- The 35th Victories of Music ceremony takes place this Friday at the Seine Music in Boulogne-Billancourt "Hauts-de-Seine".
- For the first time since 2000, the categories "rap" and "urban music" have been removed.
- Invisibility, lack of diversity ... This new device is not unanimous. Is rap the loser of Victories?
Will the Victoires de la musique taste bitter? While the 35th ceremony will be held this Friday evening at the Seine Music in Boulogne Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) and will be broadcast live on France 2 and France Inter, critics are firing around the new formula of the award ceremony. For good reason, if the college of voters was enlarged, passing from 600 to 900, the number of categories was planed down, passing from 13 to 8. The victims of this recasting? Musical genres such as world music (now represented at another ceremony, that of the Victoires du Jazz) or electronic music.
So-called “urban” music doubly pays the price. Farewell to the Victory of the "rap album" and that of "urban music", the artists are now competing in much more general categories such as that of the "original song" or "album of the year". Thus, among the 21 artists named in the eight categories this year, only three rap artists managed to find a place: Lomepal (named as “male artist” and “album of the year”), Nekfeu (“album of the 'year') and NLP ('audiovisual creation'). A surprising observation when you know that rap is one of the most listened to music of the French. Are rappers the big losers of these 35th Music Victories?
Rap drowned in pop?
"We asked ourselves the question of legitimacy and legibility with categories that were sometimes misunderstood, explains to 20 Minutes Romain Vivien, the new president of Victoires. A number of producers and artists did not feel represented at all in this or that category, or did not understand why they had to be in a specific genre. We decided to simplify and focus on fewer categories, to treat all artists the same. This redesign amazes Olivier Nusse, president of Universal Music France. “These rap categories were created on the initiative of Natacha Krantz [the previous president of Victories], who is the director of our Mercury label. An initiative carried by the whole house that I represent, because it gave the opportunity to artists who revealed themselves - and some of whom had fairly resounding successes on the music market in France -, of power, once a year, be recognized as those who partially carried this market. For Eloïse Bouton, journalist and founder of Madame Rap, the new device is part of the "systematic invisibility" of this music, as she deplores with AFP.
Mehdi Guebli, director general of the Bureau des artistes and manager of several rappers including Sofiane and Vald, is more nuanced. “The positive side is that urban music is no longer segmented and is [now] considered in the same way as any other music. The negative side is that these projects will find themselves drowned. It will be more complicated for them to emerge or win prizes in this competition. "
We can salute a certain form of fairness in this new formula (“may the best win”) and rejoice that a rapper like Lomepal can claim the price of “the album of the year”, in the same way as Philippe Katerine and Alain Souchon named in the same category. However, this complicates the possibilities of finding a place among the heavyweights of the French musical landscape. In comparison, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Grammy Awards focus on variety and have dozens of categories.
Representation and diversity
How to ensure, then, the representation of this musical genre whose popularity is no longer to be demonstrated in France and whose rich and varied projects abound? Six "urban" artists were in the running for Victories last year, compared to three this year. "The real background of the problem is not really the consideration of the urban in the Victories but above all the functioning in itself," says Mehdi Guebli. Who are the voters? The panel is very wide, everyone will pull the rope towards their projects, which is normal, but these are people who are not necessarily sensitive to the urban or who are not necessarily legitimate to vote to determine if a project is better than another. Let us recall that out of all 900 voters, if 200 are from the general public, the majority are made up of artists and music professionals (performers, composers, producers, agents, programmers, etc.).
On the rap side, only two solo artists and a duo managed to reach the final list of nominees for Victories. We can only observe a cruel lack of female rap representatives as well as a lack of diversity. "There were many artists representing diversity, especially urban music, who were part of the pre-selection after the first round of votes, informs Romain Vivien. It is clear that after the second there are few left. Lomepal, Nekfeu and PNL are appointed. Is it enough and does it represent diversity enough? Probably not. Are the named artists all legitimate? Probably yes. Does the problem come from categories or voters? This question, which concerns all categories, may still be topical next year.
"Rap lives very well without Victories"
But, after all, is Victory so important in an artist's career? The ceremony can boost sales of records - via the reissue of an album stamped "Victoire de la musique" for example - and above all offers a beautiful TV showcase to artists who perform in prime time on France Télévisions. "If the performances are remarkable, it has a fairly prescriptive side and we know that after the press relay is quite important", confirms Olivier Nusse. But keep in mind that the musical consumption of the Victoires' public does not necessarily reflect the major trends in music in France.
"You also have to think that the TV channel is aimed at a target," adds Alexandre Kirchhoff, the director of the Capitol label where many rap artists are signed. Does this target listen to rap? Seeing rap this Friday evening probably wouldn't have changed rap sales, but it would have been a form of institutional recognition for these artists, who are extremely popular with young people. Not to mention that sequences like the 113 landing in 504 on the Victories plateau had in any case the gift of giving a big boost to the ceremony.
Difficult to know who has the most to lose in this story ... "Rap lives very well without Victories," says Mehdi Guebli. And to add: “When a rap artist wins prizes, all rap also wins. Inevitably there are projects that will hold the attention of the panel, but in the end does this prevent us from releasing albums, filling the largest rooms in France (Accor Hotel Arena…), being in the lead of the most important festivals and at the top of the charts each week? " No. A comforting answer is already won.
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