Calls to demonstrate against the artist’s concert, launched by traditionalist and identity-based Catholic movements, have raised fears of excesses and attacks. The Metz prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
“We had this show sold out… And it was ruined again! Sometimes you feel like you’re seeing great things happen and all of a sudden you’re stepping back and it’s scary.” Bilal Hassani accuses the blow. The artist, ex-candidate of France for Eurovision, lamented the cancellation of his concert planned in a desecrated church in Metz (Moselle), Wednesday April 5, on the set of the program “C à vous” on France 5.
The singer, who was to start his tour in this city, preferred, in consultation with his producer and the organizer of the Live Nation concert, to cancel his performance. “in view of the threats made to [son] against and [celle] of its public”. “We cannot let an appointment which was to be a moment of joy, sharing and celebration, become a place of heightened tension and malevolence”, said Live Nation. Franceinfo returns to this controversy.
The traditionalist and identity Catholic movement denounces the holding of the concert
The 23-year-old singer was to begin his French tour, the Théorème Tour, with a concert in Metz. With his producer, he had chosen a place “atypical”, as he described in “C à vous” to perform: the old church of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains. A place desecrated since 1556, reports France Bleu Lorraine Nord, where mass is no longer celebrated and which serves as a space for concerts rock like Gregorian chant, or exhibitions. It can accommodate up to 280 seated spectators. But the presence of the artist, icon of the LGBT + community and whose stage outfits break free from gender codes, embarrasses certain far-right groups. On March 28, a message posted on the blog of the collective “Lorraine Catholique”, shouts at the “desecration” and call them “faithful Christians” to a collective prayer in front of the hall. The singer’s productions are not “nothing but pornographic”, according to them.
On Instagram, the identity collective Aurora also denounces the concert, talks about “threat” of which it is necessary “protect” the building, and describes LGBT+ people as “societal cancer“. On Facebook, the fundamentalist Catholic organization Civitas attacks the arrival of an artist whom it qualifies as “transsexual”and denounces a “desecration”. The local RN gets involved through the voice of the Grand-Est regional councilor, Françoise Grolet, who writes on her Facebook account: “One of the oldest religious buildings in France, now intended for acoustic concerts, must it suffer this outrage in the middle of Holy Week before Easter? Come back to common sense!”.
The Metz prosecutor’s office opens an investigation against X opened after threats against the artist and his audience
This is not the first time that the singer has had to face demonstrations of hatred. “I always wanted to be as brave as possible”, assures Bilal Hassani on the set of “C to you”. The young man initially wanted to perform despite the hate messages, but the tenor of the threats made him change his mind. “It was starting to be worrying, especially for my audience, he believes. A rally was going to take place in front of the room, it was going to target maybe my fans, my audience, and that’s the thing that terrifies me the most.”
The echo received on social networks by the appeals launched by the traditionalist and identity-based Catholic movement also raised fears of the arrival of far-right activists from other departments, according to territorial intelligence, reports AFP. In the wake of this cancellation, the Metz public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation against X for “threat of offense against persons because of their sexual orientation, incitement to hatred or violence against a person because of the orientation sexual and public and direct provocation not followed by effect to commit a crime or misdemeanor, “said the deputy public prosecutor, Thomas Bernard. The Departmental Security has been seized of these facts.
The artist’s supporters are mobilizing
Questioned by the regional councilor RN Françoise Grolet, the mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier (ex-LR), had first replied that the church was perfectly suited to welcome the artist. “It has been desecrated for more than 500 years and has today become a performance hall much appreciated by Messins and artists of all kinds”. “I am a councilor who will always oppose obscurantism and extremism whatever they are”, he added. After the cancellation, he was sorry that the producer of Bilal Hassani gave in “to a form of intellectual terrorism, to the detriment of culture”. “We can like or not like Bilal Hassani. What is unacceptable is that in the name of an ideology, we cancel a concert. It is a decline in freedom of expression and a concession made to homophobic extremists”he added.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said to herself “shocked” by this cancellation. “Faced with extremism, calls for hatred, violence, culture must remain a space of freedom and emancipation”she wrote on Twitter.
Despite the cancellation, some 150 people gathered in Metz the night the concert was to take place to support the artist. “No fachos in our neighborhoods, no neighborhood for the fachos!”, they chanted. Among them, members of the local associations Couleurs Gaies, Les Effrontées 57 as well as the local sections of the NPA and Permanent Revolution. Two associations, Mousse and Stop homophobia, filed a complaint against X for transphobic discrimination by pointing out “fundamentalist Catholic groups”.
Aurélie Hannedouche, director of the Union of contemporary music, for her part told franceinfo of her “great concern” and his “anger”. She asked Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to “to intervene” to call back “what is freedom of expression today in France”. On his side, the artist is back on tourtowards Toulouse.