Piaf or not, Aya Nakamura leads the nominations for the Flammes, the Victoires du rap

Six nominations for the flames, the equivalent of the Victoires de la Musique for rap, who could say better? Person. Aya Nakamura arrives ahead of her male counterparts Gazo with five nominations counting the featurings (these invitations to other rappers), Tiakola and Werenoi (four each). The ceremony is scheduled for April 25 at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris. Aya Nakamura is notably opposed for the title of female artist of the year to Meryl and Nej. The interpreter of Djadja, his 2018 hit with more than 950 million views on YouTube, already won this trophy last year. The Victoires de la Musique, criticized for having snubbed her with an anecdotal trophy until then, crowned her female artist in February. Prize that the r'n'b star did not come to get, just like at the Flames last year.

Since the magazine L'Express launched the information according to which she would sing a piece by Edith Piaf at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26, the Franco-Malian has been denigrated by the far right. “She doesn't sing French, she doesn't sing foreign either, she sings we don't know what,” said Marine Le Pen. The artist's presence at the Olympics has not been officially confirmed. Emmanuel Macron just said that it would have “quite its place in an opening or closing ceremony of the Games”.

In the male artist category, Gazo faces Tiakola and Werenoi. A title he won last year. Coincidence? Gazo shared this same prize with Vianney in February, this time at the Victoires. The innovation this year is that the ceremony will be broadcast live on W9, in parallel with Twitch and YouTube.

The other new thing is a pre-show designed around the red carpet in front of the Théâtre du Châtelet, which should last 1 hour 30 minutes, before the start of the ceremony itself from 9 p.m. The nominations and winners result, for the vast majority of the 24 Flames awarded, from the aggregate of the public vote and the jury vote.

Les Flammes were born from the association of Yard, a media and communications agency of which Tom Brunet is co-founder, with Booska-P, another media outlet. Spotify, the leading music streaming platform, has been associated with the event from the start.