She’s determined to keep her crown: Aya Nakamura walked away, as expected, with three prizes at the Flammes rap awards. Like a symbol, she opened the show at the Chรขtelet in Paris with a mix of her hits, with already a crown glittering in the background.
Female artist of the year
At the age of 28, the world’s most-listened-to Francophone singer naturally dominated the competition, winning awards for Female Artist of the Year, New Pop Album and International Breakthrough.
Last year, at the first edition of Les Flammes, she had already won the Female Artist award. In February, at the Victoires de la musique awards, she also received a similar prize, after having received a less significant distinction just before.
Invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games
On the male side, Gazo was crowned Male Artist of the Year, as he had been the previous year. He had also won this trophy at the Victoires awards in February.
In the future, the Flammes will have to be careful to avoid the same criticism that hit the Victoires de la musique, accused of constantly rewarding the same artists.
Aya Nakamura’s triumph comes at a time when she has been criticized by the far right since L’Express magazine suggested that she would perform an Edith Piaf song at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26.
“It’s a sorry state of affairs in France”
But the interpreter of “Djadja”, with almost 960 million views on YouTube, has some fervent defenders. In the Nouvel Obs on Thursday, the star of “Lupin”, actor Omar Sy, made the “distressing observation that we’ve reached this point in France”: “That in 2024 there should still be a debate about an artist like Aya Nakamura, whose career and great talent I salute”.
The singer’s presence at the Olympics has not been confirmed. For French President Emmanuel Macron, the artist would have “a perfect place in an opening or closing ceremony of the Games”. He added that the decision rests with the artistic director of these ceremonies, Thomas Jolly.
SCH and Mรฉdine rewarded
In this second edition of Les Flammes, one of the first and most important prizes, for best concert, was awarded to SCH for his performance at the Vรฉlodrome in Marseille, his hometown, last year.
Then the evening took a more political turn: rapper Mรฉdine dedicated his live performance to the people of Gaza, performing his 2015 track “Gaza Soccer Beach”. “There isn’t enough room on the walls of the theater (du Chรขtelet) to inscribe the names of the 35,000 victims”, he declared afterwards, as first names were written in the background.
A second, committed ceremony
Assa Traorรฉ, sister of Adama Traorรฉ, also took to the stage. Her brother died in July 2016 in Val-d’Oise, two hours after being arrested by gendarmes. “My commitment has a name, my brother’s, Adama’s”, she said on stage.
In February, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Paris Court of Appeal asked for the dismissal of the case in favor of the gendarmes to be confirmed, while acknowledging “a causal link” between the arrest of Adama Traorรฉ and his death. The decision will be handed down on May 16.
A first on W9
The Flammes ceremony was broadcast live for the first time on Thursday on W9, alongside Twitch and YouTube. Nominations and winners are mainly determined by a mix of public and jury voting for most of the trophies awarded on the night.
Les Flammes was created as a reaction to the Victoires, which often neglected rap and R&B. The new ceremony is the result of a collaboration between Yard, a media and communications agency co-founded by Tom Brunet, and Booska-P, another media company. From the outset, Spotify, the leading music streaming platform, has been associated with the event.
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