Rethinking Political Community in Contemporary France

Music, Migration, and the Paris Olympics

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the contemporary period, which is increasingly defined by exclusionary conceptions of the nation and citizenship, this article (re-)examines the concept of political community through the prism of music and migration. By considering how post-migrant musicians in postcolonial societies such as France throw into sharp relief the contemporary dynamics of far-right populism, racism, and exclusionary statecraft, this article offers a critical reflection on what alternatives to hostile national political communities might entail and how they might come about. Given the growth of migration-related anxiety in contemporary Europe, I claim that migration studies research must not only concern itself with the genealogical study of key political concepts that frame our public institutions and cultural worlds. Rather, I argue that it should also entail a process of re-imagining what those key political concepts and institutions could become in the future. This article therefore explores not only what a post-national political community might look like, but what it might sound like. I consider how post-migrant creative practices and music, in particular, can make the limitations of political concepts such as the nation and national political community more visible and more audible. I argue that the Paris Olympic Games of 2024 offers a valuable case-study as these became the locus of a series of polarized public debates about how to represent the French nation, due to the controversy that erupted around the commissioning of a French-Malian musician, Aya Nakamura, to perform at the Opening Ceremony.