Celine Dion did indeed sing at the top of the Eiffel Tower this Friday, at the very end of a grandiose Olympic opening ceremony. Relive the Hymn to Love in video.
Celine Dion will have indeed sung. At the end of a long and moving opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris this Friday evening, the Quebec diva appeared at the top of the Eiffel Tower from where she performed Hymn to Love byEdith Piaf. The grand finale of a show that saw thousands of athletes parade on numerous boats on the Seine (and in the rain) and an incalculable number of spectacular scenographies before the protocol. This ended with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec, as a duo, surrounded by a dozen French athletes and Paralympic athletes, at the Jardin des Tuileries. The cauldron took off from a hot air balloon and will remain suspended above the capital for the entire Olympic fortnight.
It was at this superb moment, overlooking the capital, that Céline Dion appeared, at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Her first public performance since her serious health problems in 2020. Previously, Lady Gaga, in a black bustier and pink feathers, had sung Mon truc en plumes, an emblematic title of the French music hall, at the start of the ceremony. Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world, followed her, dressed all in gold feathers, for a medley of her hits Pookie and Djadja and a standard by Charles Aznavour, For me Formidable. When night fell, the French singer Juliette Armanet took over with Imagine by John Lennon, sung on the Seine on a barge, accompanied by Sofiane Pamart on a burning piano.
Other highlights: Gojira, a French metal band with an international aura, teamed up with the Franco-Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti to perform Ah! Ca ira, a French revolutionary song, also featuring a Marie-Antoinette with her head cut off. Artistic director Thomas Jolly had promised tableaux that tell the story of a country rich in its “diversity”, “inclusive”, “not one France but several Frances”, celebrating “the whole world united”.