French Singer Gims Denied Citizenship Over Moroccan Residency

The performer of "The price to pay" intends to file a new application for French nationality. "I will reapply for nationality. I am a very patient person, not the kind to give up," he said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche. Gims (Gandhi Djuna in civil status) was born in Kinshasa (then in Zaire, now in the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1986. Two years later, his parents emigrated with him to France where he grew up.

In 2013, Gims filed his first naturalization application, but he was denied French nationality in 2017. According to the Congolese singer-songwriter and rapper, this refusal "is related to an offense" he would have committed as a minor. "But my criminal record is clean," he assures. However, Le Parisien presents another version by publishing an investigation into the "hidden side". Interviewed by the newspaper, "a former Minister of the Interior" explains that the refusal is due to "unpaid fines for traffic offenses and his inability to establish the center of his material interests in France". The performer of "I’m leaving" resides a good part of the year in Marrakech (Morocco).

Gims regrets not having obtained French nationality so far. Not being French, "it’s one of my biggest regrets. All my memories are in France [...] When I travel to Qatar, the United States... I introduce myself as a French artist. Not Congolese," he explains.