The Ceremony French Rap Deserves
For years, France’s most popular genre topped charts without being recognized. Then Yard launched Les Flammes.
In February 2022, French rapper SCH took the stage at the Victoires de la Musique, France’s most prestigious music awards, and said the quiet part loud: rap, the most-streamed genre in the country, was still being treated as a guest in its own house. The remarks spotlighted something that had been building for years.
Tom Brunet, who had heard the same argument relitigated after every Victoires, also wondered why Afro-Caribbean and the broader wave of popular music remained outside the frame of institutional recognition. Within a week of SCH’s speech, Tom, the co-founder of Paris-based creative agency Yard, joined forces with music platform Booska‑P to announce Les Flammes. The idea had been simmering through the pandemic; SCH lit it on fire and Yard responded.
“At some point, you have to stop complaining about your place in ceremonies like the Victoires de la Musique or the NRJ Music Awards and do things yourself,” Booska‑P co-founder Hamad told Billboard France.
The ambition, Tom Brunet has said, was to build something bigger than a single night. The goal was a cultural event capable of opening doors for artists and the people who work alongside them, an experience that would generate activity well beyond the show itself. Yard brought brand creation and event expertise; Booska‑P brought media reach and credibility inside the rap scene. Spotify France noticed the enthusiasm the announcement generated on social media and has become an increasingly integrated part of the show. The broader business model drew on private partnerships as its primary engine, supplemented by ticket sales, government support, and broadcast rights. In 2026, it aired live in prime time on public broadcaster France 4.
With Spotify as an agency client and the event’s main sponsor, the partnership has grown to include dedicated show formats, full physical and digital campaigns, and, for the first time, in-app voting for the Album of the Year category, open to any Spotify user worldwide. More than 800,000 people voted in total in 2026, of whom over 500,000 cast their ballots directly through a frictionless app experience, a significant increase from the year before.
The voting system was designed to rebalance for celebrity bias. Public voting has been part of the awards from the start, with fans given a direct stake across the majority of categories. Both the public and jury rank their top three per category rather than picking a single winner, a preferential system that keeps emerging artists in contention against acts with larger fan bases. The jury, anonymous during voting and reset each year, spans labels, live industry, journalism, and public figures. The award categories also run the gamut: album art, launch strategy, live revelation, social engagement, international reach, and prizes for African-inspired and Caribbean-inspired music. Les Flammes exists to reflect the wider spectrum of music in France.
From 12 million viewers in its inaugural 24 hours at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2023, the event drew 43 million views across social channels and the official broadcast on the first day of its 2026 edition at La Seine Musicale. The objective from day one, Brunet told La Réclame, was to build the most discussed, most memorable, and most entertaining ceremony in France, one that reached beyond music itself. By that measure, the 2026 edition delivered.
In February, French-Congolese artist Theodora garnered four awards at the Victoires de la Musique, including Album of the Year for Mega BBL. Two months later at Les Flammes, she took home five honors, including Female Artist of the Year and Album of the Year.
In just four years, Yard helped build something authentic, celebrating and keeping the culture in the hands of the people who made it.