The City of Lights shone Friday after Olympic officials staged an ambitious opening ceremony that stretched from the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.
The ceremony, which marked the official kick-off of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was an immersive cultural tour, highlighting France’s vast contribution to the arts, from Monet to Les Misérables.
It was a star-studded journey through Paris’ most iconic sites, with appearances from Olympic royalty and pop culture figures including Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.
Here are some of the highlights of the evening.
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The Parade of Nations on the Seine
For the first time, athletes from all over the world made their solemn entrance to the Olympic Games by boat. Each national delegation sailed on the “main artery” of Paris, the Seine.
Greece was the first delegation to carry the flag, with NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo as its standard-bearer. The country traditionally leads the parade, in homage to the Olympics’ origins in ancient Greece 3,000 years ago.
The U.S. team boat, which included flag bearers Coco Gauff and LeBron James, was the penultimate boat to sail at the opening ceremony. The country’s position symbolizes the next Olympic cycle, when the United States 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 Feathery Performance
Lady Gaga was the first surprise artist at the opening ceremony, performing Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc En Plumes” on the banks of the Seine.
Wrapped in pink feathers, Gaga recreated Jeanmaire’s performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. After descending the stairs, she kicked her feet to a chorus line and played the piano.
“Although I am not a French artist, I have always felt a very special connection with the French people and with the singing of French music. I wanted nothing more than to create a performance that would warm the hearts of France, celebrate French art and music, and on such a momentous occasion, remind everyone of one of the most magical cities on the planet: Paris,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
Mysterious Masked Torchbearer Captivates Internet
Throughout the ceremony, a mysterious masked and hooded figure zipped from rooftop to rooftop and along the Seine as a torchbearer.
The figure made its way through the world’s largest museum, the Louvre, which houses the “Venus de Milo” and the “Mona Lisa.”
The torchbearer, whose identity has never been revealed, has inspired a series of online memes and comparisons to “Assassin’s Creed” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” One X user joked, “This is the longest episode of The Masked Singer ever,” and others lamented that they never learned who was behind the mask.
A tribute to French culture
French mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel enthusiastically sang the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” from the roof of the Grand Palais. Statues of women from French history who accomplished remarkable feats were displayed along the Seine.
Also on the program for the ceremony: a French rendition of “Can You Hear the People Sing” from the musical “Les Misérables”; a metal performance featuring a number of headless women dressed in red (in homage to Marie Antoinette); and people performing 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 reaching the cauldron, the Olympic torch was passed by football star Zinedine Zidane to tennis legends Nadal and Williams, athletics hero Lewis and “Perfect 10” gymnast Nadia Comăneci.
Twenty-four Olympic and Paralympic legends lit the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries Gardens at the end of the ceremony.
Among them, Charles Coste, 100, is the oldest living French Olympic medalist. He was born in 1924, the last time the Games were held in France. Coste won gold in the team pursuit at the 1948 London Olympics.
This year, the cauldron departed from tradition by taking flight in a hot air balloon, a nod to the first hydrogen balloon, which first took off from the Tuileries in 1783.
Dion’s return to the stage
Perhaps the most emotional surprise of the evening came at the end, when Celine Dion performed a moving rendition of French singer Édith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
It was Dion’s first performance since announcing 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.
Celine Dion is of French-Canadian descent and most of her 27 albums are 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 said through tears on the NBC show. “She’s a gold medal vocal athlete.”