Aya Nakamura says she is “proud” of her performance at the opening ceremony, but outraged by the controversy

“As a black artist and woman, I took it for everyone,” the singer reacted on Instagram on Sunday.

A month after her performance at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Aya Nakamura returned to the controversies surrounding her nomination in a live broadcast on Sunday, August 25 on Instagram. The 29-year-old singer says in particular “chokbar”deeply shocked by the controversies that arose after his performance on the Pont des Arts with the Republican Guard.

Aya Nakamura had been the target of numerous racist remarks even before her performance, when her participation in the ceremony was still a rumor. The world-renowned artist explains that she did not receive “strange remarks about [son] physical” than since the beginning of his fame. “As an artist and a black woman, I took for everyone”she laments. She tells it like this “discussions where people said that[elle] was sensitive”thus resuming “the caricature of the black woman”. “When I saw things on social media, I thought, thank goodness I didn’t come across everything because frankly, I could have insulted mothers.”she says.

“I was the chosen one.”

Aya Nakamura

on Instagram

The most listened to French-speaking singer in the world also spoke about her performance on the evening of July 26. “It was hot, it was so good”she describes, before confiding that she is “too proud” of her. Aya Nakamura sang a medley with two of her hits (Pookie And Djadja) And For me Formidable And Bohemia of Charles Aznavour, whose centenary of birth is being celebrated this year. Aya Nakamura assures that she “Had a blast with the Republican Guard” who accompanied her. When she watches the replay of the ceremony, the Franco-Malian artist now realizes that this performance was “a banger”that is, something exceptional.

Aya Nakamura is therefore very happy to have accepted to do the ceremony, even if at first she does not “didn’t even know what they represented” the Olympic Games and “the weight that the event had”. “I asked myself a lot of questions because I saw artists asking for spaceshe remembers. ‘And me? Why her?’ But no, it was me, the chosen one.” Among these artists, the singer M. Pokora had notably expressed his disappointment at not having been approached. “When it was offered to me,” Aya Nakamura continues, “I told myself that I was going to do it, but I didn’t say to myself: if you do it, it’s crazy, everyone is going to see you, the whole world… I said to myself: I’m going to go sing, it’s going to be a show, I’ll do it well and I’ll go home.”