the world of music against the far right, but in dispersed order

While in pop, as in other musical genres, many leading figures are more discreet than in the 1980s,. However, artists are expressing themselves, from classical music to rap, including jazz, braving the risk of violent reactions on social networks, among other consequences.

Three days before a first round of early legislative elections in which the National Rally (RN) is the favorite, new voices have been raised, emanating from the world of music, to call on voters to block the far right from now on at the gates of power according to the latest polls. On June 21, more than 500 artists including singers Miossec, Eddy de Pretto and Clara Luciani took a stand against the far right through a platform. Unions and professional associations in the sector are mobilizing. But the world of song, and more generally of music, has difficulty expressing itself with a single voice. In the home stretch before the first round, some strong messages, such as that from jazz and classical pianist Thomas Enhco, have just appeared on social networks (see below).

Forty years earlier, leading French pop and variety singers and bands such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Téléphone, Francis Cabrel, Alain Bashung and Indochine were on the front lines against the National Front, the ancestor of the RN. Their heirs are less vocal while the risk of an RN victory in the legislative elections has increased tenfold. The aforementioned artists had responded to the “Concert des potes” on June 15, 1985 at La Concorde, in Paris, at the initiative of SOS Racisme for “living together” and against “racial discrimination and the National Front”. In 1984, beginning its slow rise, the FN obtained 10.95% in the European elections. Today, its descendant the RN and its allies are largely in the lead with 36% of voting intentions as of June 28.

On the song side, the voices of Biolay, Angèle, November Ultra

“Vote against the extreme right the mif [la famille, NDLR]”, posted Angèle, a Belgian singer produced in France (3.7 million followers on Instagram), reported AFP. The 28-year-old artist also relayed an interview with Rachel Silvera, a lecturer at Paris-Nanterre University, who emphasizes that the RN is “anti-feminist”.

Without explicitly stating it, Benjamin Biolay – who deleted all of his Instagram history prior to the end of May – invited his “followers” this week to vote or take a proxy. On June 15, he had called for his wishes, in a figurative but clear manner, for a “union” from the left to block the RN.

Singer November Ultra, who has taken a stand on Instagram for the New Popular Front (NFP), deplored the virulent reactions that followed, including “vomit emojis” and messages the“accusing propaganda or living in a care bear world”. “Asking us to shut up and just entertain you, (it’s) as if we were not human beings but things”she reacts.

“The intervention today by singers is real but timid, music has lost its role as leader in opposition to the values ​​of the RN”, comments to AFP Odile de Plas, head of the music department at the weekly Télérama. “Some musicians explain that, on social networks, they get torrents of hate if they take a stand, people tell them ‘We don’t want to hear you talk politics’.” Similar to the reactions generated by November Ultra’s pro-NFP publications.

Bérurier Noir, an anthem that endures

Meanwhile, four decades after its creation by Bérurier Noir, the punchline “Youth annoys the National Front”, who had embellished the song on stage Pigsty (1985), which is still chanted in marches against the extreme right, serves as a “artistic shield”, says Loran, guitarist and co-founder of the famous punk group. “It has truly become the anthem of anti-fascist France,” comments the musician contacted by telephone by AFP, in the middle of a tour with his current group, Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs. “It was a huge piece at the time. But now, in the demonstrations, it has taken on such a dimension, it constantly resurfaces.” Politicians have seized on it on their social media accounts, including LFI MEP Manon Aubry.

On the rap side, Soprano and Oli are committed

Few of the most popular voices among the general public grab a microphone. Singer and rapper Soprano, with some 1.7 million followers on Instagram, is one of the exceptions. On RTL, he said about the RN: “Many people have forgotten how this party is built. (…) I was born in Marseille (…) where there was a young man who was shot dead by the National Front poster-stickers.” On February 21, 1995, in the middle of the presidential campaign, Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Franco-Comorian, was shot in the back by a poster paster for the FN.

Oli, half of the very popular Toulouse rap duo formed with his brother Bigflo, calls on Instagram “to go and vote and put up a barrier against the RN which is playing with fire, diverting the doubts of part of the population and fueling the division of our beautiful country”. But he “only” has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, compared to industry heavyweights like Ninho (5 million “followers” on Instagram) and Jul (4.3 million), who remain silent.

“In rap, big artists stay very far from politics and repeat that they did not wait for the current situation to be victims of discrimination,” analyzed by the AFP journalist Telerama Odile of Plas.

On the jazz and classical side, the poignant appeal of Thomas Enhco

Pianist playing both jazz and classical music, Thomas Enhco, member of the prestigious Casadesus musical dynasty, posted a long message on social networks on Friday June 28. “No longer possible to remain silent (…) For two weeks I have had nightmares at night and I feel nauseous during the day. I cannot bear the idea of ​​France falling into the hands of the extreme right” , he writes.

Rejecting the current macronie rhetoric, he continues: “To put the extreme right and the left back to back is dishonest and it is a dangerous game that the government is playing. I am much more afraid of the deep, historical and concrete anti-Semitism of the RN than of the isolated statements of members of the left.” To illustrate his point, Thomas Enhco, whose real name is Cohen, evokes his personal – painful – experience of anti-Semitism, which dates back to the small country school he attended with his brother. The pianist also responds to criticism of his lack of political neutrality: “Those who are embarrassed by the positions taken by artists and ask them to play and shut up, as if we were just there to entertain them. But where do they think we get our music, our lyrics from? , our images? Of the world! Of the collective experience of life.”

Other jazz artists, such as the pianist Laurent Coq (leaving aside his reservations about rebellious France) have spoken out in recent days, in various ways, for a vote against the extreme right, such as the flautist Ji Drû and the drummer Anne Paceo.

On the classical side, pianist Alexandre Tharaud denounced, Monday June 24, on France Musique, the extreme right which “has always trampled on artists.” He further regretted the “chillness” of some of his colleagues whom he invited in vain to join him in writing a column to block the National Rally. Among the reasons which explain, according to him, these refusals, there would be the fear of losing financial support: “Certain artists are linked to a subsidized structure, for example an orchestra, a foundation, a festival. They may therefore fear reductions in subsidies, if ever an RN deputy were to be elected in their constituency.”