The French pop star Aya Nakamura, who found herself at the centre of a racist row after rumours she was going to sing at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, has thanked fans for their support after winning three big prizes at France’s Les Flammes awards for rap, R&B and pop.
“I’m very honoured because being a black artist and coming from the banlieue is very difficult,” Nakamura told the audience at the ceremony, which she opened with a medley of her songs. She dedicated her awards – female artist of the year, pop album of the year, and international star of the year – “to all black women”.
When French media first reported in February that President Emmanuel Macron was in favour of Nakamura performing at the Olympics, many far-right politicians, including Marine Le Pen, and rightwingers including the senate leader, Gérard Larcher, criticised the singer and her music.
A small extremist group calling itself the Natives hung a banner by the River Seine that read: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market.” The Paris prosecutor subsequently opened an investigation into alleged racist abuse against the singer.
Thursday’s awards ceremony, broadcast live on TV for the first time, was political in tone. The comedian Waly Dia’s opening speech lamented the racist row over Nakamura, the most listened to French singer in the world.
The rapper Médine performed his song Gaza Soccer Beach, dedicating it to the Palestinian people. Behind him, a screen that covered all sides of the stage showed the names and ages of children killed in Gaza in the Israeli bombardments that followed the Hamas attack on 7 October. “There is not enough space on the walls to write the names of 35,000 victims,” he said.
“Our hearts are Palestinian, our hearts are Congolese, our hearts are human,” said Nordine Ganso, the ceremony’s host, referencing conflict across the world.
The British rapper Dave won an award for duet of the year for Meridian with the French rapper Tiakola.
The award for social engagement of the year went to the young Moroccan rapper Zamdane, for organising several charity concerts to support the humanitarian organisation SOS Méditerranée. The award was given to him by Assa Traoré, an activist against police violence whose brother died after being arrested in 2016, and the entrepreneur Sara El Attar.
El Attar told the audience: “I am, you are, we are the France of today, yesterday and tomorrow. We’re the most beautiful France, with a b for banlieue.”
France, the second biggest market for rap music in the world after the US, hosted its first Les Flammes awards ceremony for rap, R&B and Afrobeats last year, after years of criticism that the popular genres were woefully underrepresented at the country’s mainstream music awards.
