"Why is France the only market of the top five doing well?"
Perhaps it's all that accordian music!
Yeh, the nationalistic airplay law springs to mind. Perhaps it's a BACKLASH against it. Perhaps people feel they can't listen to the radio, so have to BUY their own music!
Jon do you know the audience stats for French radio sinced they passed those laws? Perhaps a lot of listeners switched off and ran to the stores instead?