On July 26, 2024, French metal band Gojira and opera singer Marina Viotti performed together at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. The performance was held at the Conciergerie Palace, and it was part of a large event that featured major artists like Céline Dion, Lady Gaga, and Aya Nakamura. What made this moment special was that metal music was included in the Olympics for the first time.
Their song ‘Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)’ was inspired by a French revolutionary song and was composed by Victor Le Masne, the musical director of the event. Gojira played from the palace’s balconies, and Marina Viotti performed on a wooden boat floating on the Seine River. The stage was filled with dark imagery from France’s revolutionary history, and pyrotechnics lit up the night.
A Surprising Collaboration
The collaboration was unexpected. Gojira is known for its heavy metal sound, and Marina Viotti is an opera singer. But Viotti had a history with metal music — she was in metal bands Lost Legacy and Soulmaker before becoming an opera singer.
Gojira didn’t hold back for the performance. Joe Duplantier (vocals/guitar), Mario Duplantier (drums), Christian Andreu (lead guitar), and Jean-Michel Labadie (bass) played a song that included fast drumming, growling vocals, and a breakdown at the end.
The Olympic committee had some rules, though. They required Joe Duplantier to say ‘Ah! Ça ira’ three times in the song. He also added English lyrics to make it more accessible to international viewers.
Massive Exposure and Rising Popularity
Marina Viotti had a small audience before the Olympics. Her music had around 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. But after the performance, that number skyrocketed to over 600,000. Millions of people discovered her music, and many of them were metal fans who never listened to opera before.
This was also a big moment for Gojira. Their performance introduced metal to a global audience and showed that the genre could fit into an event as grand as the Olympics.
From the Olympics to the Grammys
The impact of the performance didn’t stop there. In late 2024, the song ‘Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)’ was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards. On February 2, 2025, Gojira, Marina Viotti, and Victor Le Masne won the award at the 67th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
This was a historic moment. A metal performance that started at the Olympics ended up winning one of the biggest awards in the music industry.
What’s Next for Marina Viotti?
Viotti gained a new audience in the metal scene, but she hasn’t left opera behind. She returned to Paris for two major performances in the months after the Olympics:
- ‘Faust‘ at Opéra Bastille (September 26 – October 18, 2024), where she played Siebel.
- ‘Werther‘ at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (March 22 – April 6, 2025), where she will play Charlotte.
Thanks to her collaboration with Gojira, more people than ever are following her career. Metal fans started exploring opera, and opera fans took an interest in metal.
Marina Viotti was a respected opera singer before the Paris 2024 Olympics, but not widely known outside the classical music world. Now, her Spotify numbers have exploded, she’s won a Grammy, and gained a whole new audience.
Gojira’s decision to include her in their performance didn’t just make history at the Olympics — it also changed her career forever.
