Who is Barbara Butch? French DJ at the center of Olympics Last Supper scandal comes under fire over her Instagram activity   

During the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris on July 26, French DJ Barbara Butch was at the center of the song and dance sequence which viewers believe was a mockery of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting The Last Supper.

She is believed to have enacted the role of Jesus Christ which has now earned backlash for seemingly disrespecting the Christian faith. In the wake of the ongoing scandal, Barbara Butch took to her Instagram Story and shared a collage of her performance alongside that of The Last Supper.

“Oh Yes! Oh Yes! The New Gay Testament!” Barbara Butch wrote in the caption tagging her fellow performers.

However, she later removed the Story from her account and replaced it with a picture of her performance and wrote in the description:

“Will forever be proud and support this moment of art reference. The Feast of Gods by Jan Harmensz van Bijlert. I received a lot of messages about my faith… but I have questions about yours.”

Her Instagram activity has now gone viral and is gaining a lot of heat. Many X users joined the conversation and called her out, saying she was trying to “gaslight” the viewers.

“Yip. The gaslighting is in full swing now,” a person wrote.

“They are gaslighting now,” another person wrote.

“I feel gaslit these last couple of days. lol. What I care about is the truth, whether the people behind this ceremony were mocking The Last Supper or if this really was a Greek scene depicting gods and goddesses. Either way, it’s not of God and is wicked and should be exposed, but I’m praying the lies are exposed in the coming days. Need clarity on this,” one person wrote.

Others accused Barbara Butch and the Olympics committee of trying to cover up the truth.

“We know the truth, they are freaking liars,” a netizen wrote.

“They are all saying the same thing. We know better,” one netizen wrote.

“They can’t even stand behind their own beliefs,” another netizen wrote.

Some expressed their general dismay over the performance.

“Disgusting,” one individual wrote.

“Why will these people not leave us alone?” another individual asked.

“Of course. Ruined the Olympics,” one individual wrote.

Meanwhile, the art director of the Olympics inaugural ceremony, Thomas Jolly claimed on Saturday at the International Olympic Committee’s daily briefing that the portrayal was not meant to “be subversive or shock people or mock people.”

He also told French TV channel BFMTV on Sunday that Vinci’s The Last Supper was not his “inspiration.”

"The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone," Jolly explained.

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In brief, exploring Barbara Butch’s Olympics performance

Barbara Butch is a French DJ, producer, and LGBTQ+ activist who is prominent for promoting diversity and inclusivity in the community. On Friday, she was at the center of a performance at the Olympics opening ceremony, which is now being deemed as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Barbara Butch appeared in front of a long dinner table wearing a blue dress paired with a large silver headdress that appeared to resemble the halo of Jesus Christ in the famous Renaissance artwork. She was surrounded by more than a dozen drag queens on both sides, seemingly mirroring the Twelve Apostles.

Later, a scantily clad man in blue body paint appeared in the role of Dionysus, the Greek God of wine-making, vegetation, fertility, and ecstasy, who sat on the dinner table singing with fruits around him. All the performers including Barbara Butch danced along to his song and later depicted a runaway scene in which they exited the stage.

The video of the entire performance garnered severe traction online and earned criticisms over the weekend from several notable personalities including X owner Elon Musk, NFL star Harrison Butker, former kickboxer Andrew Tate, and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson among others.

Notably, during the ceremony, the official Olympic Games X account said that the portrayal was meant to make people “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”

However, in the face of severe backlash, Anne Descamps, the spokesperson of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics organizers issued an apology on Sunday.

"Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance. Looking at the results of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

The International Olympic Committee in turn took note of the apology, adding it “welcomes the clarification.”