Raft is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 band active in the 1980s, most notable for their 1987 hit single

Hit single

A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...

, "Yaka dansé (l'arborigène)".

Biography

The band was a duet composed of Christian Fourgeron (guitar, vocals) and Pierre Schott (guitar, bass, vocals, born 24 April 1958). They begin their musical career in 1985 with their single "Io (c'est ça)" which passed unnoticed in France. However, in 1987, they had their first hit with "Yaka dansé (l'arborigène)", which was a number 2 hit in France, and earned a gold disc

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

. The single was succeeded by "Femmes du Congo", which achieved a moderate success in comparison. The band's songs contained many puns and dealt with grave themes of society, sung on joyful music. In 1988, they released their first album entitled Madagascar and was the opening act for Niagara

Niagara (band)

Niagara is the name of a French synthpop duo that achieved popularity both in France and Canada from 1986 to 1989. The band, whose was known under the name L'Ombre jaune from 1982 to 1984, was formed in Rennes, France, in 1984, by vocalist Muriel Laporte and keyboardist Daniel Chenevez...

's concerts. In 1990, the band split up and both members started a solo career.

More recently, the reformed group participated in the concert tour named RFM Party 80, which started in 2006.

Raft

Albums

• 1985 : It's Growing Light
• 1989 : Madagascar

Singles

• 1985 : "Io (c'est ça)"
• 1987 : "Yaka dansé (l'arborigène)" - #2 in France, Gold disc
• 1988 : "Femmes du Congo" - #20 in France
• 1989 : "Didimdam (dimdam)"
• 1989 : "Sea, Sun and Sensy"
• 1990 : "Debout gazelles"

Collaborations

• 1988 : "Dernier Matin d'Asie", a charity single recorded by many artists under the name Sampan

Pierre Schott

• 1992 : Le Nouveau Monde
• 1994 : Le Retour à la vie sauvage
• 1998 : Le Milieu du grand nulle part
• 2007 : Zenland...