One of France’s biggest music stars, Aya Nakamura, has hit back at far-right groups who were angry at a suggestion she may sing an Édith Piaf song during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, telling them: “You can be racist but not deaf.”
According to reports in local media, the French-Malian singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th-century icon Piaf when she met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, last month.
The reports have not been confirmed, but that did not stop them drawing fury from far-right groups. At a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquête party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, 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 calling themselves the Natives hung a banner by the River Seine that read: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market.”
In response, Nakamura wrote 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.”
Vous pouvez être raciste mais pas sourd 🧏.. C’est sa qui vous fait mal ! Je deviens un sujet d’état numéro 1 en débats ect mais je vous dois quoi en vrai ? Kedal https://t.co/rgnGeAAOfD
— Aya Nakamura (@AyaNakamuraa) March 10, 2024
The French sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, also weighed in, telling Nakamura: “It doesn’t matter, people love you. Don’t worry about anything.”
Another parliamentarian, Antoine Léaument of the leftwing LFI party, also 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 Édith Piaf. We cannot be racist and patriotic in France.”
Some on the right are offended by the liberties Nakamura takes with the French language, though it is 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,” she said.
Carole Boinet of culture magazine Les Inrockuptibles said the far right’s reaction 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 they who will decide. I hope she will sing at the Olympics – it has become imperative,” she added.
Angelo Gopee, boss 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.
