Michel Sardou has brushed off Orelsan after the Caen rapper named him in his latest track, saying he does not know his fellow performer and has no interest in him. The 79-year-old singer made the remarks in a long interview with La Tribune Dimanche published on Saturday 7 November, according to France 3 Régions. Orelsan's song "XXX" includes a passage aimed at the far right in which Sardou is mentioned.
Why it matters
The exchange puts a spotlight on how the veteran singer's catalogue has become a cultural marker in French political debate. According to France 3 Régions, Sardou has again been linked to a right-wing, even reactionary, image of France — an association the report says does not appear to trouble him. The episode also shows how a single line in a rap song can pull a 79-year-old star of popular chanson into a contemporary argument about identity and belonging.
What Orelsan actually sings
In the passage cited by France 3 Régions, Orelsan targets the far right directly. He says he has "les fachos" on his back because he would like them to choke, and that he does not want them listening to him. He describes himself as the opposite of CNews, the French news channel. The line that triggered the response contrasts two things: eating pork and singing Sardou, which he presents as ordinary family celebration, with what he calls dressing up as a parody of French people and being "sales racistes" — dirty racists.
France 3 Régions notes that, read closely, the lyrics do not attack Sardou himself. The rapper places "manger du porc et chanter du Sardou" among his own family traditions and those of many French people. What he criticises, according to the report, is the cultural appropriation of those symbols by marketed festive events such as the banquets du Canon français, whose popularity has drawn sharp criticism over the origin of their funding and the ideas voiced by some participants.
Sardou's reply
Sardou answered the reference without softening his tone. "Je n'en rien à foutre d'Orelsan, je ne le connais pas," he told La Tribune Dimanche, according to France 3 Régions — a statement in which he says he does not care about Orelsan and does not know him. He also took a swipe at the rapper's delivery, saying that when Orelsan sings, listeners cannot make out a single word because he does not open his mouth or articulate.
On the substance of the lyric, Sardou embraced the image rather than rejecting it. He said yes, he eats pork, and he is proud that people sing "Le Connemara" at family gatherings — a reference to his signature song "Les Lacs du Connemara." He added that he has been called a fascist all his life because he was the only right-wing singer while the others were on the left, and that the people who use the label do not know what fascism actually means. In his view, the word now gets applied to anyone who holds a barbecue or does not eat vegan.
A long-running label
The interview, reported by France 3 Régions, is the latest instance of Sardou being placed on one side of a cultural divide. The singer, known for "Les Lacs du Connemara," "Je viens du Sud" and "La Maladie d'amour," has spent decades as a fixture of French popular music and a frequent target of political criticism. His response here follows a familiar pattern: rather than distance himself from the association, he restated it in his own terms and turned the accusation back on those making it.
The same interview drew attention elsewhere in the French press. Le Figaro reported that Sardou also shared views on Sarah Knafo and Christine Lagarde and repeated his remark about Orelsan, while Le Point focused on his suggestion that Lagarde could be president of the Republic. Nice-Matin reported separate comments in which Sardou, speaking from the Var, said of Jean-Luc Mélenchon that if the latter were to pass, he would not shoot him but would fight him. Those remarks sit alongside the Orelsan exchange as part of a wide-ranging set of interviews in which the singer offered his opinions on current French politics and culture.
For now, neither side has indicated any further response. Orelsan, who launched a major tour from the Zénith de Caen and has added dates at the venue, has not publicly reacted to Sardou's comments in the reporting summarised here. What to watch is whether the rapper addresses the exchange on stage or in a later interview, and whether the lyric keeps the banquets du Canon français — already the subject of a hate-speech investigation in Caen, according to France 3 Régions — in the wider conversation about who gets to claim Sardou's songs as their own.
