French-Malian singer Aya Coco Danioko, aka Aya Nakamura. GETTY IMAGES

French investigators have opened an inquiry into alleged racism against French-Malian pop superstar Aya Nakamura following reports she may perform at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the prosecutor's office said.

The investigation follows the filing of a complaint by the France-based International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), it said. Born in the Malian capital in 1995 into a family of traditional Malian musicians, the 28-year-old superstar moved to the Paris region as a child and became a French citizen in 2021.

The French-Malian singer has conquered the world RnB scene with her songs Pookie, Copine and Djadja. The latter has more than 950 million views on YouTube. Her latest album, DNK, was released in January and went platinum. 

The alleged racist abuse began after media reports said the singer had discussed the possibility of performing a song by 20th century icon Edith Piaf during a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron last month, although neither party has confirmed this.

At a campaign rally on Sunday for the Reconquest party, led by far-right former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, Nakamura's name drew boos from the crowd. A small extremist group, the Natives, hung a banner on the River Seine that read: "No way Aya. This is Paris, not the market of Bamako."

RN leader Marine Le Pen on Wednesday denounced the possibility of Aya Nakamura singing at the opening of the Olympic Games, claiming that Emmanuel Macron wanted to "divide" and "humiliate" the French. 

"This is another provocation by Emmanuel Macron," she said. SOS Racism, another anti-discrimination group, said on X that it had also filed an official complaint against the artist for "acts of incitement to discrimination and racist cyberbullying. It said she was "the victim of a wave of racist hatred driven by the far right".

The Olympic organising committee told AFP on Monday it was "very shocked" by the backlash against the singer, and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera also expressed her support on X. Nakamura said that said she was grateful. "Thanks for the support, especially to my community. I feel like I made you discover Edith Piaf and she was reincarnated in me," she wrote on 'X'.

Speaking on  behalf of the African Olympic and Sports Movement, ANOCA President, Mustapha Berraf, President of the Olympafrica Foundation, expressed his full support for French singer Aya Nakamura. Berraf vigorously condemns racist attacks that "portray another time and another world, other than that of progress, modernity and love of humanity".