When the pandemic started, Héloïse Letissier, who goes by the name Christine and the Queens, initially felt a burst of creative ambition. “I started like a fighter—I was like, ‘I'm going to make this lockdown thing the most blossoming and artistically relevant thing of all my life,’” the French singer-songwriter tells Apple Music. “I started to write lots of songs and immediately started to fantasise about [my next] record. But I think it's also a coping mechanism.” Then Letissier realized he needed to take a pause; he took a full week to absorb all kinds of art before going back to writing and recording music while he’s sheltering place at his home in Paris. On this exclusive Apple Music playlist curated by Letissier himself, he highlights songs that soothe and inspire him during these challenging times, featuring artists like Kelsey Lu, Fiona Apple, El Perro del Mar, and recently deceased French pop icon Christophe, whom he considers one of his heroes: “He was a wonderful man, really curious until the very end of his life—sometimes more advanced and modern than young people. I was lucky enough to meet him several times and I really adored him.”