French pop star Aya Nakamura, who found herself at the center of a racism scandal after rumors she would sing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, has thanked fans for their support after winning three major awards at France's Les Flammes awards for rap, R&B and pop, the Guardian reports.
"It's a great honor for me because being a black artist and coming from the suburbs is very difficult," Nakamura told the audience at the ceremony, which she opened with a medley of her own 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 supported Nakamura's participation in the Olympics, many far-right politicians, including Marine Le Pen, and right-wingers, including Senate leader Gerard Larcher, criticized the singer and her music.
A small extremist group calling itself "The Natives" put up a poster by the river Seine that read "No way, Aya, this is Paris, not the market in Bamako". The Paris prosecutor's office subsequently launched an investigation into alleged racist insults against the singer.
The awards ceremony, which was televised live for the first time, had a political tone. In his opening speech, comedian Wali Dia deplored the racist crackdown on Nakamura, the world's most listened-to French singer, and criticized French Culture Minister Rashida Dati for her silence on the issue.
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 bombardment 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 human," said Nordin Ganso, the master of ceremonies.
France, the world's second-largest market for rap music after the United States, hosted the inaugural 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 main music awards. /BGNES
