Gojira Felt Pressure to Rep “the Whole Metal Community” at Olympic Opening Ceremony
I don’t know about you, but I’m still hype as fuck after Gojira fucking showed up and nailed it during their segment of the Olympics’ opening ceremony in Paris this past Friday. Say what you will about them as a band, but the quartet of Frenchmen tore it up on the main stage, making history by performing the song “Ah! Ça Ira” with opera singer Marina Viotti.
Over the last few days, it’s been impossible to not see clips of their performance over on heavy metal social media, with fans posting their reactions and memes. Nearly every metal fan was in agreement that it rocked, and that’s damn near impossible to get just two metalheads to agree on anything.
Looking back on the performance, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier told The New York Times that the song was chosen because it directly ties to the French Revolution — hence the decapitated Marie Antoinettes that were present in nearly every window of the Conciergerie.
“It was a very bloody era of French history, so it was very metal.”
Natch. And just for some context, the Conciergerie was a castle that was converted into a prison where nearly 2,800 prisoners — including Marie Antoinette — were jailed and sentenced before meeting their fate at the guillotine.
According to Joe, the band felt an intense pressure to represent “the whole metal community on the world stage.” I can only imagine what that must have felt like, knowing so many normies around the world would have Gojira’s sound thrust upon them and instantly become a surrogate for the entire genre in that moment.
Still, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where no one saw that and instantly wanted to be a rock star in that moment. How many kids do you think were inspired to pick up a guitar? To seek out drum lessons? Gotta be scores of ’em!
In the wake of their performance, metal musicians joined the fans in their praise for Gojira’s showing. Korn drummer Ray Luzier said “Dude.. I had chills on chills!! Soooo fuckin proud of you guys!! Can’t wait to crush stages with you guys soon!!” Similarly, Gary Holt praised the performance on Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier’s post, saying it was “pretty much the coolest thing that ever been done in metal I’d say.”
Totally agree there.
