Arabella Byrne

Marine Le Pen wages war on a French rap star

Marine Le Pen (Photo: Getty)

‘Dans ce rêve où ma semence de nègre fout en cloque cette chienne de Marine Le Pen.’ You don’t have to speak fluent French to get the feeling that the French-Congolese rapper Youssoupha didn’t entirely rate Marine Le Pen in his song, ‘Éternel recommencement’. In fact, he doesn’t rate quite a few journalists and politicians in France. But what is rap for, if not to critique the establishment?

That must have been the reasoning of the Federation Francaise de Football (FFF) when it chose Youssoupha’s recent tune, ‘Ecris mon nom en bleu’ (Write my name in blue) as the anthem for the French football team ahead of this month’s European Football Championship.

In a culture war played out on the football pitch, Macron’s squad are clearly not all playing on the same side

The decision though immediately sparked a backlash from the right, with Marine Le Pen criticising Youssoupha’s lyrics about her, which were written in 2006. Shortly afterwards the FFF announced that it would not play ‘Ecris mon nom en Bleu’ during the tournament. In the proxy war waged over le foot in France, it’s Marine Le Pen 1, Youssoupha 0.

Marine Le Pen’s war on the anthem is part of a long history of cultural battles over the French football team. Les Blues have always been central to political fights over the nature of the Republic. Composed largely of players from immigrant backgrounds, in the past the team has been held up as the literal manifestation of the vivre ensemble ethic. Take France’s World Cup winning 1998 team, nicknamed the Rainbow Squad. With players from North Africa, West Africa, the French Caribbean, the Pacific islands and the Basque country, the 1998 team became a cohesive force for French race relations.

Not everyone thought so at the time, mind.

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