Les Flammes 2024: Aya Nakamura reigns supreme with three top awards
Aya Nakamura retained her crown as the queen of French music last night by securing three major awards at the Les Flammes ceremony.
The 28-year-old singer-songwriter, who is currently the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world, took home the awards for Female Artist of the Year (now for the second year in a row), New Pop Album, and International Breakthrough.
In parallel, rapper Gazo repeated his success from 2023 by winning Male Artist of the Year, a title he also secured at the Les Victoires de la musique awards earlier this year.
The award for Best Concert went to rapper SCH for his outstanding show last year at the Vélodrome in Marseille, his hometown.
Hosted at Paris’s Châtelet theatre, the event took a political turn when rapper Médine used his performance to advocate for the people of Gaza, dedicating his song “Gaza Soccer Beach” to the victims of the conflict.
“There is not enough space on the walls of the theatre (of the Châtelet) to be able to write the names of the 35,000 victims,” he declared, while names were written in the background.
Nakamuras’ triumph comes after a recent racist backlash, following reports that French President Emmanuel Macron has considered her to headline the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony.
The French far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen called her presence “not a beautiful symbol” and an “additional provocation from Emmanuel Macron”.
Le Pen told France Inter on Wednesday, that Macron “must get up every morning” and find “one idea a day to humiliate and outrage the French”.
In response, the French-Malian popstar released a single titled ‘Doggy’, hitting back at the criticism. “I have no enemies myself, they’re the ones hating on me; Lots of enemies but I don’t even know them,” the lyrics to the song go before jumping into the chorus: “You want it doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy style.”
FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
The Flame for rap album of the year: Carré de Werenoi
The Flame of the New Pop album of the year: DNK by Aya Nakamura
The Flame of the rap performance song: Freestyle LVL Up Vol.1 by Ninho
The Flame of the piece of African or African-inspired music: Little genius of Jungeli, Imen Es, Lossa, Alonso and Abou Debeing
The Flame of the Caribbean or Caribbean-inspired piece: Doliprane by Kalash
The Flame of the featuring of the year: Meridian by Dave and Tiakola
The Flame of Male Revelation of the Year: Favé
The Flame for Male Artist of the Year: Gazo
The Flame of Female Revelation of the Year: Wonder
The Flame for Female Artist of the Year: Aya Nakamura
The Flame of the composer: Boumidjal
The Flame of the concert of the year: SCH at the Orange Vélodrome (Marseille)
The Flame of the video of the year: Commando de Shay
The Flame of Scenic Revelation of the year:
The Flame of the R&B song: Last I love you by Monsieur Nov and Josman
The Eternal Flame: Kore
Spotify Flame for Album of the Year: Sincerely by Hamza
The Flame of social commitment: Zamdane
