From the presence of Aya Nakamura, a Franco-Malian singer who has raised eyebrows among the French far right, to that of Lady Gaga singing in French, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics has sparked reactions on social media and in the crowd.
Aya Nakamura
Wearing a gold feathered dress, the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world performed alongside the very serious Republican Guard, in uniform, in front of the French Academy.
The sequence in which the Republican Guard starts dancing with the singer, who sang Charles Aznavour’s standard “For me Formidable”, caused a reaction on social networks, with her supporters and detractors.
“What a shame! Aya Nakamura, there’s no way! The opening of the Olympic Games is a devastation of French culture,” denounced Julien Odoul, spokesperson for the National Rally (RN), the French far-right party, on his social networks.
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Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy in the resigning French government, on the other hand expressed his satisfaction, posting on his networks: “Masterclass. What a ceremony!” with a video of the singer’s performance.
Aya Nakamura, accused by her detractors of mistreating the French language, had fun using the verse in “For me Formidable”: “I’d better go choose my vocabulary/To please you in the language of Molière”.
“It was really perfect to put her with the Republican Guard. After all the controversies she has been through… Honestly, bravo!”, rejoiced Naïm, 48, in the crowd gathered in Paris.
“At the same time,” tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron, reusing one of his favorite expressions, on a video of the singer dancing with the Republican Guard.
Lady Gaga
The world pop star, in a black bustier and black and pink Dior train, sang “Mon truc en plumes” by Zizi Jeanmaire, an emblematic title of French music hall, on the banks of the Seine.
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“It’s an ultimate honor to sing for you and to have encouraged you,” she said in a long message posted on the social network, addressed to the organizers and the athletes.
“I am very touched to have received the proposal from the Olympic Committee to sing such a unique French song, a song in honor of the French and their incredible artistic history,” said the singer and actress.
“I hope you enjoy this performance as much as I do,” she said.
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Suzy Elgin, a 41-year-old American, savors, not without a hint of pride, the performance of her compatriot Lady Gaga. “She’s an American artist! Even if she fits well with the French spirit in the end, her slightly wild side suits Paris well,” she judges, her eyes shining.
Metal band and lyrical singer
It was the big surprise of the ceremony: Gojira, a French metal band with an international aura, teamed up with the Franco-Swiss lyrical singer Marina Viotti to perform “Ah! Ça ira”, a French revolutionary song.
“When lyrical singing meets heavy metal, it makes a hypnotic and fabulous cocktail,” commented the French newspaper Le Parisien on X.
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Drag queens, LGBT
Two men with their lips brushing, drag queens recreating the Last Supper, a transgender model: the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday put the spotlight on the LGBT+ community, which displeased a section of the French far right.
Far-right MEP Marion Maréchal responded by writing: “It’s hard to appreciate the rare successful scenes between the decapitated Marie-Antoinettes, the ‘trouple’ kissing each other, the drag queens, the humiliation of the Republican Guard forced to dance to Aya Nakamura, the general ugliness of the costumes and choreography.”
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“We are desperately seeking a celebration of the values of sport and the beauty of France in the midst of such crude woke propaganda,” she wrote on her social networks.
Julien Aubert (Les Républicains, right) for his part remembers a “wokeist” parade, where sport was made invisible by political and societal messages that had no place there.