Céline Dion’s return and plenty of French flair

The City of Lights shone brightly on Friday Olympic officials He pulled it off. Ambitious opening ceremony It stretches from the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

This ceremony, 2024 Paris Olympicswas an immersive cultural tour that highlighted France’s significant contribution to the arts, from Monet to “Les Miserables.”

It was a star-studded journey through Paris’ most iconic sites, featuring Olympic and pop culture royalty including Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.

Here are some of the biggest highlights from the night.

Stream every moment and medal from the Paris 2024 Olympics on Peacock

For the first time, athletes from all over the world made a spectacular entrance into the Olympic Games on boats.Aorta“The Seine in Paris.”

Greece was the first delegation, with NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo carrying the flag. The country has traditionally led the parade to commemorate the Olympic Games’ origins in Ancient Greece 3,000 years ago.

The U.S. team’s boat, carrying flag-bearer Coco Gauff and LeBron James, was the penultimate boat to enter view at the opening ceremony, symbolizing the nation’s placement in the next Olympic cycle when the U.S. hosts the games in Los Angeles in 2028.

As the host country, France had the honor of closing out the 2024 parade.

Lady Gaga is The first surprise performer at the Opening CeremonyShe sang Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc En Plumes” (“My Thoughts on a Feather”) along the Seine.

Wrapped in pink feathers, Gaga recreated a performance of Jeanmaire’s song. The Ed Sullivan Show. After descending the stairs, she kicked off Chorus Line and played piano.

“Though I am not a French artist, I have always felt a special connection to French people and singing French music. I wanted to create a performance that would warm the French heart, celebrate French art and music and remind everyone of Paris, one of the most magical cities on Earth, on such a monumental occasion,” she wrote. Instagram post.

During the ceremony, a mysterious hooded and masked figure carried the torch, ziplining from rooftop to rooftop and along the Seine River.

The statue toured the Louvre, the world’s largest art museum, which also houses the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa.

Many of the torchbearers whose identities were not revealed Online Memes It has been compared to “Assassin’s Creed” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” User X joked“This is the longest episode of The Masked Singer ever,” one person said, while another lamented not knowing who was under the mask.

French mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cyril sang the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” from the rooftop of the Grand Palais. Statues of outstanding women in French history were displayed along the Seine.

The ceremony also featured a French version of “Can You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical “Les Miserables,” a metal performance featuring headless women dressed in red reminiscent of Marie Antoinette, and people dancing the cancan.

At one point, the camera shows a trio of performers taking viewers on a journey from a library to a bedroom, paying homage to Paris’ image as a city of love for all people, including the LGBTQ community.

Before arriving at the cauldron, the Olympic flame was passed from soccer star Zinedine Zidane to tennis legends Nadal and Williams, track and field hero Lewis and “perfect 10” gymnast Nadia Comaneci.

At the end of the ceremony, 24 Olympic and Paralympic legends lit the cauldron in the Tuileries Garden.

Among them was the oldest living French Olympic medalist, 100-year-old Charles Coste, who was born in 1924, the last year France hosted the Olympics, and won gold in the team pursuit at the 1948 London Olympics.

This year’s cauldron broke with tradition and was launched in a hot air balloon, paying homage to the first hydrogen-powered balloon, which first flew from the Tuileries Palace in 1783.

Perhaps the most moving surprise of the night came at the end, when Dion performed a moving rendition of French singer Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

This was Dion’s first public performance since announcing her diagnosis. Stiff-person syndrome Rumours of Dion and Lady Gaga performing together in 2022 had been circulating online after the music moguls were spotted together. This week in Paris.

Dion is French-Canadian and most of her 27 albums are in French. She also opened the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with a rendition of “The Power of the Dream.”

“She’s a vocal athlete. She’s amazing,” host Kelly Clarkson told NBC as she fought back tears. “She’s a gold medal-caliber vocal athlete.”