"It’s French history" — Gojira responds to critics who called their Olympics Opening Ceremony performance “satanic”

French heavy metal band Gojira performed at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on July 26, 2024. The performance featured a surprise rendition of Ah! Ça Ira, a popular French Revolution song, alongside experimental opera singer Marina Viotti.

While fans of the band loved the performance, critics, including internet personality Andrew Tate, dubbed it "satanic." Addressing the criticism, the band's lead singer, Joe Duplantier, told Rolling Stone on July 29, 2024:

"It’s none of that. It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine, and blood all over the place — it’s romantic, it’s normal."

The performance, labeled "satanic" by critics, featured beheaded figures representing the slain Queen Marie Antoinette and a castle surrounded by fire with red streamers representing blood.

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"It’s all about history and facts" — Gojira singer Joe Duplantier talks about controversial Olympics opening ceremony

In his tweet criticizing Gojira's performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, Andrew Tate posted a clip of the performance, commenting:

"Satanists control the west and they show you that they worship the devil. It's not a conspiracy theory. They literally show you. Are you blind?"

Addressing the criticism in an interview with Rolling Stone, the band's lead singer, Joe Duplantier, spoke about France's historical separation of state and religion during the revolution. He explained that France developed a concept called laïcité, which meant when the "state is not religious anymore," making it free in terms of symbolism and expression.

Expanding on why the band's performance wouldn't be considered satanic in France, Joe told the publication:

"It’s all about history and facts. We don’t look too close closely at symbolism in terms of religion."

Joe also discussed how Gojira's metal version of Ah! Ça Ira came to be. He mentioned that the decision to perform the song was made by a team of young people, composers, and designers. He said that the band was in the dark regarding the entire ceremony and was concentrating on the highlighted moment with Marie Antoinette.

Regarding how they added Gojira's metal touch to the French song, Joe said:

"We very simply and organically came up with riffs and grooves that we like to play. We took it as an opportunity to represent the metal scene. So it was our task to really go for it and lay it down, not just be there and play a few notes to shock people."

Joe also mentioned that they got some guidelines from the Olympics organizers, one of which was to say the phrase Ah! Ça Ira in the song. He ended up saying it three times, even though it was a challenge for him to sing in French.

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Additionally, Gojira's lead singer, Joe Duplantier, was asked for a comment on the controversial parody of Last Supper performed by drag queens at the Olympics opening ceremony. However, the singer told the publication that he didn't get to watch the whole performance properly and that he was "totally in the dark."