During an interview with the Legend podcast, the singer confirmed that the former Al-Qaida leader had audio cassettes of his songs in his hideout in Afghanistan.
There are fans that we'd like to do without better. French singer Enrico Macias told the Legend podcast, hosted by Guillaume Pley on August 17, that former Al-Qaida leader Bin Laden owned audio tapes of his songs in his hideout in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They were found after his death in Pakistan in 2011.

It was a BBC journalist who learned the news from the singer a few years ago. "I didn't believe it at first, I thought it was a gag," says the interpreter of the Girls of my country in the podcast. Alongside these famous cassettes were, among others (and still astonishing) Gandhi's speechesGandhi.

"It is not a great honour for me to have a fan like Bin Laden. Because I'm not a fan of him," says Enrico Macias.

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Already, in 2015, Enrico Macias described his "tang" and his "surprise" on this subject on Franceinfo. Besides, he didn't really want to believe this information. "The man responsible for the September 11 attacks who listens to the one who sings Children of all countries would be weird," he observed at the time.

He added: "Among the rules put in place by Osama bin Laden, it was forbidden to listen to music, so I would be surprised if he had my CDs." But "if it is, my songs did not prevent him from committing atrocities".

"A heresy"​

For his part, Flagg Miller, the expert in Arabic literature and culture who listened to the 1,500 cassettes found in Osama bin Laden's hideout, analyzed in an article published on the BBC: "I believe that this collection of French songs reveals how much the Arab-Afghans of Kandahar spoke of foreign languages and had had experiences abroad. These songs suggest that someone, at some point in his life, enjoyed the titles of this Jewish foot-black (Enrico Macias) and would have continued to appreciate them while (...) listening to them could be considered a heresy".