Anthony Gonzalez, frontman of the Spanish-French musical act M83, is furious. He realized that his song ‘Midnight City’ was used by French extreme right Front National in a propaganda clip for the party. He wrote this on his Facebook page:
‘J’ai découvert avec horreur que le Front National utilisait “Midnight City” dans l’une de ses vidéos de campagne. Ils l’ont fait sans mon autorisation, et je suis consterné par leur manque de respect artistique. Le minimum est au moins de demander à l’artiste s’il est d’accord ou non d’être associé à une image ou une marque. Même les publicitaires et les marques les plus commerciales le font.
D’une manière générale, la musique de M83 est apolitique et je refuse d’être associé a un quelconque parti, tout particulièrement le Front National…’
Which can be translated as the following:
‘To my horror, I discovered that the Front National have been using "Midnight City" in one of their campaign videos. They are doing this without my permission, and I am appalled at their lack of artistic respect. At the very least, artists should be asked if they agree, or disagree, with being associated with a certain image or brand. Even the most commerce-minded advertising agencies and brands do so.
In general, the music of M83 is apolitical, and I refuse to be associated with any party, and particularly the Front National…’
Technically, it was not exactly used by the Front National, but by the Front National’s youth, which sounds even worst if you want my opinion,… doesn’t Hitler’s youth ring a bell? The song was used in a video of Julien Rochedy (president of 'Youth with Marine' and communication officer of the FN’s Youth) exposing his view on immigration among other insanities.
I have to say that this party is the worst thing you can imagine, it is a racist, anti-Semite, xenophobic party, and this Marine is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the original leader of the party, who has poisoned French political life since the 70s. If you think some US politicians are awful, you have seen nothing yet, as Le Pen's extremist ideas would scare the most conservative republican candidate. This is a guy who invented the term 'sidaique' to designate people with AIDS, and wanted to place HIV positive people in special 'sidatorium'. He has questioned the existence of gas chambers during the holocaust, and called them ‘a detail in the history of War World II’.
He has also complained about the French soccer team having too many non-white players during the French World Cup squad, and he has called current French president Sarkozy ‘the foreigner’ (since he has Hungarian, Greek and Jewish origins)
There are so many horrible things to say about this man, he is France’s ugly fascist head which does not want to die, and if you want another connection with music, he is also the founder of Serp, a society specialized in military music, whose catalog contains, among others, nazi chants and Third Reich music.
Currently his daughter Marine Le Pen is winning the youth vote in France! She is even worst and more dangerous than her father, just because she is a rather good looking blonde woman, who does not hesitate to call the French Muslim population ‘an occupation’.
The video was removed, following a claim made by M83’s label, Naïve, although a few seconds of the song was still used in a montage about Rochedy when he was invited in ‘The Petit Journal’, a sort of French equivalent of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Still, Anthony Gonzalez should have sued Rochedy’s dirty ass.