Aya Nakamura (3/5): Aya, a media passion

The Franco-Malian singer's fame exploded after the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. While the international press has been raving about her since her debut, the French media are divided. In any case, the singer leaves no one indifferent.

To be a star, it's not about being naive and vulnerable, reminds the French-Malian singer, accustomed to making headlines. "You have to know how to be comfortable in your own skin, to be prepared, because, when you're an artist, you have to take responsibility. You're not going to please everyone !" she warns in an interview.

For once, few artists have divided the press as much as Aya Nakamura. While the newspaper Libération sees in her style "a new musicality for the French language" , the weekly Marianne judges that she "creates a void within her lyrics" .

The singer writes everything herself, mixing slang, verlan and foreign expressions with rap sauce, and many media outlets don't understand it. With a universe mixing rap, zouk, pop and R'n'B, Aya Nakamura's style is unclassifiable. The artist describes her "sounds" as "solar" . A dimension that leads to another recurring criticism from the media, her "oversized" ego. "It's not my fault if I'm tall, charismatic, if I'm beautiful etc. I can't control what people feel when they see me," she says, while specifying to those who find her impressive: "I'm like you !"

But ultimately, does she need the media to sell millions of albums? No, her audience doesn't care. So she rarely appears on television or radio. Her best communication tool is her social networks, where she posted her very first song and where she speaks directly to her fans.