Aya Nakamura and Jazzo were respectively named male and female artist of the year at the Flammes ceremony, the rap and trend awards, on Thursday night in Paris. These awards were born as a reaction to the Victoires de la Musique, which had long ignored these musical styles.
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She’s not ready to give up her crown. Aya Nakamura left on Thursday, April 25, as expected, as a queen, with three awards at The Flames, and the Rap and Trend Awards. Among the men, it was Gazo who, as last year, was crowned Artist of the Year – a trophy he lifted at the Victoires in February.
At 28 years old, Aya Nakamura, the world’s most-streamed French-language singer, has logically crushed the competition with awards for Artist of the Year, New Pop Album and International Influence.
She had already won the Artist Award last year for the first edition of Les Flammes. In February, the Victoires de la Musique presented him with a similar award, having previously awarded him a nonfiction accolade.
Aya Nakamura’s victory comes anyway, as the far-right has tarnished her reputation since L’Express magazine suggested she sing an Edith Piaf piece at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26.
Read alsoWith the Flammes, the French rap industry presents its own musical triumphs
The Flames, in the future, will have to be careful not to repeat themselves, a criticism that has stuck with Victoires, who are accused of always rewarding the same artists.
In this second edition of Flammes, one of the important first prizes, the Best Concert Award, was awarded to SCH for its appearance at the Vélodrome in its home city of Marseille, last year.
Greetings to the people of Gaza and Adama Traoré
Then the evening took a political turn: rapper Madian dedicated his live concert to the people of Gaza, where he performed his song “Gaza Soccer Beach,” which was released in 2015.
He then announced that “there is not enough space on the walls of the theater (in the Chatelet) to be able to write the names of the 35,000 victims,” while the first names were written in the background.
The rapper is accompanied by controversy, the latest of which was a tweet that was considered anti-Semitic and sparked controversy last summer. “Not only am I not an anti-Semite, I have also been fighting anti-Semitism for 20 years up close, on the ground,” Medina defended himself last summer.
Assa Traoré, Adama Traoré’s sister, also took the stage. His brother died in July 2016 in Val d’Oise, two hours after he was arrested by gendarmes. “My commitment has a name, my brother’s name, Adama’s name,” she said on stage.
In February, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the Paris Court of Appeal to confirm the dismissal of the case in favor of the gendarmes while acknowledging the existence of a “causal relationship” between Adama Traoré’s arrest and his death. The decision will be made on May 16.
Nominations and winners, for the vast majority of awards given out on the evening, result from the total audience vote and jury vote.
Les Flammes was born as a response to the band Les Victoires, which often ignored rap and R’n’b. This new concert is the result of a partnership between Yard, a media and communications agency co-founded by Tom Brunette, and Boska-P, another media outlet. Spotify, the leading music streaming platform, has been associated with the event from the beginning.
With Agence France-Presse
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