TikTok flooded by Aya Nakamura’s choreography replayed on a famous Parisian bridge; Philippe Katerine star of Chinese social networks; old songs French Touch resurrected: the playlist of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games can still be heard.
Friday’s spectacle, along the six kilometers of the Seine, gave a real boost to the previous parades in the stadiums, ideally combining the heritage of a capital and pop culture.
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the medley by Franco-Malian Aya Nakamura — her hits Pookie, Djadja and a standard by Charles Aznavour, For me Formidable —, accompanied by the Republican Guard, is enjoying a new life on TikTok. Fans are reproducing the artist’s dance steps performed on the Pont des Arts, one of the most romantic in the City of Lights and known for the lovers’ padlocks attached to it.
These short videos are captioned “In the footsteps of the Queen”, in reference to the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world. We see anonymous people, day and night, trying to shake their hips like her. But also familiar faces, like Mathieu Maucort, interministerial delegate for youth of the resigning French government, familiar with TikTok, in a sequence called “On the bridge of Aya”.
Listening to Aya Nakamura’s tracks has increased by 36% in France and 40% internationally, according to the latest figures from the Spotify platform, the world leader in music streaming.
Naturist Orchestra
Nothing to do with the explosion of theOde to love : +285% in France and +317% worldwide on Spotify. The Edith Piaf classic was performed during the grandiose finale by Celine Dion from the Eiffel Tower. While Aya Nakamura’s repertoire is currently one of the most famous on the planet, the 1950 song by the one nicknamed “La Môme” had never had such exposure.
Another big winner of the ceremony (+282% in France, +129% internationally on Spotify) is the French metal group Gojira, who sang a song from the French Revolution, Ah! It will be fineaccompanied by the French-Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti.
We must also mention Philippe Katerine, troublemaker of French song, who performed his new song, Nakedhimself almost in his simplest attire, his body painted blue. This painting, which was intended to celebrate Dionysus, was poorly received around the world by conservatives, far-right parties and certain Catholic circles who saw it as an inappropriate reference to the Last Supper.
But above all, Philippe Katerine — renamed “the Smurf artist” — has been popularized on Chinese social networks, with drawings or marzipan figurines inspired by his performance. The video clip of Nakedseparate from the Olympic ceremony, with a naturist orchestra playing for the artist, was put online immediately afterwards and is slowly approaching a million views on YouTube.
Twinge
Among the sound architects who worked on this piece is Victor Le Masne, custodian of the musical signature of the Paris Games.
During the four hours of the ceremony, broadcast worldwide to more than a billion viewers, pieces from the history of the French Touch have also been played and are resurfacing on streaming platforms.
Firstly there is Supernature (1977), by Cerrone, an electro-disco hit played at a key moment in its length, almost ten minutes. The song went crazy on the Shazam application, which allows you to identify a title, and saw a jump of + 1200% in listenings across all platforms, according to the artist’s press office.
The Because label mentions for its part a six-fold increase in listens, in each case, of Cassius’ electro tracks. I (I love you soor “I love you so much”, released in 2011) and DJ Mehdi Signature (2006). Electro fans have a little pang in their hearts: DJ Mehdi died accidentally at the age of 34 in 2011, as did Philippe Zdar, half of Cassius, at the age of 52, in 2019.