Vertiges translates to "dizziness" or "vertigo." While it can refer to a physical sensation, it often carries a more profound, almost existential meaning in French.
In the context of this song, Pierre Lapointe uses it to describe the overwhelming, disorienting feelings that bodies and emotions can inflict. It's not just about feeling dizzy, but about the profound sense of being lost or overwhelmed by intense experiences, making it a captivating and evocative word.
Pierre Lapointe teams up with French songstress Clara Luciani to paint a humid, candle-lit scene where two lovers freeze time itself. Qu'est-ce qu'on y peut ? (literally, “What can we do about it?”) opens with a plea to “stay still,” inviting us into a bedroom where vertigo, desire, and silence swirl together. The duet lingers on the raw electricity of bodies confessing to each other, questioning whether it even matters if passion is right or wrong—because, in that instant, resisting feels impossible.
By comparing the couple to marble statues, the song underlines both the beauty and fragility of a love that might vanish by dawn. The lyrics accept that tomorrow could hurt and yesterday is irrelevant; what counts is the fleeting embrace happening now. Lapointe and Luciani remind us that whether love lasts a lifetime or just one night, its pull is primal. We can debate, fear, or rationalize all we want, but when two bodies—and hearts—meet or part, au fond, qu’est-ce qu’on y peut… what can we really do?