GOJIRA Wins 2025 Grammy for Olympic Performance Song ‘Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)’

GOJIRA. Grammy winners. Sounds nice—doesn’t it? Took long enough. But yeah man—it finally happened. The French metal titans bagged the 2025 Best Metal Performance Grammy for Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)—the same track they belted out at the 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris. And let’s be real—it wasn’t just a performance. It was a moment.

The Olympic Metal Coup—Or—When GOJIRA Brought Beheaded Royals to the Games

So visualize this cinematic masterpiece: it’s the Olympics. A grand—polished international spectacle. Everyone’s expecting fireworks and a big—safe pop performance. Then BAM—GOJIRA shows up with opera singer Marina Viotti—composer Victor Le Masne—and a whole parade of decapitated Marie Antoinettes. Yeah. That happened.

This all went down at the Conciergerie—which—history lesson—is where the real Marie Antoinette sat around waiting for her head to get separated from her body back in 1793. GOJIRA—being GOJIRA—thought: Hey—let’s turn this into an art piece. Pyrotechnics? Check. Drama? Oh yeah. A brutal reimagining of a French Revolution-era song? You bet. Cuz nothing screams Olympic unity like the echoes of historical guillotines.

And guess what? It worked. It worked so well that it ended up snagging them a Grammy.

Grammy Night—And Why It Took This Long

Flash forward to February 2, 2025—the 67th Annual Grammy Awards—happening at the Crypto.com Arena (yes—that’s still a thing—somehow). GOJIRA is up against some serious contenders:

• Metallica (Screaming Suicide)
• Judas Priest (Crown of Horns)
• Knocked Loose feat. Poppy (Suffocate)
• Spiritbox (Cellar Door)

Tough lineup. Some big names. But GOJIRA clinched it. First-ever Grammy win. Took them long enough—considering they’ve been nominated three times before (Silvera in 2017—Amazonia in 2022—and Magma for Best Rock Album in 2017). But hey—better late than never.

And their reaction? Joe Duplantier—the band’s frontman—kept it humble:

“We are extremely excited to receive this award. We had the privilege to perform at the Olympic ceremony with Marina and Victor—so this is a great day for us—obviously.”

Nice. Polite. Almost too polite. Like he wasn’t just handed one of the biggest middle fingers to the industry’s usual snubbing of metal acts.

The Bigger Picture—Why This Matters

This isn’t just about GOJIRA winning (although—let’s be honest—finally). This is about metal creeping its way into spaces where it’s usually not welcome.

Think about it. The Olympics. The most wholesome of global events. Where people expect Broadway-style performances—national anthems—and maybe a pop diva or two. And then there’s GOJIRA—blasting a historical rebellion anthem with an opera singer and a set straight out of a guillotine-happy fever dream.

And then? A Grammy. Validation. Metal wasn’t just tolerated in these spaces—it was celebrated.

This win isn’t just about GOJIRA—either. It’s about metal proving it belongs in the mainstream without selling out. No watered-down versions. No compromises. Just a band from Bayonne—France—throwing historical references—technical riffs—and raw aggression into the mix—and getting rewarded for it.

What Now?

Now that GOJIRA has a Grammy—what’s next?

More touring—obviously. They’ve already lined up European festival dates for 2025. Probably a few victory laps at interviews where journalists will ask “so how does it feel to finally win a Grammy?” (Answer: (99.9% sure) “great—thanks”).

Also—if this trajectory keeps up—maybe—just maybe—metal performances at major global events could become a thing. Imagine Rammstein setting a World Cup stage on fire. Or Slipknot bringing their masked chaos to the Super Bowl. Sounds wild? Well—so did the idea of GOJIRA performing at the Olympics.

And look how that turned out.

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