French heavy metal band Gojira's beheaded Marie Antoinette act in 2024 Paris Olympics sparks outrage

PARIS, FRANCE: The Paris Olympics ceremony featured a performance by the French heavy metal band Gojira on Friday. Despite receiving praise for their exciting performance, "the beheaded Marie Antoinette" act ended up being the main conversation starter. 

During the performance, flames erupted along the Seine, and a headless woman dressed in red, representing Marie Antoinette, appeared in the windows of a sizable French building. On social media, this generated a range of responses, per Fox News.

Who was Marie Antoinette?

Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, was the final queen consort of France before the French Revolution.

She was born in Austria as Archduchess Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter of Emperor Francis and Empress Maria Theresa, and the penultimate child. At the age of 14, she wed France's Dauphin Louis in May 1770.

She later assumed the title of French Dauphine. Her spouse succeeded to the throne on May 10, 1774, making her the new queen, per Wikipedia.

Why was Marie Antoinette killed?

The French libelles accused Marie Antoinette of being wasteful, promiscuous, having illegitimate children, and having sympathies for France's enemies, including her home Austria, which made her increasingly unpopular among the populace during her reign as queen.

In the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Antoinette was falsely accused, but the accusations did more harm to her reputation.

She was dubbed Madame Deficit during the French Revolution because of her extravagant spending and her resistance to the social and financial reforms that Jacques Necker and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot had suggested. This led to the nation's financial crisis.

On September 21, 1972, the monarchy came to an end.

On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine.

The Revolutionary Tribunal found Marie Antoinette guilty of high treason two days after the trial began on October 14. She was beheaded by guillotine on October 16, 1793, at the Place de la Revolution.

Internet outraged by Gojira's nod to Marie Antionette

Netizens were disappointed by the heavy metal band's beheaded Marie Antoinette act.

One X user tweeted, "Wokest opening ceremony ever!!!"

Another added, "That is all you got out of all that culture and history of France???"

"How disgusting and despicable," remarked one user.

Someone else remarked, "I’d like to think that France would have something else to have pride in than the beheading of their Queen "

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