The City of Light shined bright on Friday after Olympics officials pulled off an ambitious opening ceremony that spanned from the Seine River to the Eiffel Tower.
The ceremony, which marked the official kickoff to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, was an immersive cultural tour, highlighting the expansive French contribution to the arts, from Monet to “Les Misérables.”
It was a star-studded journey through Paris’ most iconic sites, featuring appearances from Olympic and pop culture royalty, including Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, Lady Gaga and Céline Dion.
Here are some of the night’s biggest highlights.
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The Parade of Nations on the Seine River
For the first time, athletes from around the world made their grand entrance to the Olympic Games via boat. Each national delegation sailed down the “main artery“ of Paris, the Seine River.
Greece was the first delegation, with NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo carrying the flag. The country has been the traditional leader of the parade, in honor of the origins of the Olympics in Ancient Greece 3,000 years ago.
Team USA’s boat, which included flag bearers Coco Gauff and LeBron James, was the penultimate vessel to sail into view in the opening ceremony. The country’s placement symbolizes the next Olympic cycle, when the U.S. will host the Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
France, as the host country, had the honor of closing the 2024 parade.
Lady Gaga’s French and feather-filled performance
Lady Gaga was the first surprise performer of the opening ceremony, singing a Seine-side rendition of Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc En Plumes,” which translates to “My thing with feathers.”
Enveloped in pink feathers, Gaga recreated Jeanmaire’s performance of the song on the Ed Sullivan Show. After descending the stairs, she kicked on a chorus line and played on a piano.
“Although I am not a French artist, I have always felt a very special connection with French people and singing French music — I wanted nothing more than to create a performance that would warm the heart of France, celebrate French art and music, and on such a momentous occasion remind everyone of one of the most magical cities on earth — Paris,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
Mysterious masked torchbearer captivates the internet
Throughout the ceremony, a mysterious hooded and masked figure whizzed across a zip line from rooftop to rooftop, and along the Seine, as the torchbearer.
The figure made their way through the largest museum in the world, the Louvre, home to the “Venus de Milo” and the “Mona Lisa.”
The torchbearer, whose identity was never revealed, inspired a slew of online memes and comparison’s to “Assassin’s Creed” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” One user on X joked, “This is the longest episode of the masked singer ever” and some lamented never learning who was behind the mask.
A tribute to French culture
French mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel sang a rousing rendition of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” from the roof of the Grand-Palais. Statues representing women in French history who had remarkable accomplishments were showcased along the Seine.
Also during the ceremony: A performance of the French rendition of “Can You Hear the People Sing” from the musical “Les Misérables”; a metal performance that showed a number of headless women dressed in red — a callout to Marie Antionette; and people doing the cancan.
At one point, a trio of performers were shown on camera taking viewers on a journey from the library to the bedroom, nodding to Paris’ image as a city of love for all, including the LGBTQ community.
French Olympians pass the torch
Before arriving at the cauldron, the Olympic torch was passed from soccer star Zinedine Zidane to tennis legends Nadal and Williams, track hero Lewis and “Perfect 10” gymnast, Nadia Comăneci.
Twenty-four Olympic and Paralympic legends lit the Olympic cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries at the conclusion of the ceremony.
Among them was Charles Coste, 100, who is the oldest living French Olympic medalist. He was born in 1924 — the last time the Games took place in France. Coste won gold in team pursuit cycling at the 1948 London Olympics.
The cauldron diverged from tradition this year, taking flight in a hot-air balloon, a nod to the first hydrogen-powered balloon, which first soared from the Tuileries in 1783.
Dion’s return to the stage
Perhaps the most moving surprise of the night came at the end, when Dion sang a stirring rendition of “Hymne à l’amour” or “Hymn to Love,” by the French singer Édith Piaf at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
It was Dion’s first performance since she announced her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome in 2022. Rumors of Dion and Lady Gaga’s performances had circulated online after the musical powerhouses were spotted in Paris this week.
Dion is French-Canadian and much of her 27-album discography is sung in French. She also kicked off the 1996 games in Atlanta by singing “The Power of the Dream.”
“She’s a vocal athlete, she’s incredible,” host Kelly Clarkson, struggling through tears, said on the NBC broadcast. “She is a gold medal vocal athlete.”
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