This article analyses a participative project run by a lyric ensemble to celebrate the diversity of the cultural heritage of Seine-Saint-Denis during the Paris Cultural Olympiad (2023–2024). The team recorded 400 songs from residents, which were used to create polyphonies, performed by amateur choirs during participative concerts in the public space. This ethnographic study reveals the “malaise” (Clifford 1988) gradually felt by the artistic team and the support personnel, articulated in terms of “cultural appropriation”. Faced with this question—which lies at the crossroads of the scholarly and popular spheres—the composers came up with different types of arrangements that profoundly altered the initial project. This article looks at the controversies in the art world surrounding the use, by established Western artists, of popular music from historically minoritized cultures in projects with universalizing aims.
