Boum ! (French pronunciation: [bum], similar to the English "boom") is a popular song by the French singer/songwriter Charles Trenet which won him the Grand Prix du Disque. Its light, irreverent lyrics express a joie de vivre which suited the mood of the French public at the time of its release in 1938.

It includes depictions of the sounds made by various animals and also various onomatopoeia. It is maybe the first time a song makes such a use of onomatopoeia. The lyric to the refrain is:

"Boum!" has also been recorded by other artists in an English translation. The song is also featured in Absolut Vodka's "In An Absolut World" television commercial campaign as well as a period song in the "France Falls" episode of The World At War. In that episode, the song is presented with a chorus of artillery and machine guns in the sequence on military life at the Maginot Line during the Phoney War, making the "boum" more like the English "boom" sound, a variant of "bang". Additionally, it was featured in the Jack Nicholson comedy Something's Gotta Give as well as Toto the Hero. Also recently^[when?] it has been used by Renault in their latest string of advertising. In 1994 the song was covered by Belgian singer Maurane.

Charles Trenet (born Louis Charles Auguste Claude Trenet, 18 May 1913, Narbonne, France – 19 February 2001, Créteil, France) was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s. In an era in which it was exceptional for a singer to write his or her own material, Trenet wrote prolifically and declined to record any but his own songs.

His best known songs include "Boum !", "La Mer", "Y'a d'la joie", "Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?", "Ménilmontant" and "Douce France". His catalogue of songs is enormous, numbering close to a thousand. While many of his songs mined relatively conventional topics such as love, Paris, and nostalgia for his younger days, what set Trenet's songs apart were their personal, poetic, sometimes quite eccentric qualities, often infused with a warm wit. Some of his songs had unconventional subject matter, with whimsical imagery bordering on the surreal. "Y'a d'la joie" evokes 'joy' through a series of disconnected images, including that of a subway car shooting out of its tunnel into the air, the Eiffel Tower crossing the street and a baker making excellent bread. The lovers engaged in a minuet in "Polka du Roi" reveal themselves at length to be 'no longer human': they are made of wax and trapped in the Musée Grévin. Many of his hits from the 1930s and 1940s effectively combine the melodic and verbal nuances of French song with American swing rhythms.

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.

After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Grace Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance. She retired from acting at 26 to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She and Prince Rainier had three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stéphanie. She also retained her American roots, maintaining dual US and Monégasque citizenships.

Gnonnan Sossou Pierre Kouassivi, known by the stage name Gnonnas Pedro was a singer and musician from Benin. He is perhaps best known as the lead singer of Africando between 1995 and his death in 2004, but had been well known in his home country of Benin since the 1960s.

Pedro produced the song Feso Jaiye, which became a hit and was performed by many bands at the 2nd All-Africa Games in 1973.

Sekouba Bambino described him as follows:

Gnonnas Pedro died August 12, 2004, age 61 of prostate cancer in a hospital of Cotonou, Benin.

Richard Sanderson (born 5 March 1953, Taplow) is a British singer.

He was born in England, son of two musicians: his Scottish father plays drums and his French mother plays the accordion.

Sanderson began playing piano from age five and picked up guitar at age 15. He is best known for his song Reality, which was the title theme to the soundtrack to the french 1980 film La Boum. The song became a hit in Europe in 1982, reaching #1 in 15 countries, including France Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland and selling more than eight million copies worldwide. Reality is well known in Germany and it has been covered multiple times on DSDS, the German version of American Idol.

Despite his success in continental Europe, Sanderson is virtually unknown in the United Kingdom. He has scored four films: Resonnances, Acharnés, Adam et Ève, C'est facile et ça peut rapporter... 20 ans and the TV miniseries Unknown Images: The Vietnam War.