Aya Nakamura French Singer Born 1995 in Bamako

Early life

Aya Coco Danioko, known professionally as Aya Nakamura, was born on 10 May 1995 in Bamako, Mali. She is the eldest of five siblings and comes from a family of griots, the West African tradition of oral storytellers, praise singers and poets. As a child she moved with her family to France and grew up in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris. She studied fashion in La Courneuve and has said she first wanted to become a designer before deciding to sing instead. Her stage surname is taken from Hiro Nakamura, a character in the American television series Heroes. She applied for French nationality as an adult and received it in May 2021.

Career

Nakamura began putting music online in 2014, when she released her first single, "Karma", on Facebook. With the producer Seysey she wrote "J'ai mal", a breakup song with a melody inspired by zouk. In 2016 she recorded "Brisé" with the composer Christopher Ghenda and followed it with "Love d'un voyou", a duet with the rapper Fababy that gave her a first chart entry in France. That January she signed with Rec. 118 and Parlophone, a label within Warner Music France, and later in the year released "Super Héros" with the rapper Gradur. Her debut album, Journal intime, appeared on 25 August 2017 and was led by the single "Comportement"; it was certified platinum in France.

The second album, Nakamura, was preceded by the single "Djadja", released on 6 April 2018. It spent two consecutive weeks at number one in France and was later certified diamond. It also reached number one in the Netherlands, which made her the first French female artist to do so there since Édith Piaf in 1961, and it placed in the top five in Spain. "Copines" followed in August 2018 and climbed to number one in France in November, the month the album came out. The album has sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. In 2019 the video for "Pookie" became the most-viewed French music video of the year. YouTube and Spotify named her the most-watched and most-streamed French female artist of 2019. The "Djadja" video passed one billion views on YouTube in February 2025, a first for an African artist.

Her third album, Aya, was released on 13 November 2020 and included collaborations with Stormzy, Ms Banks and Oboy. It was preceded by the number-one single "Jolie nana". In 2021 she appeared on "C'est cuit" by Major Lazer with Swae Lee and released the single "Bobo", which peaked at number three in France. In 2022 "Dégaine", featuring Damso, entered the French chart at number one, and in October she gave a virtual concert in the video game Fortnite, the first French artist to do so. The fourth album, DNK, was released on 27 January 2023 and topped the French albums chart for two weeks.

In 2024 she served as a judge on the third season of the rap competition Nouvelle École. On 26 July she performed at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris, singing a medley of "Pookie" and "Djadja" with Charles Aznavour's "For me formidable", accompanied by the French Republican Guard. Her participation had been debated beforehand, with public criticism from some political figures and support from others, including the sports and culture ministers. The performance reached 31.4 million viewers, the largest audience of any moment in French television history. Her single "Chimiyé" followed in February 2025, a wax figure of her was unveiled at the Musée Grévin in Paris in June 2025, and her fifth album, Destinée, came out in November 2025 with eighteen tracks blending Afro-pop, Caribbean rhythms and Afrobeats. She sold out three dates at the Stade de France, scheduled for May 2026, within minutes.

Recognition

Nakamura has won a Victoires de la Musique award, an NRJ Music Award and a place on the OkayAfrica 100 Women list in 2019. She took three prizes at the second Flammes Awards in April 2024, the most of any artist that year, and in January 2019 she won the European Music Moves Talent Award for Best Urban album. She was also nominated for the BET Awards as Best International Act in 2019. Her work draws on pop, R&B, zouk and Afrobeats, and her lyrics, written by herself, mix French slang with English, Arabic and Bambara.

Public roles

Since 2019 she has supported the association ALIYAH. Her language has been a topic of public discussion in France, where some commentators criticise her use of slang and linguists tend to defend it.