The singer Izïa, who had mentioned a lynching of Emmanuel Macron in concert last week, performed Wednesday at the Francofolies in La Rochelle without making waves and to the delight of the public. The daughter of Jacques Higelin, just mentioned the case by comparing the La Rochelle festival to a “land of asylum”.
The town hall of Marcq-en-Baroeul (North) had decided on Monday to cancel the concert of the singer scheduled for Thursday evening in the town, because of the remarks deemed “scandalous” and “of great violence” against the head of the State she held on stage near Nice last week. The boss of the Francofolies, Gérard Pont, chose him to keep Izïa on the bill because she “is part of the Francofolies family”. “We love her, that’s why we invited her. It is not in turmoil that we abandon the people we love,” he said on Franceinfo on Wednesday. His father was one of the artists-totems of the La Rochelle event. Gérard Pont however added: “Obviously, I was very shocked by these remarks and I support all our elected officials”.
This was not Izïa’s first concert since her release last week, in Beaulieu-sur-Mer since she performed at the Déferlantes in Barcarès, at the Saint-Nolff Noise Festival and in Décibulles, near of Selestat. Evoking the Head of State on the stage of the Guitar Nights, the singer had imagined, in very crude language, how he could be publicly lynched by the spectators. Izïa had spoken between two songs, at the microphone, of an Emmanuel Macron “20 meters from the ground, like a giant human piñata. And there, we would bring him down. (…) And we would all have our bat with our little nails and, in a Bengal fire of joy, of living flesh and blood, we would put him on the ground, but gently you see …”, she had continued, in a sequence relayed on social networks.
The Nice prosecutor’s office announced the opening of an investigation for “public provocation to commit a crime or an offence”. “I am very sorry that this was misinterpreted, decontextualized. At no time, of course, did I want to incite violence or hatred”, defended Izïa in an interview with Ouest-France published Monday evening. “It’s a story, an improvised and surreal link between two titles that talks about everything and nothing and that shouldn’t be taken at face value,” she added.
