July 26, 2024 22:28 | Updated: July 27, 2024 10:00
Members of the Orchestre National de France donned rain covers as they performed the Olympic Hymn at the Trocadero during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Photo: Getty
From the parade down the Seine to Bizet's “Carmen” and performances by celebrities like Lady Gaga, here's all the music played at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
Every four years, the eyes of the world come together in one place to celebrate the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in a spectacular ceremony where sport, history and culture come together, and music and art burn brightly like the iconic Olympic Torch.
Olympic organizers are promising a “bold, original and unique” opening ceremony that will combine some of the most memorable moments in Olympic history, and as with many past opening ceremonies, music will play a key role.
Lang Lang, the London Symphony Orchestra, pianist Hiromi and Sir Simon Rattle have all performed at recent Olympic ceremonies, but who will take centre stage in 2024?
Read more: Soaked orchestra plays 'Olympic Hymn' under rain cover at Opening Ceremony
Lang Lang and his wife Gina Alice Redlinger on the red carpet at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Photo: Getty
Where will the Opening Ceremony take place?
For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics, the Opening Ceremony will not take place in a stadium. For Paris 2024, the all-important opening ceremony will be broadcast live from the city's most iconic artery: the Seine.
On Friday evening, each nation's athletes paraded aboard boats along a 3.7-mile stretch of the river, weaving their way past the city's landmarks.
The parade began at 7:30pm local time. Throughout the night, there were performances and festivities along the river.
What music and performers will there be at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony?
The ceremony began with a funny mix-up as the Olympic torch was carried into the iconic Stade de France, followed by the national anthem being played by a solo flute rather than a rapturous chorus.
Atmospheric music then traveled through the sewers and basements of Paris with the flames, before Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera blared from an organ.
After this moment, as the torch was revealed to hundreds of thousands of people lining the Seine, the event's musical director, Victor Le Mans, sounded like he was steeped in a love of atmospheric synthpop.
Dvorak on synthesizers was played to welcome the boat carrying the refugee athletes, and his Symphony No. 9 echoed throughout the ship.
Pop icon Lady Gaga then took to the banks of the Seine for a passionate tribute to Parisian jazz, playing the piano and singing Zizi Jeanmaire's “Mon Truc en Plumes.”
Accordionist Félicien Brut provided music for the river parade.
Read more: When Lang Lang played piano for 2 billion at the Beijing Opening Ceremony
Lady Gaga performs at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Photo: Getty
Soon after, a synth version of Offenbach's “Can-Can” played, launching into a dance-centric sequence featuring ballet dancers, including Paris Ballet principal Guillaume Diop.
A subsequent scene featured Notre Dame Cathedral and was reminiscent of the music from Claude-Michel Schoenberg's Les Miserables.
Music from Bizet's “Carmen” followed, with mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti singing the composer's famous “Habañera.”
Le Pont des Arts featured performances by the Men's Choir and the Republican Guard Orchestra, a spectacular fireworks display and a performance by Malian-French singer-songwriter Nakamura Aya.
Camille Saint-Saëns's “Les Éclat des Danses” and Debussy's evocative “Preludes Pastorales” accompanied the parade down the Seine, after which pianist Alexander Kantorow performed Ravel's “Je d'eau,” or “Water Games,” appropriate for a rainy Parisian evening.
Pianist Alexander Kantorov performs Ravel's “Jeux d'eau.” Photo: Getty
They heard Ravel's String Quartet in F Major, followed by Satie's meditative piano solo Gymnopédie No. 1. Afterwards, Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice was played as masked torchbearers sprinted across the rooftops of the French capital towards the Musée d'Orsay.
Soprano Axelle Saint-Cyril delivered a powerful rendition of the French national anthem from the rooftop of the Grand Palais.
Polish opera star Jakub Józef Orliński combined his two passions, Baroque music and breakdancing, in a moving performance of Rameau's “Chorée, Hymen.”
Pianist and singer duo Juliette Armanet and Sofiane Pamaat performed John Lennon's “Imagine” in front of a burning piano on a drifting raft.
Next, we heard the Chorus of Radio France and the Orchestre National de France perform the Olympic Hymn, a moving choral cantata composed by Greek opera composer Spyridon Samaras and set to words by Greek poet Costis Palamas. Orchestra members wore rain covers while performing at the Trocadero.
Organ music played, building momentum and anticipation as the torchbearers approached the Louvre and made their way through the Tuileries Gardens.
A seven-metre ring of fire and its attached hot air balloon rose dramatically into the sky as Edith Piaf's “Hymne à l'amour” blared. Accompanied by a full orchestra and choir, Canadian superstar singer Celine Dion delivered an epic ode to love in her first onstage performance since announcing her diagnosis with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022.
Piaf wrote this beloved song for the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash less than a month after the song was first performed.
Celine Dion performed at the Eiffel Tower at the end of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Photo: Getty
Who will be the musical director for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games?
French composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Victor Le Mans is the musical director for the Olympics. Le Mans is also part of the popular French synth-pop duo Housse de Racket. He is responsible for the music of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In total, 600 musicians will be involved.
At the end of the Tokyo Olympics, when the precious Olympic flame was handed over to Paris, Victor Le Mans was tasked with composing a new version of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” The last time an official arrangement was commissioned was in 1830, when the task fell to none other than Hector Berlioz.
“It's just so, so amazing to think that my new orchestrations, my new harmonies, are going to be heard all over the place this summer,” Le Mans told The Telegraph in an interview. “I can't believe I'm one of the next.”
He wouldn't reveal anything about the music that will be on offer, but said, “It was really important to us to incorporate a variety of styles, so you can expect anything.”
Victor Le Mans, French musician and composer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: Getty
What classical artists will take part in the Paris 2024 festival?
Pianist Lang Lang, French violinist Renaud Capuçon and his cellist brother Gautier Capuçon have been helping with Olympic torch carrying duties in recent weeks.
The Chinese pianist, who spends a lot of time in Paris, was clearly enjoying the build-up to the main event.