The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati warned, Tuesday March 12, against “pretexts to attack someone out of pure racism” while the singer Aya Nakamura has been stigmatized and targeted by the far right since several days, because she could sing at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.
“Attacking an artist for who she is is unacceptable, it is a crime,” she added, after being questioned on the subject during a hearing by the culture committee in the Senate (1 hour and 57 minutes), on the potential choice of the singer to represent France during the event, by the senator of the National Rally Aymeric Durox, hostile to such a scenario.
Like this last MP, the French far right bristles at the idea that the internationally renowned Franco-Malian R’n’B star could sing at the opening of the Olympic Games, and what’s more, by singing Edith Piaf, even if nothing is official. According to the weekly L’Express, the artist would have discussed with Emmanuel Macron, during an interview in February, her possible participation in the opening ceremony of the event, with the possibility that she would perform a song by Edith Piaf. Neither the President of the Republic nor the artist have, for the moment, confirmed this rumor.
The singer booed at a meeting and targeted by a racist banner
The name of Aya Nakamura was notably booed last weekend during a meeting of the far-right Reconquest! then was the target of a racist banner brandished by a small ultra-right group, called the Natives. The latter posted on his networks on Saturday a photo of a banner hung by around ten of its members on the banks of the Seine, where we can read: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the market from Bamako! » (the expression “There’s no way” refers to his hit Djadja, with more than 950 million views on YouTube). Faced with these attacks, described as racist by many, the artist received multiple support from peers in the music world and several political leaders.
The figure of the extreme right Marion Maréchal, head of the list for the European elections of Eric Zemmour’s party, however gave it another layer on Tuesday on BFM-TV, declaring: “We like it or we don’t like it, she doesn’t don’t sing in French. » Aya Nakamura’s detractors particularly mock the liberties she takes with the French language, as in Djadja, mixing vocabulary and images from around the world (“I’m not your whore, Djadja, like, in catchana baby, you dead that”).
But for Boris Vedel, director of the Printemps de Bourges festival, who reacted to the attacks targeting the artist to Agence France-Presse at the start of the week, “if we prohibited French culture from enriching itself with others or those who mischievously have fun with the French language, we would not have Renaud, Brassens, Baudelaire”.
Director Thomas Jolly, in charge of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, also said on his social networks that he was “deeply shocked by the racism of which Aya Nakamura is a victim”. Without confirming the singer’s participation, he promised that “the ceremonies will speak out against any form of discrimination. France, through a mosaic of talents, will celebrate the beauty and richness of its diversity. » Aya Nakamura, for her part, thanked her community on Tuesday on the social network X “for the support” received.
