Did they really do that? Many were left asking upon watching as the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony shook the banks of the Seine.
In one of the many surreal moments that captivated viewers, a performer dressed as a decapitated Marie Antoinette appeared on screen, singing along to thunderous heavy metal riffs.
French band Gojira made history on Friday night, becoming the first metal act to perform at an Olympic opening ceremony.
The band's appearance at the Conciergerie, a mediaeval royal residence turned revolutionary prison, was a spectacle that merged France's history with its present. Gojira's performance, featuring their signature blend of progressive metal and environmental themes, was one of the many bold statements in an event where Celine Dion also belted out an Edith Piaff anthem.
Gojira may have exploded onto the world’s TV screens on Friday night, but they have been around for a while and metalheads across the globe – India included – have been following them for a while.
“I discovered Gojira when I saw one of their live DVDs around 14 years ago and the performance on that was unbelievable,” said Mumbai-based sessions drummer Virendra ‘Viru’ Kaith, who has played with artistes ranging from metal acts like Demonic Resurrection and Scribe to mainstream names like Salim-Sulaiman and Vishal Bhardwaj.
“I had not seen any metal band with that level of production at that time.The way they have progressed as a band, they kept on releasing albums every two-three years. It’s unique. It’s not straight-up metal, but they can be the heaviest band,” added Kaith, who has seen Gojira play in the UK and Europe but missed their performance in Bangalore in 2012.
At the Olympics, Gojira delivered a riveting and bone-crushing rendition of ‘Ah! Ça Ira,’ a song associated with the French Revolution, accompanied by pyrotechnics that lit up the Parisian night sky.
Gojira's frontman, Joe Duplantier, had hinted at the element in a pre-ceremony interview with The New York Times: "It was a very bloody era of French history, so it was very metal."
The inclusion of Gojira in the lineup was a closely guarded secret until French newspaper Le Parisien revealed some of the acts booked by the ceremony's musical director, Victor Le Masne. The band's appearance was a testament to Gojira’s growing global influence, having already toured with metal giants like Metallica and Slipknot.
Formed in 1996 in the southwestern French commune of Ondres, the group comprises brothers Joe (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Mario Duplantier (drums), Christian Andreu (lead guitar), and Jean-Michel Labadie.
They were initially named Godzilla. They changed their name to Gojira, the Japanese name for the fictional monster, in 2001 due to copyright concerns. Their debut album, Terra Incognita, released the same year, marking the launch of a career that has seen them nominated for three Grammy Awards. Not to say that the Grammies matter to a metal band.
The band's environmental consciousness, a recurring theme in their music, was evident even in their early work. Rolling Stone magazine named their 2005 album ‘From Mars to Sirius’ the 97th greatest metal album of all time, noting that two of its songs featured "themes of marine-mammal preservation”.
This commitment to environmental causes has helped make them influential figures beyond the music world, with Joe Duplantier becoming France's first bona fide guitar hero in decades. Neural DSP, among the handful of companies that are trying to help guitarists do away with big and heavy analogue amplifiers by making them go digital, has an Archetype Gojira software patch.
Gojira's Olympic performance was not just a solo act. They collaborated with Franco-Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti, creating a blend of heavy riffs and classical vocals, emblematic of the ceremony's overall aim to present a diverse and modern image of France to the world.
The inclusion of Gojira, known for holding the record for the loudest concert at Stade de France, in such a prestigious event speaks volumes about the evolving nature of Olympic ceremonies. It demonstrates a willingness to embrace diverse musical genres and challenge conventional expectations of what constitutes appropriate Olympic entertainment.
It stands out as a symbol of France's willingness to push boundaries and celebrate its contemporary cultural exports on the global stage.
The image of a headless Marie Antoinette headbanging to French metal on the banks of the Seine is likely to remain one of the most talked-about moments of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
