Each edition of the Victoires de la Musique has its controversy, and the 2023 vintage does not escape tradition. With this 38th ceremony, this Friday night at the musical Seine in Boulogne-Billancourt, it is the list of nominees, revealed in January, that surprises.
In addition to Stromae, who returned last year after years of absence, the nominees in the main categories are mostly Victoires regulars: Angèle, Clara Luciani, Juliette Armanet, Orelsan… only Benjamin Biolay, absent from this selection of 2023, to give this selection an air of déjà vu.
This lack of renewal has crystallized most of the reactions, both on social networks and in the media: “An air of deja-vu…”, he laments the parisianWhen telerama it points to “a fun list”, “again” marked by the “omnipresence” of the same artists.
Enough to raise questions and criticisms about the operation of this great machine. “We would have to break everything and rebuild everything,” sighs Marc*, head of a small label, which he confided to BFMTV.com. “As a freelancer, I feel the huge glass ceiling.”
This redundancy seems to have accelerated in recent years, as some data shows. In the last eleven editions, the rapper Orelsan has accumulated 17 nominations for the Victoires de la Musique, only three fewer than Etienne Daho in a forty-year career. Julien Doré, first named in 2009, has appeared in the Victorias selection 12 times since then, versus just 11 nominations for either Rita Mitsouko or Eddy Mitchell. As if, with the 2010s, the spotlight has narrowed to a handful of artists.
New production rhythms
As soon as the nominees were announced, as if to prevent the fire, the organizers of the Victories had advanced the increasingly long exploitation of the records. Hard to go wrong, at a time when every hit record is followed by at least one reissue decked out with new songs:
“A headline on the radio can sometimes last five to six months,” explains Stéphane Espinosa, current president of Victoires de la Musique at the end of his term, to BFMTV.com.
“A major artist who has four strong singles on a CD may find themselves promoting it for two years.” The example of Clara Luciani illustrates this perfectly: female artist and album of the year in 2022 thanks to a record released in 2021, she appears in the original song category in 2023 for a single taken from the same CD.
Stéphane Espinosa also argues for a logical continuation: “The artists nominated in the album category will often sign the great stage success of the following year, and they will be nominated again in the concert category.” Add to that the latest aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, which has turned the tour schedule upside down, and you get even longer delays…
Less called, therefore less chosen
However, certain characteristics of the Victoires seem hardly compatible with musical diversity. Thus, only eight categories remain subject to the vote of the Academy.
For comparison, 19 trophies were handed out during the last NRJ Music Awards and a whopping 91 (only twenty are awarded on the night of the ceremony) during the 2023 Grammy Awards, the American equivalent.
How did Victories get to such a small number of awards? Mainly eliminating the distribution by musical genres. Present until 2019, the awards for rock, urban music, variety, world music or even electronic music albums, which guarantee the representation of a wide range of styles during the evening, have disappeared in favor of a single category of albums. Thus, 18 albums shared six trophies four years ago. Since 2020, there are five to compete for only one.
the impossible equation
A bias defended by Stéphane Espinosa. According to him, finding the right formula is a headache:
“At the time of these categories by gender, other questions arose. We heard that the selected electro artists weren’t really electro, same for the rap artists.”
“They also gave rise to inconsistencies,” he continues. “We ended up with artists winning a category they didn’t really belong in. Music is so mixed these days that some artists don’t want to be ‘ghettoised’ in one category.”
Within most of the eight categories, the Victories retain three nominees. A very low but historic figure, observed since the first edition in 1985.
small advances
Well aware of the comments raised by the 2023 selection, Stéphane Espinosa insists on the will of the Victorias to promote musical diversity, and on the efforts already made in this regard:
“We work in the college of voters (800 in number and dominated by industry professionals, editor’s note) which has been renewed at 50%. 200 voters come from the public, 100 of whom are holders of the culture pass, reserved for 15 -18 years, in order to rejuvenate the Academy”.
The voting system has also been redesigned, which takes place in two rounds: instead of choosing a single artist, all voters could vote for three of them thanks to a points system that allowed them to prioritize their preferences. Another way to “highlight musical diversity.”
Stéphane Espinosa salutes the diversity of the artists selected in this year’s female and male revelation categories: urban music (Tiakola and Lujipeka), electro (Jacques), anglophone (November Ultra)…
Still, with so few awards and nominees, it’s hard for emerging artists to win out over the behemoths of Orelsan, Clara Luciani, Juliette Armanet or Bigflo & Oli in the major categories. “Naturally, there is still work to be done, everything is going very fast for music”, acknowledges Stéphane Espinosa. “I think there are many avenues that need to be reopened and that need to be thought about. I’m not closed to any comment.”
Television ratings, war nerves?
To the specific arguments of a particularly limited number of places during the evening, Marc opposes that of the public at half-mast of the show, broadcast live on France 2 (and surpassed last year by the crime film on France 3…):
“It’s not even a question; they follow their ratings. They know very well what the 50-year-old viewer wants to see.”
“The public is less and less good, that’s why it takes less and less risks, the selection is less and less representative and, in the end, the evening is less and less legitimate.”
Allegations of interference by France 2 in the course of the evening have already been made in the past. Could the disappearance of certain prizes have been aimed at making the show less dispersed and, therefore, more attractive to a certain category of spectators?
France Télévisions refused to respond to requests from BFMTV.com. Stéphane Espinosa, who claims to work in “good intelligence with France 2”, acknowledges that “we are all interested in making the show work”, and does not remember this type of intrusion into the public service: “I was in the commission at the time we were discussing the reduction of categories – France Télévisions had not intervened“, he assures.
“You and Your Little Arrangements”
Marc raises the specter of other lingering suspicions: “The number of votes is distributed according to the number of employees at a record label and its market share.” This would offer more impact to the big houses, which “would give voting instructions and exchange votes among themselves.” An analysis already evoked in half a word in January by Yuksek, a figure of French electro:
“Of course, communications are made internally when one of our artists is named,” whispers one person working for a career. “But it’s always done in a gentle way. In the order of: ‘as you know, such an artist is nominated. If you like, any support is welcome.”
“If we develop careers it is precisely to achieve this type of promotion. The day that passes seems normal to me to contribute. It’s a way to participate in boxing life, and it’s still democratic: if you don’t, no one will lynch us in a Monday morning meeting.”
“Today, in general, producers and turners represent 220 votes out of 800,” said Stéphane Espinosa. “I’m not sure that’s what makes the difference.” And remember that the 2023 nominees did not steal their presence in the selection: “They filled rooms, they are great sellers… Honestly, I think these nominations are deserved.”
Appearance of alternative prices
Faced with what Marc describes as a “bubble”, alternative price discounts begin to be organized. Like Les Flammes, a response from the rap community that is considered underrepresented at the Victoires -first edition on May 11- or the Joséphine prize, awarded by a jury of artists to honor a more reserved pop. Initiatives that he welcomes, but that also present the risk “of promoting each other”: “It’s a pity.”
For him, the Victories are just the symptom of a larger problem: the place reserved for music in the French audiovisual scene. “Music shows are sweet one after another. Daily AND C for you they are almost the only ones that play live music, and fewer and fewer. Space is shrinking for discovery.”
*This name has been changed
Source: BFM TV
