The flames, the double kick drums blast beats, the headless Mario Antoinettes, the opera singer on a giant boat. There was nothing about French heavy metal band Gojira‘s set during Friday’s glittering opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics that you could have predicted from the first hard rock band to ever take the stage for a games opener.
In other words, there was a lot of pressure on the group to deliver, for their country and for their genre. That explains why in the lead-up to Friday night’s fiery performance, singer/guitarist Joe Duplantier, 47, told The New York Times that their bruising version of the song “Ah! Ça Ira” — a tune popular during the French Revolution — had to bring it.
“It was a very bloody era of French history, so it was very metal,” Duplantier said of what he thought was the “smart” idea to ask a heavy metal band play the revolutionary anthem. But more importantly, Duplantier said he and his bandmates were determined to represent “the whole metal community on the world stage.” And in keeping with the signature guttural, bruising sound of the band formed by Duplantier and his brother Mario in 1996, the singer said there was no way they were going to turn their amps down for the Olympics.
“The song’s going to be in your face,” he promised before the flame-throwing spectacle that opened with a brief performance of Les Miserables‘ “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Théâtre du Chatelet. That was immediately followed by boat-riding opera singer Marina Viotti and Gojira shocking crowds with the set that featured tons of pyro and the bizarre sight of dozens of Marie Antoinettes holding their own decapitated heads and singing along.
