French rock star Bertrand Cantat beat his girlfriend to death. His comeback isn’t going well
‘How dare he? I find it shameful, indecent, disgusting, that he would go onstage’
French singer Bertrand Cantat, who beat his girlfriend to death, on Monday announced he would not be performing at any summer festivals after an uproar among women’s rights activists.
More than 70,000 people had signed an online petition urging Normandy’s Papillons de Nuit festival to pull Cantat from its line-up, saying organisers were “normalising violence against women” by putting him in the spotlight.
Since then there has been pressure on Cantat to cancel a string of upcoming shows, not least as anger over violence against women has ricocheted around the world after the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The rock star killed his girlfriend Marie Trintignant, a well-known actress, in a hotel room while on tour in Lithuania in 2003.
The killing sent shock waves through France, where Cantat was known as a champion of social causes.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison of which he served four years before being released on parole in 2007.
“How can he do this, a man who everyone knows has killed?” her mother Nadine said in a TV interview due to air on Monday evening.
“How dare he? I find it shameful, indecent, disgusting, that he would go onstage.”
Cantat kicked off a tour to promote his first solo album Amor Fati on March 1 and was due to perform Monday evening in Montpellier before shows in Paris on May 29 and 30.