23h45 : After a concert in Los Angeles with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg, Thomas Bach declared the Paris Olympics closed. Yseult then sang “My Way” by Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra, in English, and then an impressive fireworks display exploded over the Stade France.
23h30 : The Olympic flag is handed over to the mayor of Los Angeles. Singer and guitarist HER performs the American anthem before the notes of “Mission: Impossible” ring out… And Tom Cruise appears and rappels down the Stade de France before leaving for Los Angeles by motorbike and then by plane.
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23h15 : Cojo President Tony Estanguet takes the floor to thank the athletes, volunteers and supporters.
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22h45 : Phoenix and Kavinsky play in the middle of the Stade de France. Kavinsky performs Night Call from the film Drive, with Belgian singer Angèle. Air then performs “Playground Lover”, before Phoenix resumes his show.
22h30 : The Apollo Hymn is performed by Alain Roche, seated at a piano suspended vertically in the air. Thomas Jolly wanted to associate the French pianist with the
French-Swiss opera singer Benjamin Bernheim. The Hymn of Apollo, the oldest hymn of ancient Greece discovered in the heart of the ruins of Delphi, was performed
for the first time on June 16, 1894 at the International Congress in Paris for the reestablishment of the Olympic Games.
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22h15 : The Records show begins: “emerging from the sky, the Golden Voyager lands before our eyes to epic music by Clément Mirguet. The latter takes us in the footsteps of this traveler, on a dreamlike quest to the foundations of humanity.” The Golden Voyager is played by Arthur Cadre in an original costume created by Kevin Germanier.
22h10 : After a short clip on the marathon for all, in the streets of Paris, the ceremony continues with the presentation of the newly elected members of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. They pay tribute to the volunteers. Through their energy, commitment and good humour, the 45,000 volunteers of the Paris 2024 Games have contributed
to the success of the event.
22h: Dutch Sifan Hassan, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa and Kenyan Hellen Obiri stand on the podium in the women’s marathon. Thomas Bach, the IOC president who will step down in 2025, and Serguei Bubka present them with the medals.
21:50: The Stade de France becomes a giant karaoke where people sing Joe Dassin and the famous Freed for Desire.
21h30 : The flag bearers of each of the 205 participating Olympic delegations enter the Stade de France. They parade on the stage which symbolically represents a planisphere. The French flag bearers are Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Antoine Dupont.
9:15 p.m.: La Marseillaise is performed by the Maîtrise de Fontainebleau accompanied by the Orchestre Divertimento, conducted by conductor Zahia Ziouani.
21h: The ceremony begins in the Tuileries Garden, near the Olympic cauldron. Zaho de Sagazan sings Under the Sky of Paris with the Handel-Hendrix Academy Choir,
Coming from the Louvre, Léon Marchand grabs the lantern where the Olympic Flame is burning. He sets off to reach the Stade de France.
Léon Marchand carries the Olympic flame. © DR
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Records is the name of the show imagined by Thomas Jolly and his teams for the closing which will take place not in Paris intramural but at the Stade France, in Saint-Denis, on a 2,800 m2 stage, from “On August 11, the Stade de France will be transformed into a gigantic performance hall. With more than a hundred performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists, this visual spectacle will bear the signature of artistic director Thomas Jolly.
An original soundtrack, new reinterpretations, musical performances and the participation of world-renowned singers will complete the picture. Part of the show will take place in the air while the giant sets, costumes and spectacular lighting effects will project the spectators into a journey through time, both the past and the future. », promises the Cojo directed by Tony Estanguet.
The poster for “Records”, the show by Thomas Jolly. © Paris 2024
Paris 2024: The most beautiful photos of a magnificent opening ceremony
The ambition of the artistic director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies is to remind us how “the Olympic Games are precious, a unique monument of sharing and therefore fragile.”
“So I imagined a show where, once again, the Olympic Games would disappear and someone would come and found them. It’s a very visual, very choreographic, very acrobatic show with an operatic dimension to give a great visual fresco and say goodbye to athletes from all over the world,” explains Thomas Jolly in the same press release, who was accompanied in this task by the same team as for the opening ceremony, including Maud Le Pladec (Dance Director), Victor le Masne (Composer and Musical Director) and Daphné Bürki (Costume Design Director).
