World sings, lights up in solidarity with wounded France
PARIS: Stirring renditions of ‘ La Marseillaise’ rang out Saturday from Dublin to New York as global landmarks were bathed in the French colours and thousands marched in solidarity with Paris after attacks that left at least 129 dead.
Monuments from the Sydney Opera House in Australia to One World Trade Center in New York were adorned with France’s red, white and blue, while the “Peace for Paris” symbol combining the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower with the peace sign of the 1960s went viral online.
New York’s Metropolitan Opera led by star tenor Placido Domingo mourned the victims of France’s worstever such attacks with an unscheduled performance of the distinctive French national anthem.
Outside, some 2,000 gathered in Manhattan to sing their own version in Washington Park Square, while in the US capital, French expatriates came together in Lafayette Square, named after a famous Frenchman from the US war of independence, to mourn.
“France is not a race, France is not a religion, France is not an ethnic group, France is a will to live together,” French Ambassador Gerard Araud told the crowd.
Singer Madonna paid a tearful tribute to the victims on stage by singing the classic French song “La vie en rose,” accompanied only by a guitar, during a concert in Stockholm.
Many of the 6,000 participants in a march in the Irish capital were draped in the French blue, white and red flag, while others also sang the national anthem.
London paid homage to the victims as some 2,000 people gathered at an evening vigil in the British capital’s Trafalgar Square, where fountains and the grand portico of the National Gallery opposite were lit to resemble the Tricolour. — AFP