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What Is the History of "La Marseillaise," the French National Anthem?
Mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel performed the song during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
As Team USA and hundreds of other Olympians glided down the Seine on Friday, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris created an an Opening Ceremony that was as spectacular as it was unique.
The parade of countries took place against a breathtaking backdrop provided by the city's most famous buildings, making their way down six kilometers of Paris' central river from the Pont d'Austerlitz to the Trocadero.
In addition to performances along the Seine by Lady Gaga, the metal band Gojira, and French musician Aya Nakamura, award-winning mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel sang "La Marseillaise" — the soaring French national anthem — in a downpour as the French flag unfolded in the Trocadero.
Standing atop the historic Grand Palais on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Saint-Cirel sang the anthem of the Republic of France while dressed by the House of Dior to evoke Marianne, the female figure who personified liberty after the French Revolution. (She is most famously portrayed in the 1830 painting La Liberté guidant le peuple by Eugène Delacroix, thought to have inspired both parts of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and the Statue of Liberty.)
What is French national anthem "La Marseillaise" about?
The song was composed in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a French army officer, in Strasbourg. Originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" ("War Song for the Rhine Army"), it was a response to France's declaration of war against Austria (one of the events that inspired the French Revolution).
The anthem gained its more famous name after being adopted by volunteer troops from Marseille who marched on the King's residence in the Tuileries Palace in Paris, one of the pivotal acts of the French Revolution, in August 1792.
Their impassioned rendition quickly became popular among revolutionaries and "La Marseillaise" was declared the national anthem of France on July 14, 1795, per the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs
The song's lyrics are a call to arms, urging citizens to fight against tyranny and oppression.
"La Marseillaise" has been used during significant moments, including during Paris's liberation in World War II. It has remained a potent symbol of French national pride and revolutionary spirit, encapsulating the country's enduring values of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Composer Victor le Masne devised a new musical arrangement for the song in preparation for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony.
Who is "La Marseillaise" singer Axelle Saint-Cirel from the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony?
Mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel was the 2023 winner of the Voix des Outre-mer Singing Competition held at the Bastille Opera.
Saint-Cirel first studied music at the Conservatoire de Montbéliard, then was accepted to the Pôle Supérieur de Boulogne-Billancourt, and finally at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, according to BFM TV.
Her parents are from the French Caribbean island territory of of Guadeloupe, but she was born in Paris and spent part of her childhood in Malaysia, according to RadioFrance.
