Hamad Ba (real name Amadou Ba), 41, and Tom Brunet, 38, had long dreamed of creating a truly major ceremony to celebrate rap, R’n’B, dancehall and all the hip-hop culture-inspired styles of music that have been present in France for 40 years. And they did it. The second edition of the Les Flammes awards, which now also celebrates so-called “popular” music artists, will be held on Thursday, April 25, at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris.
Over two weeks in mid-March, 280,000 people cast their votes on Les Flammes’ platform in 14 of the 24 categories featured in the ceremony, double the number of voters for its first edition, which took place on May 10, 2023. At the time, the ceremony was broadcast on the W9 private television channel, with a delay; this time it will be aired live and in prime time, in addition to being streamed on the YouTube channel of specialist online magazine Booska-P as well as on the video streaming platform Twitch. In 2023, 500 artists had competed in diverse categories, ranging from Caribbean-inspired tracks to rap performances. Some important names were missing, such as Jul, a famous rapper from Marseille.
Influencing the traditional French music awards
This year, everyone seems to have played their part. More than 900 rappers who have released an album or gone on tour sent in their applications. These were first submitted to a panel of 200 journalists and hip-hop figures, who then chose 10 nominees in each category. The shortlist was narrowed down to three by the public vote and an expert jury, comprising 11 women and 12 men drawn from the industry.
However, the greatest victory for Les Flammes’ founders was having succeeded in influencing the nominations for the Victoires de la Musique, an awards ceremony which is organized by the record industry. Rappers had regularly complained of being under-represented in the top categories, despite their popularity with the French audience. The most recent example was SCH, who received the Victoire award for the most streamed album on February 1, 2022. Feeling “embarrassed,” the rapper put his trophy on the floor and listed the names of his fellow artists (such as Ninho, Jul, Dinos, Laylow, etc.), who had achieved similar success but were absent from the ceremony.
Two years later, the 39th Victoires de la Musique ceremony set things straight, with pop icon Aya Nakamura winning the Victoire award for best female artist; and rapper Gazo winning the award for best male artist, tied with singer Vianney. Brunet and Ba were delighted: “So much the better if we played a part in decisions, or at least accelerated changes for this year’s Victoires de la Musique. We’re convinced that they were inspired by our voting process. They proceeded in stages like us, and added a jury.” The Les Flammes awards and ceremony have also inspired other musical genres to celebrate their music. French reggae artists, who have often complained of being underrepresented, organized the Reggae Dancehall Awards on January 24, in the southern suburbs of Paris.
You have 44.73% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
