The Olympic Revenge of France's Black Super Star Aya Nakamura
To far-right critics, she wasn't French enough to perform at a ceremony of this significance. Her ultimate response was to put on one hell of a show for the ages.
Controversy
It has been one uneasy summer for Paris—in fact for all of France. An electoral blues marked by an unprecedented breakthrough of the far-right at the polls slowly gave way to the greatest games on Earth.
But Paris 2024 seemed bound to be a bit of a rock-and-roll. First, there was that fatal accident—the brutal death of a construction worker from Mali, Amara Dioumassy.
Amara’s drop to his demise a year ago at a building site cast a long shadow over the games, prompting calls for better safety standards.
His tragedy was still fresh when it was pushed to the sidelines by a fresher controversy, involving yet another French national with a connection to Mali.
This time, death was not involved. It was rather about glory and whether the glory was going to a place where it was deserved.
And the personality at the heart of that controversy was none other than the global pop sensation Aya Nakamura.
Hands-down, Nakamura is France's most-streamed musician. She boasts, for her entire music catalog, a whopping 6 billion streams.
Yet, when it was announced earlier this year that Aya would perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the decision was met with a wave of criticism from far-right commentators.
La Farce
These critics argued that Nakamura, despite her popularity and success, was too trash to be representative enough of France, and therefore shouldn’t perform at such a prestigious event.
The mention of her name prompted boos at a campaign rally for the Reconquête Party led by far-right figure Éric Zemmour.
A small extremist group called the Natives hung a banner by the River Seine with a derogatory message directed at her.
As the Olympics drew closer and closer, there seemed to be no clear resolution as to whether the Natives and Zemmour would have the final word in the controversy.
And as though tragedy and blatant racism weren’t enough to mar the spirit of the games known for celebrating diversity and for bringing humanity together, arsonists found a way to bypass the Olympics security apparatus, bringing Paris’s railway system to a halt.
Too many incidents. But D-Day came at last. And when the curtains were lowered on the opening ceremony, one British newspaper delivered an unflattering verdict.
La Farce, it exclaimed, having decided that the rain—the uninvited guest at Paris 2024—was literally the proverbial last drop.
Of course, the story would be incomplete without the star of the day—one Aya Nakamura who shone forth and came to the rescue of what could be rescued.
Golden Performance
Rira bien qui rira le dernier, they say in French. For Aya Nakumura, this very French axiom took a whole new meaning, as she turned the stage golden at the kickoff of Paris 2024.
Dressed in a gold Dior couture minidress adorned with feathers, she performed a mashup of her hit songs Pookie and Djadja, flanked on both sides by dancers and a live band from France's Republican Guard.
It was the culmination of a ceremony, directed by Thomas Jolly—a prodigy of France’s theatre. It featured a parade of athletes from 206 national Olympic committees traveling along the Seine, passing iconic Parisian landmarks like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.
Quite simply, it was a show. And Nakamura stole it with a performance that was not just a musical triumph. It was also a powerful cultural statement.
Her presence on this stage—on the top of the world—was very unlikely. It was not meant to be. In the face of that far-right backlash, it was a fitting tribute to the diversity of a France not frozen in the past.
Fans and supporters praised the performance on social media, hailing it as incredible and dubbing her the Queen of France.
Certainly, this was yet another milestone for Aya—a defining moment in her career and the most powerful rebuttal to those who doubted her rightful title as a diva of French culture.
Aya’s revenge over her critics was of one olympic proportion. And as one fan pointedly noted, her ultimate nose-thumb at the far-right would be the spectacle of the Republican Guards hedging her along her way onto the big stage.
Aya Nakamura held her country up and high. She gave us something to remember of Paris 2024—something other than tragedy, racism, arson, and intrusive downpours.