She is the most listened-to French singer in the world, whose relentlessly catchy hits about love and betrayal have been streamed 7bn times and who made history last year when she sold out three Paris gigs in 15 minutes, reports The Guardian.
But Aya Nakamura, France’s biggest pop superstar who is known for her unique French style influenced by Afrobeats and Caribbean zouk, called out racism and ignorance this week after far-right politicians expressed outrage over the possibility that she could sing at the Paris Olympics.
The Paris prosecutor opened an investigation on Friday into alleged racist abuse against the singer during the Olympics row. A complaint had been filed by the France-based International League against Racism and Antisemitism.
Emmanuel Macron is yet to confirm that he wanted Nakamura to headline the Olympic opening ceremony, singing hits by the 1950s cabaret legend Édith Piaf. But complaints by rightwing politicians and TV pundits that Nakamura was somehow not French enough have exposed deep faultlines of racism and class prejudice that threaten to cast a shadow over the Games.
Rachida Dati, the culture minister, warned against “pure racism”, and Lilian Thuram the former French footballer said: “When people say Aya Nakamura can’t represent France, what criteria do they base it on? I know the criteria, because when I was a footballer, some also said this isn’t the French team because there are too many Blacks.”
Nakamura, 28, grew up on a housing estate in the northern Paris banlieue suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, exactly the communities that the Paris Olympics has promised to showcase and celebrate. Born Aya Danioko in Mali, she arrived in France as a baby. She lived in Aulnay-sous-Bois with her siblings and mother who was a griotte, a traditional Malian poet or singer. She took the stage name Nakamura from the superhero drama Heroes and was talent-spotted after posting songs online aged 19. Her unflinching lyrics on love and relationships, which she writes on her phone, quickly gathered a huge following.
French music critics argue that no other female singer in French history – not even Piaf in her postwar stardom – has had Nakamura’s global reach, with fans on every continent, across all classes, backgrounds, ages. Her best-known song, Djajda, has had close to a billion streams on YouTube alone. Her music is resolutely French, influenced by French-Caribbean zouk pop from Guadeloupe and Martinique, mixing in Afropop beats. But while some big French export bands, such as Daft Punk, preferred to sing in English, Nakamura has built a huge global fanbase singing in French.