At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Gojira, a French death metal group, made metal history and performed the song Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira).
The music, originally composed by a street performer named Ladré, was a French Revolution anthem with the phrase, “Ça ira,” translating to “It’ll be okay.”
The original composition of Ça ira was inspired by the song Le Carillon National, written by a French violinist named Bécourt.
In an interview with Gojira’s lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Joe Duplantier explained that the band was selected specifically by the Olympic Committee to perform the song.
The metal community, or metalheads, took to the internet immediately and reacted to Gojira playing at the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics. Popular music YouTubers like The Charismatic Voice and TankTheTech made videos reacting to the performance. Overall, they had positive reactions to the performance.
Students at BASH also enjoy Gojira’s music and have opinions on what happened. Carter Kenny, a Junior, said, “I thought it was a moment that changed the metal scene forever. Seeing this legendary band playing on the biggest stages in the world opening for such a prestigious event. It showed the whole world that there was a deeper level of art within the stereotypes of metal music and I hope other bands get such prestigious chances.”
Other people went online immediately and said that the performance was satanic and of the devil. Joe Duplantier, in an interview with Rolling Stone, reacted to the accusations to their performance being satanic. “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. There’s nothing satanic.”
Gojira is a huge inspiration to the metal community. They are an inspiration to everyone to keep saving planet Earth and to stop polluting our home.
