Metal Band With Vegan Singer Takes Home First Grammy Win

French metallers Gojira have won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for their act at the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony. Gojira’s lead vocalist Joe Duplantier is a vegan and vocal animal advocate.

Along with opera singer Marina Viotti and composer Victor Le Manse, Gojira took home the award for their song Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!). The band made history as the first metal band to perform at the Olympics. It saw them playing their instruments from the window ledges and turrets of the Concierge building, in which Marie-Antoinette was held prisoner during the French Revolution. The infamous queen appeared during the song holding her own head in her hands.

The award is the first Grammy for Gojira, who have been together since 1996. The band has a long history of supporting Sea Shepherd, and they have used their music to address animal suffering and environmental destruction. Gojira had planned to release a Sea Shepherd EP in the 2010s, but the hard drive containing the songs got corrupted. The only track that survived was Of Blood and Salt, which was about the whale massacres that take place in the Faroe Islands, known as the Grind. The band campaigned for Captain Paul Watson to be released from jail when he was arrested by Danish authorities in July last year.

Duplantier’s animal advocacy

Joe Duplantier — Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo Duplantier credits veganism with giving him loads of energy

Duplantier takes a particularly active role in trying to advance the rights of animals. He attended a protest demanding the release of Watson outside the Danish parliament in Copenhagen. In November 2024, he starred in an ad by PETA encouraging people to “Join the Vegan Revolution.” In a “public service announcement” (PSA) for PETA, he explained he went vegan for the animals, describing it as “an awakening.”

Duplantier often uses interviews to discuss his belief in animal rights as well as the health benefits of veganism. He credits his diet with giving him lots more energy. “Every time we finish a show, I’m still full of energy and I keep going,” he told Blabbermouth in 2023. “I can keep going and going and going. And back in the day, before I changed my diet, at the end of the show, I was at the end of my life.”

Duplantier’s wife is also a vegan animal activist. They have two children whom they are raising as vegans. “When my second child was born, we decided to go vegan as a family,” he said in his PETA PSA. “It’s going fabulous. They love not hurting animals.”