UPROAR

France’s Biggest Pop Star Sends Far-Right Into Racist Tantrum

Rumors that Mali-born Aya Nakamura might perform at the Paris Olympics fueled the ire of the far-right, who said she doesn’t represent France.

Aya Nakamura is France’s most successful pop star since Edith Piaf, so it was no surprise when she met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss possibly performing a Piaf song at the Paris Olympics later this summer. But news of her hypothetical performance sent France’s far-right into an uproar; they claimed the Mali-born singer doesn’t represent the country and that her use of French slang is an insult to the language. At a far-right convention of the Reconquête party Sunday, the mere mention of Nakamura elicited boos and jeers from the crowd. To protest her, a right-wing extremist group called The Natives hung a banner by the Seine which read, “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market,” riffing on her African place of birth. The singer clapped back immediately, slamming the group’s “racist” behavior as representatives from France and the Olympics committee rushed to her defense. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the French sports minister, lent Nakamura her full support, telling the singer, “It doesn’t matter, people love you. Don’t worry about anything.”