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Supporters of Aya Nakamura protest against racist hostility: "Madame Le Pen, France is not being humiliated by blacks, but by racists"
Photo:
Geoffroy van Der Hasselt / AFP
Singer Aya Nakamura could perform Édith Piaf songs at the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Paris on July 26th. As soon as this rumor was out in the world, the singer was exposed to nasty racist insults.
Now French President Emmanuel Macron has stepped in and supported Nakamura. “It appeals to a large number of our fellow citizens, and I think it is absolutely in the right place at an opening or closing ceremony,” said Macron, as reported by the Guardian, among others. However, the head of state added that he could not give any details about the ceremony. This is a closely guarded secret and the decision about the program rests with the artistic director of the ceremony.
The hatred against the French-Malian urban pop singer comes particularly from right-wing extremist circles. One magazine read that Nakamura was “vulgar,” “embarrassing,” and “a bad choice.” “Not a single white person can be seen” in her video clips. Marine Le Pen from the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN) spoke of an attempt by Macron to divide the French.
As a result, people protested against the hostility in the capital Paris, among other places. “Madame Le Pen, France is not being humiliated by black people, but by racists,” read posters at a counter-demonstration to an RN rally.
Aya Nakamura, born in Bamako and raised in the Paris suburbs, is one of the world's most listened-to French singers. She published her first own songs on Facebook and YouTube until she became internationally known in 2018 with the song “Djadja”.
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