Wednesday April 23, 2025
Paris, France
Gims, Dadju, Soolking, Fally Ipupa and dozens of well-known artists took part in the โSolidaritรฉ Congoโ charity concert in Paris on Tuesday evening, in support of victims of the conflict in the DRC, โan unprecedented mobilizationโ in music, according to the organizers.
โIt just goes to show that music can bring everyone together, especially for noble causesโ, said rapper Soolking.
Fally Ipupa, star of the new Congolese pop movement, called on everyone to โmake noise for the indivisible Congoโ.
Launched at 19:00 (17:00 GMT) at the Accor Arena, the concert really got underway as spectators arrived, many of them holding their national tricolor flags. Up to 11,000 people were expected to attend, according to the organizers.
In all, some thirty artists took to the stage for one or more songs: French drill specialist Gazo, mainstay Youssoupha accompanied by Singuila, and Congolese musician and pastor Moise Mbiye, who called for โthe wealth of the Congo to benefit the Congoleseโ.
โWe don’t need war to spread peace togetherโ, declared Malian kora player Sidiki Diabatรฉ.
– โInvolvedโ –
โThey’re more than involved, it really makes senseโ for them, the organization had stressed to AFP, explaining that the artists were performing without a fee.
โThe cause is a noble one, and we need to raise our voices,โ said Emmanuel Duciel, 23, a fan of Fally Ipupa who had come โexpresslyโ from Lille.
Even if โa concert alone isn’t going to change thingsโ, this mobilization demonstrates the need to โsound the alarm once againโ, said Isaac Massiala, an advisor to the DRC’s Ministry of Sports and Leisure, whom AFP met on site.
Congolese rapper and singer Gims hosted the last part of the evening. The interpreter of โSapรฉs comme jamaisโ had already taken advantage of his crowning as best male artist at the Victoires de la musique awards in February to remind us of the โterribleโ situation in the DRC.
His little brother Dadju (8.9 million followers on Instagram) is also taking part, both on stage and as a charity partner. His association, Give Back Charity, will be collecting the proceeds from the concert and redistributing them.
Unicef was initially in charge of fundraising, but withdrew in the wake of the controversy surrounding the initial date.
The concert was scheduled for April 7, the international day of commemoration of the Tutsi genocide, which left at least 800,000 people dead in Rwanda in 1994.
Rwandan associations had demanded a postponement, viewing the concert as an affront. The organizers referred to โan ill-chosen dateโ.
Under threat of a ban by the Paris Prefecture of Police, the concert was postponed.
– Free Congo
On Tuesday, a video on the conflict in the DRC was screened, featuring the testimonies of โsurvivorโ women, two of whom spoke briefly on stage.
โWe need peace and justice so that we are never alone againโ, said one of them.
Two months before the concert, six French rap heavyweights (Damso, Ninho, Gradur…) released โFree Congoโ, a song denouncing a conflict they feel has been ignored.
For 30 years, the resource-rich eastern DRC, bordering Rwanda, has been ravaged by deadly violence involving a myriad of armed groups and neighboring countries.
These conflicts have recently intensified with the lightning offensive led by the M23 armed group, supported by Rwandan troops, which enabled it to seize Goma (North Kivu) and Bukavu (South Kivu).
The latest violence has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, according to the UN and the Congolese government.
This conflict has its roots in the Tutsi genocide, the flight to the DRC of hundreds of thousands of Hutus, many of them genocidaires, and the wars that followed.
Humaniterre with AFP
