The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris on July 26 is no longer a controversy. After the one on the dismantling of the second-hand booksellers’ boxes on the banks of the Seine, finally canceled, the one on the reduced capacity to attend the show, here, this week, are racist attacks against the singer Aya Nakamura, one of the most listened to voices abroad, but who, according to the far right, could not sing during this ceremony because she is from Bamako and her French is spiced with expressions from her suburbs.
The performer and author of R’n’B hits Djadja et Pookie hadn’t asked for anything. Neither to sing at the ceremony, nor to interpret Piaf, whose range and vocal power are the opposite of his own, full of vibes but devoid of tremolos.
It all started with a rumor published on February 29 in the weekly L’Express according to which the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, would have invited her to the Elysée to submit the idea of singing one of the songs of the little lady in black.
None of those involved confirmed the information but here is the young woman who was booed at a Reconquest meeting! by Eric Zemmour and thrown out to pasture on social networks by a banner of a small ultra-right group, the Natives (“There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market”).
This is not the first time that such small groups have orchestrated controversies against rap and R’n’B artists. In 2003, the Bloc identitaire tried to ban the group Sniper from concerts for its song France, reinforced by a complaint from the Minister of the Interior at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy.
In May 2016, the native French site obtained the cancellation of a Black M concert to commemorate the Battle of Verdun. The grandson of a Senegalese rifleman never digested this decision “incomprehensible and disturbing”.
In June 2021, Jordan Bardella, then vice-president of the National Rally, criticized the French Football Federation for the choice of rapper Youssoupha to write the anthem of the Blues on the occasion of the Euro, claiming that it was “give in to the scum of France”.
Read also | Aya Nakamura for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games: Rachida Dati warns against all “racism”, after attacks from the far right
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Rapper Dizzee Rascal at the London Olympics, without controversy
Aya Nakamura is not a rapper who can be criticized by the far right for their invectives. She does not talk about her difficult relationship with France, or does not need to “clash” her colleagues to create buzz. His songs tell of his difficult relationships with unfaithful, lying men. Her formulations, borrowed from the environment in which she grew up, in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), are part of her charm and the success she enjoys around the world.
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2024-03-14 18:00:08
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