The Head of State affirmed this Thursday that Aya Nakamura has “complete place” at an opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, after the controversy surrounding her presence during this ceremony. An investigation was notably opened after a report from Licra denouncing publications of a racist nature targeting the Franco-Malian singer.
President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Olympic aquatic center in Saint-Denis, that the Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura had “every place in an opening or closing ceremony” of the Paris Olympic Games, seeing it as “a good thing”.
Aya Nakamura “speaks to many of our compatriots”
The possibility that this French-speaking singer, the most streamed in the world, would take part in the festivities around the Paris Games had aroused the indignation of the right and the far right who saw it as a way of “dividing” and “humiliating” the French. . “She doesn’t sing French, she doesn’t sing ‘foreign’ either, she sings we don’t know what,” said Marine Le Pen. The president, who believes that Aya Nakamura “speaks to many of our compatriots”, added that the decision on the singer’s participation was up to the organizers of the ceremonies. The 28-year-old artist is expected to perform a song by Edith Piaf.
Two weeks ago, SOS Racisme announced in a press release that it had taken legal action, denouncing “waves of racist hatred against Aya Nakamura” and citing as an example the dissemination on social networks of a banner from the identity collective Les Natives. On this banner was written: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market”.