The Paris Olympics held their opening ceremony on Friday, to mostly rave reviews. Even French people were like “WTF” at some parts of it, so you can imagine what Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning – NBC’s special Olympic commentators – had to say about it. I will say this, it was a great idea to have Kelly doing the opening ceremony because she was nerding out about all of the music. Kelly was such a cheerleader for Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and the French musical acts who were featured in the very long-winded and rain-soaked ceremony.
For the Americans (I think these videos are geoblocked), you can see Celine Dion’s performance on the Eiffel Tower here, and you can see Lady Gaga’s performance here (NBC is blocking the videos from being embedded too). Celine overcame significant health issues to be able to perform at the Olympics, and almost everyone who watched that was moved to tears. Her performance of Édith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour” was so special. The French fans and all of the tourists in Paris have been giving Celine flowers and just showering her with love all week.
One of the craziest moments – and something which is still being discussed – is the whole “singing beheaded Marie Antoinette” thing. They really did that. Not only that, they had the “Marie Antoinette” thing staged at the Conciergerie, the real prison where she was held before she was beheaded. Apparently, Republicans are trying to turn “Marie Antoinette being sent to the guillotine” into some kind of culture war in 2024. They’re all online, calling it disrespectful to Christians? Hm. People might need to step back and think about all of this.
Give the singing beheaded Marie Antoinette all the medals #Olympics #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/4LAtKRsAaa
— SHANE REACTION (@imshanereaction) July 26, 2024
Personally, my favorite moments of the rainy opening ceremony were all of the parts using real Olympians. I loved that Rafael Nadal – a 14-time French Open champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and undisputed king of clay – got to carry the torch in some of the final moments on stage. I loved the boat ride with Rafa, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci. I loved seeing Zinedine Zidane, one of the most attractive Frenchmen ever, of all time. Honestly, there were so many cool parts of the opening ceremony.
Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comǎneci all helped carry the Olympic torch in Paris #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/paGVugjMQh
— ESPN (@espn) July 26, 2024
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) July 26, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.