The China Mail - Nakamura, Dion and the 'Smurf artist': Olympic show boosts music stars

TikTok has been flooded with youngsters copying rapper Aya Nakamura's dancing on a beloved Parisian bridge.

And Philippe Katerine, the singer who appeared near-naked and painted in blue, has become an unlikely star on Chinese social media.

Friday's show, which took over a six-kilometre stretch of the River Seine, has boosted the audience for all those who took part.

Nakamura performed a medley of her hits "Pookie" and "Djadja", along with a classic by Charles Aznavour, "For Me Formidable", accompanied by France's Republican Guard.

Fans have been reproducing her hip-shaking moves on the Pont des Arts, one of the most fabled bridges of the City of Lights, known for the lovers' padlocks that swamped its railings.

Among the fans was even a member of the government, youth representative Mathieu Maucort, who labelled his clip, "On Aya's bridge".

Nakamura's tracks have seen a 40 percent jump in streams on Spotify -- rubbing salt in the wounds of racists who objected when rumours of her appearance emerged earlier this year.

But that boost is nothing compared with a 317-percent increase for streams of "Hymne a l'Amour", the 1950 Edith Piaf song performed by Celine Dion for the grand finale on the Eiffel Tower.

Another big winner was French metal band Gojira, which saw a 129-percent boost to their streams worldwide after performing a version of "Ah! Ca Ira", the 18th century song about the French Revolution.

- Not 'The Last Supper' -

And then there is Philippe Katerine, a singer, actor and general oddball artist who appeared naked in a platter of food to sing his aptly-named hit "Nu" ("Naked").

The wider sequence, wrongly interpreted as a homage to Leonardo da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper", has drawn criticism from religious and far-right groups for supposedly mocking Christianity.

But the organisers insist it was a nod to a host of other famous classical paintings that depict feasting Olympian gods, with Katerine playing Dionysus, the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.

Katerine -- whose blue body paint has led to him being labelled "the Smurf artist" -- has drawn many fans in China, with cartoons and even marzipan models of his character being shared widely on apps like Weibo and Douyin.

The ceremony -- which drew more than a billion viewers on Friday -- also provided a showcase for French Touch electro hits such as "I Love You So" by Cassius and DJ Mehdi's "Signatune".

The biggest boost was for a classic from 1977 -- "Supernature" by Cerrone -- that played in full during the Eiffel Tower light show towards the end of the ceremony.

It sent the Shazam app, which allows users to identify a track that is playing, into a frenzy, and has led to a 1,200-percent increase in streams, according to the artist's press office.

S.Wilson--ThChM