"Comment ça va" is a 1983 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...

 song by Dutch boy band

Boy band

A boy band is loosely defined as a popular music act consisting of only male singers. The members are expected to dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. More often than not, boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on...

 The Shorts

The Shorts

The Shorts was a pop group from the Netherlands consisting of Hans van Vondelen , Erik de Wildt , Hans Stokkermans and Peter Wezenbeek . The group was formed in 1976, and scored a 1983 international hit with "Comment ça va"....

.

The song deals about a boy who meets a French girl, but they can't understand each other because they speak different languages.

It was originally written in English by Dutch composer and producer Eddy de Heer, but EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 insisted on a Dutch version. The Dutch version was released as a single, but was neglected by the official Dutch radio stations. After 10,000 singles were sold, with only airplay on pirate radio

Pirate radio

Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...

, the official radio stations started playing the song and it went to the number one spot in the Dutch Top 40

Dutch Top 40

The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...

. It quickly became an international hit, selling about 4 million singles, with versions in English, German, French and Spanish.

Ingela "Pling" Forsman

Ingela Forsman

Ingela Birgitta "Pling" Forsman is a Swedish lyricist in popular music. 1981–2009, 33 of her songs have competed in the Swedish Melodifestivalen, three of them winners: Bra vibrationer , Se på mej and Kärleken är...

 wrote lyrics in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

, also named "Comment ça va", which was recorded by Kikki Danielsson

Kikki Danielsson

Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until...

 and released on the album Singles Bar

Singles Bar

Singles Bar is a 1983 studio album from Swedish country and pop singer Kikki Danielsson. On the album charts, "Singles Bar" as best finished 13th in Norway and 35th in Sweden.In July 2009 the album was digitally released to iTunes.-Side A:-Side B:...

in 1983 , and as a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 with "Du skriver dina kärlekssånger" as B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 . With her recording, Kikki Danielsson scored a hit in the Nordic region in mid 1983, peaking at #3 on the Norwegian singles chart.
Norwegian singer Bente Lind also recorded a Norwegian version of the song in 1983.

In Hungary it was first performed in the mid 1980s by the Fáraó Band (in Hungarian, only keeping in French the refrain: Comment ça va; Comme si, comme si, comme ça), then, after its high popularity by other performes as well (e.g. György Korda and Klári Balázs).

The Shorts

Chart (1983)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	5
Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	1
Norwegian Singles Chart	8
Swiss Singles Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...	6

Kikki Danielsson

Chart (1983)	Peak position
Norwegian Singles Chart	3