French president Emmanuel Macron rocked out to death metal in his garden after losing a YouTube bet

It would appear that heavy metal is back in fashion and even French president Emmanuel Macron is in the mosh pit.

At the weekend, Italian heavy rock outfit Maneskin triumphed at the Eurovision Song Contest with Finland’s own metal act Blind Channel finishing sixth at the competition in Rotterdam. Elsewhere on the continent, Macron was enjoying a performance from death metal band Ultra Vomit (yes, that’s their real name) in his own back garden.

This all came about earlier this year when Macron challenged the popular French YouTubers McFly and Carlito to make a video promoting social distancing measures. If they were able to garner more than 10 million views, then Macron would invite the pair to the Elysee presidential palace where they could film their next video.

Their social distancing video was a massive hit and at the time of writing has been viewed more than 15 million times. So Macron stayed true to his word and the pair had a private visit to the presidential palace at the weekend which they documented in a 36-minute video.

The majority of the video is the pair exchanging stories but, around the 30-minute mark, the trio take a walk around the palace gardens and notice that a stage had been set up for Ultra Vomit, apparently without any prior knowledge from Macron.

Macron greets the group and sits down with Carlito and McFly to watch the metal band run through their own unique interpretation of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, and a cover of the French lullaby A Green Mouse.

It’s fair to say that McFly and Carlito enjoyed the gig a lot and were jumping around and throwing devil horns in the true spirit of the occasion. Macron, on the other hand, looked slightly bemused – but at least had a smile on his face.

Fair play to him. Can you imagine Boris Johnson sitting down to watch a gig from say Cradle of Filth?