The programmatic chansons of Clément Janequin were enduringly popular South of the Alps. La bataglie, Le rossignol, etc., were printed until at least 1570 and are inventoried in collections in Padua, Verona, and Rome. Working outward from the networks of expatriated French musicians abroad, I use Janequin's chansons to consider how music supported performances of ethnic difference within a Europe that was marked by large migrant populations, internal colonization, and diasporas.