In an article published this Wednesday, Le Canard Enchaîné reveals that two artists would have been validated for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Does the President of the Republic have power over everything, down to the choice of artists who will perform at the opening of the Paris Olympic Games on July 26? After giving his blessing to Aya Nakamura and asking her to perform Edith Piaf during the ceremony as revealed by L’Express last March, it seems that another name is favored by the highest echelons of the State .
According to information from Le Canard Enchaîné, revealed in this Wednesday’s issue, Céline Dion would also be on the final list of artists expected to perform on the Seine next month. The palmipede claims that an envelope of 2.7 million euros would have been planned to pay the fees of “two top artists”, as it is included in a “reminder of the central hypotheses” internal to the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games said Cojo, dated April 26 and revealed by the satirical newspaper. An extension is reportedly being negotiated between the State and Cojo to cover this expense.
In addition to the name of Aya Nakamura, which was already circulating and would, according to Emmanuel Macron, “have her place in an opening or closing ceremony of the Games”, the rumor now evokes the Canadian diva Céline Dion, in convalescence and far away in the spotlight for more than two years and the revelation of his rare neurological disease, stiff person syndrome – or Stiff-Person syndrome in English. Will it make its comeback during the Paris Olympic Games? Doubt is more than permitted.
Only Emmanuel Macron and Thomas Jolly, conductor of the opening festivities of the Olympic Games, know the identity of these two artists. Two sources close to the matter interviewed by AFP, however, deny the fact that the head of state has control over such a choice, affirming that “it is Cojo who chooses the artists.”