Corsican singing
Corsican singing is an oral tradition that grew out of village life, where it went with work, festivals, church services and mourning. There is solo singing (monodic), such as the lamentu, the voceru or the nanna, and polyphonic singing, in several voices, whose best-known form is the paghjella. Depending on the region, church singing is more often monodic or becomes polyphonic.
The cantu in paghjella, on UNESCO’s list
In 2009, UNESCO inscribed the cantu in paghjella, a ‘secular and liturgical oral tradition of Corsica’, on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. It is sung a cappella, in Corsican, Sardinian, Latin or Greek, and you hear it as much in the bar or on the village square, at festivals and agricultural fairs, as at Mass and during processions. It used to be handed down through church services, then through the parish choir.
Safeguarding is described as urgent because transmission between generations has declined sharply, young people are leaving the villages and the repertoire is shrinking. The paghjella also risks being reduced to a tourist product.
Types of Corsican song
The paghjella
The paghjella is sung a cappella, in three voices, to secular or religious words. According to UNESCO, the voices always come in in the same order: first the segonda, which carries the melody, then the bassu, the low voice that supports it, and finally the terza, the highest, which ornaments the song with its ribuccati. Each verse has six lines of eight syllables, and a song usually lasts less than two minutes.
The chjam’ è rispondi
Two singers call out to each other and reply in improvised verse, sometimes on a very ordinary subject. The contest goes on until one of them runs out of answers. You can still hear it at fairs and village festivals. The chjam’ è rispondi has been entered in the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage by the French Ministry of Culture.
The terzetti
Another three-part polyphonic song, built in verses of three lines.
The lamentu and the voceru
The lamentu is a lament sung by a single voice: unhappy love, exile, suffering, death. The voceru is the improvised funeral song sung at the wake of the dead.
A nanna
The Corsican lullaby, sung to put children to sleep.
A tribbiera
The work song for threshing grain on the threshing floor.
The riacquistu: the revival of Corsican singing in the 1970s
By the early 1970s, polyphony had almost died out. The riacquistu, the ‘reclaiming’ of the Corsican language and culture during the 1970s and 1980s, brought it back into circulation.
The group Canta u Populu Corsu, formed in those years, carried the movement on stage and on record. Its founders included two voices who later made Corsican music known further afield, Petru Guelfucci and Jean-Paul Poletti.
Sacred singing and confraternities
The confraternities are lay associations attached to a church or chapel. They provide the liturgical singing and organise the processions. Their revival is linked to that of singing: the sacred polyphonic repertoire held them together as they rebuilt, and some now compose new songs in Corsican. There are about a hundred on the island.
Holy Week is when you are most likely to hear them. According to the Agence du tourisme de la Corse (the Corsican tourist board), the Catenacciu procession winds through Sartène on the evening of Good Friday, Bonifacio’s five confraternities process through the upper town, the Cerca links the villages around Erbalunga on the morning of Good Friday, and the Granitola takes place in Calvi. See visiting Sartène and visiting Bonifacio.
Famous Corsican songs
Diu vi salvi Regina
The island’s best-known song is the Diu vi salvi Regina (also spelt Dio vi salvi Regina). It is a Marian hymn, attributed to Saint Francis de Geronimo and composed in Italy around 1675, which became the anthem of Corsica. It is played at the opening of some sessions of the Corsican Assembly. Tradition holds that it was the rallying song of the insurgents gathered in Corte in 1735, but no archive confirms this.
O Ciucciarella
This song appears on the first record by Tino Rossi, recorded for Parlophone and often described as the first record of Corsican songs.
Corsica
Written by Petru Guelfucci to music by Christophe Mac-Daniel, it gave its title to the album Corsica (1991), which went gold in Quebec in 1993. Born in Sermano, Petru Guelfucci, who had campaigned for the paghjella’s inscription by UNESCO, died in 2021.
Corsican songs at Eurovision
Two songs have taken Corsica to the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1993, Patrick Fiori sang Mama Corsica for France, in French with lines in Corsican, and finished fourth. In 2011, Amaury Vassili sang Sognu, entirely in Corsican, and finished fifteenth.
Corsican music: well-known groups
The following groups are still active, with concerts or broadcasts between 2024 and 2026.
- A Filetta, founded in 1978 in the Balagne, opens every evening of the Rencontres de Calvi; its latest album, I balconi, came out in 2023.
- I Muvrini, from Tagliu-Isulacciu, sang at the Olympia in March 2026 and is touring until May 2027.
- Canta u Populu Corsu and Voce Ventu were on the bill of Corsu Mezu Mezu, broadcast on France 3 in 2026; Voce Ventu celebrated its thirtieth anniversary on ViaStella.
- Jean-Paul Poletti directs the Chœur d’hommes de Sartène (Sartène men’s choir), which sang in Paris in December 2025.
- L’Arcusgi celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2024.
Other groups have left their mark on polyphony, such as I Chjami Aghjalesi, Tavagna and Barbara Furtuna.
The instruments of Corsican music
In Corsican music, the voice comes before the instruments, which mainly accompany it at festivals; the violin is common. A few instruments are unique to the island.
- The cetera, a plucked cittern strung with eight double courses. Making it, an almost forgotten craft, revived at the end of the 1970s.
- The pifana, a flute carved from a goat’s horn.
- The caramusa, the Corsican bagpipe, associated with shepherds and played at festivals.
- The cialamella, a reed wind instrument, and the pirula, a cane flute.
- The riberbula, a type of jaw harp.
Where to hear polyphonic singing in Corsica
Every year in mid-September, the Rencontres de chants polyphoniques de Calvi (Calvi polyphonic singing festival), founded in 1989 by U Svegliu Calvese and A Filetta, bring choirs from Corsica and around the world to the cathedral and the citadel. See visiting Calvi.
In July, the Festivoce festival has taken over the village of Pigna, in the Balagne, since 1991: four days of concerts and workshops, organised by the Voce music centre, which was awarded the status of national centre for musical creation in 2017.
During Holy Week, the confraternities’ services and processions are a chance to hear sacred singing in its setting. The rest of the year, groups sing in village churches, especially in summer. Programmes are published by the tourist offices.