Olympic organisers said Monday that they were shocked by the “racist attacks” against France’s biggest music star Aya Nakamura over rumours she might perform an Edith Piaf song during the opening ceremony for the Games.
It began with local media reports that the French-Malian singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th-century icon Piaf when she met President Emmanuel Macron last month, though neither party has confirmed the rumour.
That was enough to become an issue at a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquest party, led by far-right ex-presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, where Nakamura’s name drew boos from the crowd.
The 28-year-old singer has become a pop superstar around the world for hits like “Djadja”, which has close to a billion streams on YouTube alone.
A small extremist group, the Natives, hung a banner by the River Seine that read: “There’s no way Aya; this is Paris, not the Bamako market”.
Nakamura responded on social media_ “You can be racist but not deaf… That’s what hurts you! I’m becoming a number 1 state subject in debates… but what do I really owe you? Nada.”
The Olympics organising committee told AFP: “We have been very shocked by the racist attacks against Aya Nakamura in recent days. (We offer our) total support to the most listened-to French artist in the world.”
Nakamura also received support from Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera who addressed her on X, saying: “It doesn’t matter, people love you. Don’t worry about anything.”
Antoine Leaument, an MP from the left-wing France Unbowed party, hit out at the Natives, posting: “They claim to love their country but they want to exclude the most listened-to French-speaking singer in the world since Edith Piaf. We cannot be both racist and patriotic in France.”
Nakamura has faced right-wing criticism in the past for the liberties she takes with the French language using the familiar argot of hip-hop.
“I can understand why some people say: ‘Who does she think she is, mocking us in our French language?'” Nakamura told AFP in a recent interview.
“But it’s important to accept the culture of others, and, me, I have two cultures.”
Carole Boinet of culture magazine Les Inrockuptibles said the far right had, ironically, made it more vital that Nakamura perform at the Olympics.
“Aya Nakamura invented this language which is fantastic. She has crazy hits — France should be proud to have an artist like her known internationally,” Boinet told AFP.
“It’s a controversy that comes from the backward side of France but it’s not them who will decide. I hope she will sing at the Olympics — it has become imperative,” she said.
Angelo Gopee, head of event producers Live Nation France, said it was “unforgivable that racists can attack an artist for her origins and her skin colour”.
“The Olympics should transcend borders,” he said.
