“Oh, Djadja/There’s no way, Djadja/I’m not your whore, Djadja, like, in catchana baby, you die that…” Since L’Express revealed that the author of these lyrics, the singer Aya Nakamura, would be expected to perform Edith Piaf during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, some commentators have had a good time denouncing the vacuity of her prose, and her illegitimacy in representing France internationally. In the flood of criticism, an authoritative argument has stood out, and it has nothing in it like a hymn to love. It consists of pointing out (more or less subtly) the gulf between the work of “la môme Piaf” and the style of the female artist currently the most listened to in France on Spotify.
In a tweet, the polemicist Jean Messiha commented on a video showing the interpreter of Djadja on stage with a sober (but eloquent) “I present to you Edith Piaf”. In the same register, the National Rally deputy Julien Odoul, guest of the Big Mouths, on RMC, flatly said he was “terrified for the image of France and the French language”. “Ms. Aya Nakamura is the antithesis of French song!” he argued, adding: “She will trash a marvel like Edith Piaf.” In his show, Sud Radio presenter André Bercoff also argued: “The Hymn to Love has become the anthem to Djadja! Extraordinary, that we absolutely want to do crossbreeding!”
“It’s your fault”
For those who do not know the pedigree of the interpreter of Pookie, circumspection can be understood. We can indeed note the simplism, even the vulgarity of his texts; his musical style, too, peppered with Auto-Tune (a computer program that corrects the voice), as noted by actor Mathieu Kassovitz on RMC. We may even be surprised by such a choice given the singer’s conviction of 10,000 euros fine for “reciprocal violence”, in 2023, or her appearance on France 2, during the Telethon evening. , where she thanked her audience for their support while forgetting to mention the cause of rare genetic diseases.
But Edith Piaf, whom some would today like to establish as a counter-model, was she not an alcoholic, addicted to drugs and close to banditry circles (to the point of having been questioned at length by the judicial police, who suspected certain men around her to have been involved in the murder of the person who discovered her, Louis Leflée)? As for the approximate grammar of his songs – certain titles are proof of this, such as It’s your fault – this did not prevent her from experiencing national and international success, to the point that some regularly call for her to be pantheonized. Quoted by France Culture in 2015, Serge Hureau, singer, director and director of the Hall of Song, in Paris, said: “When we look at a letter from Piaf at 25, it is not a spelling mistake per line, it’s all the words… And, at the end of her life, very short, she uses the imperfect subjunctive. We hear it in the songs: she mixes formulas to show that she knows words, and many popular expressions, like kinds of exclamations.” Today, Aya Nakamura is, whatever one thinks, the most popular French artist abroad.
“Assimilation means laughing in front of Louis de Funès”
This way of idealizing the past is not an isolated reaction to the weight of the challenge (representing France internationally). It is more of a recurring pattern, coming from the conservative sphere, when it comes to defending political words. In March 2022, the founder of the Reconquête party, Eric Zemmour, gave a definition of one of his favorite totems during his meeting at the Trocadéro: “Assimilation is laughing in front of Louis de Funès, Jean Dujardin or Depardieu . It’s crying while listening to Jacques Brel.”
Louis de Funès, however, has not always been perceived as a symbol of the influence of French culture. The critic Jean-Louis Bory, for example, did not have harsh enough words to describe his films: “They say they are hilarious. Like gas. And [on les] projected, as is natural, in gas chambers camouflaged as cinemas: people see nothing but fire and they rush in, the unfortunate ones.” During the release, in 1965, of Gérard’s film Oury, Le Corniaud, Michel Cournot, from Mask and Feather, had judged that this film “does not [valait] nothing”, adding: “A very small actor, from Funès, who only does antics, a great actor, Bourvil, who does nothing.” “The vomit of French cinema wallowing in his baseness with jubilant satisfaction”, Georges Charensol decided for his part.
We could also mention the case of singer Jean-Jacques Goldman, on whom Marine Le Pen did a few dance steps under the eye of the cameras, after her defeat in the 2017 presidential election. In 1985, the magazine founded by Jean -François Kahn Thursday Event Yet headlined “Jean-Jacques Goldman is really bad”. On numerous occasions, the singer, who today is at the top of the ranking of the French’s favorite personalities and although very discreet, has received marks of rejection. To choose from, the singer on the left was “the idol of kitties”, “the king of the nice tube”, the “BHL of the refrain”, some even criticized a “funky-chic twink aesthetic”. Perhaps this is the “popular” culture dreamed of by certain conservatives: that which belongs to the past.
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