À tue-tête

The sun is barely up. The birds are chirping sweet little love songs. Somewhere, a croissant is being quietly buttered. All is calm.  And then…  Jacques, still riding high on the emotional rollercoaster of last night’s party, throws open his window and unleashes Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” à tue-tête.  Somewhere in the distance, a baby starts crying, a pigeon falls off a ledge, a car alarm goes off in protest.  Downstairs, Madame Dupont, a retired librarian with a fierce bun and a temper, knocks over her chamomile tea,  and shouts “Jacques! C’est pas Broadway; it’s Saturday!”

The French expression "à tue-tête" means at the top of one's lungs or very loudly. It's typically used to describe someone shouting, singing, or making noise as if the world needs to hear it from space.  Literally, it combines "tuer" (to kill) and "tête" (head), sounding almost like a Mortal Kombat move - “to kill-head.” All this for just being loud?, might you ask. How come?

Origin

The expression “à tue-tête” appears in Middle French (spoken roughly from the 14th to the 17th century).  At the time, tuer had a much broader sense than it does today and could mean to stun, to daze, or to overwhelm violently, not necessarily to cause death.  Think of “killing your senses” more than actual murder - like being hit with such loud sound that it feels like it could "knock your head out."
Some scholars even suggest that the phrase could originally refer to battle cries or calls in distress -  literally yelling loudly enough that it sounded life-or-death, which makes sense in the context of early warfare and towns where sound carried urgent meaning.  So, when you’re singing “My Heart Will Go On” at full volume with the emotional urgency of a sinking ship, you are, in a very old and noble sense, communicating à tue-tête - with all the passion of someone trying to save the village.

Examples

Elle criait à tue-tête pour qu’on l’entende.
She was shouting at the top of her lungs so she could be heard.

Pendant la Coupe du Monde, Théo crie à tue-tête chaque fois que la France marque un but.
During the World Cup, Théo screams every time France scores.