on an eclectic signal that mixed jazz, rock, chanson, hip-hop and reggae side by side, hand-picked track by track by in-house programmers. Autour du Reggae pulls that genre out into its own dedicated channel, giving a music that has held French audiences for decades a continuous home of its own.
How to Listen
FIP Autour du Reggae streams free on Radio Shuffle. Press play above for curated reggae from a country that has loved the genre for nearly 50 years.