Between 1993 and 1995, then 2005 and 2010, Nagui hosted seven Victoires de la Musique ceremonies on France 2, before being replaced by other faces of public service. For thirteen years, many faces have taken turns hosting the program, which was highly criticized by French singers, and boycotted by many of them, such as Mylène Farmer and Bénabar. Thus, Virginie Guilhaume presented the show for four consecutive years, and Bruno Guillon also supervised them for three years. In 2018 and 2019, Daphné Bürki took back the reins of the program, but these have been entrusted since 2021 to the former Miss France Laury Thilleman. After co-hosting the ceremony with Stéphane Bern in 2021, she then co-hosted it with Olivier Minne the following year, before finally directing the set alone in 2023.
In an interview he gave this Saturday, October 28, 2023 to Jade and Éric Dussart on RTL, Nagui went behind the scenes of his departure from hosting the Victoires de la Musique. The one who is currently promoting his show event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Taratatawhich will be broadcast on November 3 on France 2 as a bonus in the presence of 80 artists and in front of 40,000 spectators, revealed that he was thanked for the ceremony, even though he would have liked to continue hosting it for years: “They fired me! They fired me! They fired me! They fired me!” hammered the host of Do not forget the lyrics and of Your life at stakethe entertainment that he co-hosts with Bruno Guillon and which will be back this Tuesday, October 31 for Halloween.
A special with colleagues he didn’t like… and which was fatal to him
“I produced and presented for several years, including with several presenters and I had even (…) organized presentations by all the presenters since the history of Victoires. And you can imagine that we weren’t all friends in this storybut once you’ve made the decision, and you have the concept, I’m going to follow through with it, and it’s okay if we don’t like each other.” he explained, referring to the 25th edition of the Victoires in 2010, which he co-presented with ten former hosts of the ceremony: Michel Drucker, Jean-Luc Delarue, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Daniela LumbrosoFrédérique Bedos, Christian MorinCaroline Tresca, Philippe Gildas, Patrick Sabatier and Guillaume Durand.
And to continue: “We are doing the show with all the electrical tensions that there may be outside, with zero thanks for inviting me, for paying me because some had (…) started to negotiate a fee, but it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, at the end of these 4-5 years (…) the president of Victoires told me: We’re going to stop working together because of Taratatathe problem is that it’s too confusing.“ And if Nagui tried to defend himself against his boss, arguing that he did not “never advertised, never name-dropped, never cited” his music show, the decision was categorical: “The problem is that when we see you, we think Taratata. So you don’t have to be here anymore.”.
Hilariously, Nagui concluded by revealing to Jade and Éric Dussart that he had been recalled by the producers of the Victoires de la Musique a few years later to come back to host the ceremony, but the host, inevitably bitter, declined the offer: “I get asked regularly. Now they’ve stopped asking me, because they know. No, I won’t go, no” explained Mélanie Page’s companion, who is not ready to forgive this affront!