One of France’s biggest music stars, Aya Nakamura, has hit back at far-right groups angry at a suggestion she may sing in front of 300,000 people during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, telling them: “You can be racist but not deaf", reports The Guardian.
According to reports in local media, the French-Malian singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th-century icon Édith Piaf when she met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, last month.
The reports have not been confirmed, but that did not stop them drawing fury from far-right groups. At a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquête party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, Nakamura’s name drew boos from the crowd.
The 28-year-old singer has become a pop superstar around the world for hits like Djadja, which has close to a billion streams on YouTube alone.
A small extremist group calling themselves the Natives hung a banner by the River Seine that read: “There’s no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market.”
In response, Nakamura wrote on social media: “You can be racist but not deaf … That’s what hurts you! I’m becoming a number 1 state subject in debates … but what do I really owe you? Nada.”
The Olympics organising committee said on Monday it lent the singer its “total support”. “We have been very shocked by the racist attacks against Aya Nakamura in recent days. [We offer our] total support to the most listened-to French artist in the world,” it said.