After reggae ("Jamaica Jamaica! From Marley to the Deejays") in 2017, electro ("Electro. From Kraftwerk to Daft Punk") in 2019, hip-hop ("Hip-Hop 360") in 2021 and metal ("METAL. Diabolus in Musica") in 2024, the Philharmonie de Paris – a temple for music lovers – continues its retrospective on popular music genres with the exhibition "Disco. I'm Coming out," running until August 17.

Its emancipatory subtitle – "I'm coming out" – references the 1980 hit performed by Diana Ross, the Motown soul label's muse who metamorphosed into a disco diva, written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (1952-1996), guitarist and bassist of the New York group Chic. The former had noticed in a queer bar that many drag queens were look-alikes of the singer and decided to send an explicit signal to the LGBT community. The expression "coming out" should, of course, also be understood as "coming out of the closet."

This makes the approach of the Paris exhibition immediately clear. Stigmatized during its golden age, and even more so during its decline, as hedonistic and artificial music dedicated to partying and human bodies, hated by its detractors united behind the slogan "Disco sucks," the phenomenon is placed in its original context, one in which it represented a liberation movement.

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