Gojira’s performance of Ah! Ça Ira at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is now available on streaming services.
The French extreme metal titans performed their cover of the revolutionary song with opera singer Marina Viotti at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony on July 26. The four-piece played Ah! Ça Ira after an introduction from an actor playing a beheaded Marie Antoinette, and did so on the side of former prison La Conciergerie, where Antoinette was sentenced to death in 1793 following the French Revolution.
The fiery playthrough swiftly went viral. UK national newspaper The Independent reported that some viewers deemed the moment the “only good thing” about the ceremony, which also featured Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.
On the other hand, certain Christian fundamentalists attempted to ignite a stupor by accusing Gojira’s Olympics performance of being satanic. Singer/guitarist Joe Duplantier responded in a Rolling Stone interview: “It’s none of that. It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine and blood all over the place – it’s romantic, it’s normal.”
On July 30, Metal Hammer published an op-ed deeming Gojira’s Olympics performance “the most important moment for metal this century”.
“Ultimately, even if you hate Gojira’s music with a passion as bloody and fiery as their recent performance, the band have now statistically been seen more times at once than any other in metal,” wrote journalist Matt Mills. “29 million people tuned in and saw them incite a riverside inferno on Friday. Not even Metallica have entered that many living rooms simultaneously.”
Mills continued: “Metal has been brought to a new apex, and it’s been hoisted there by four men who practise what they preach, evolve with each release and work their derrières off. Has any other singular moment ever done this much good for this form of music?”
Gojira released their latest album, Fortitude, to critical acclaim in 2021. They will headline Derbyshire metal festival Bloodstock Open Air in 2025, alongside Trivium and Machine Head. Tickets to the weekender are now available to purchase.
