Au revoir Paris, Hola LA.
In a nutshell, that was the simply accomplished ceremony of the Video games of the XXXIII Olympiad.
It was Tom Cruise leaping off the rim of the Stade de France to take the Olympic flag from LA Mayor Karen Bass and Simone Biles. Because the guitar riffs of H.E.R. stuffed the air, Cruise then exited on a motorcycle to ship the flag to a sunny West Coast. It was the Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Olympic fixture Snoop Dogg moving into the groove down in Lengthy Seaside.
It wasn’t telling of the complete scope of Los Angeles, however it was pure Hollywood.
It was excessive and cliche stuffed – – as if something much less would have sufficed.
Subsequent to the artistry of Paris, it could have appeared so American. But, if the following Summer season Video games are in America, and within the house of Hollywood ..properly, as Jimmy Fallon close to screamed on NBC on Sunday: “that’s the way you do it!”
When Dr. Dre confirmed as much as reunite along with his long-time collaborator and Super Bowl LVI Halftime Present pal Snoop, it was pure LA Love, to paraphrase the N.W.A. vet’s 1994 ‘California Love’ hit with Tupac Shakur.
With all that pre-recorded star energy, the spectacle of the Paris portion of the three-hour closing ceremony merely dimmed. That was only a reality even with Gold medal swimmer Léon Marchand bringing a full circle conclusion to the occasion as he introduced the Olympic flame into the French stadium.
Sure, again in France, Phoenix confirmed up amidst a mosh pit of athletes on the Stade de France, Joined by Kavinsky and Angèle, the rock band gave us what can be a mini-Coachella throughout the Atlantic.
However it was no LA, the place actual Coachella headliners flexed for his or her hometown.
Because the efficiency parts of Paris’ farewell started, the glittery Golden Voyager and the return of the metallic horse rider and the mysterious hooded Murderer’s Creed character from the opening ceremony was overshadowed by strobe lights and the stadium broad story of the Olympics from antiquity to at the moment from wristbands among the many crowd. In brief, as the large rings had been raised, it was Cirque du Soleil meets Game of Thrones with extra dry ice {that a} Bjork live performance.
Performers through the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Video games Paris 2024
Very very like the opening ceremony, which was additionally the brainchild of inventive director Thomas Jolley, the overly conceptual French portion of the multi-segment closing ceremony stumbled as a small display occasion, even when it appeared spectacular within the stadium itself.
The primary Olympics to attain gender parity, at the moment’s closing ceremony to the 19-day occasion was a way more conventional affair than the disjointed July 26 extravaganza on the River Seine.
From the opening track by Zaho de Sagazan and Marchand starting his journey, transporting the Olympic flame again to the 70,000-packed stadium, all of the rumors and leaks had been targeted on the following video games and what would LA convey to its a part of the present on Sunday.
Attempting to maintain it up-close and private for viewers within the early portion of the closing ceremony, NBC’s fundamental Olympics man Mike Tirico and his newly minted co-host, Jimmy Fallon, pulled off a number of methods. Chatting reside with Workforce USA flagbearers and Gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead as they entered the stadium with the Parade of Athletes was actually a little bit of enjoyable. The medal ceremony for the Girls’s marathon runners and the athletes’ of Queen’s “We’re the Champions” had been each a pleasure to look at.
In any other case, over on NBC, it was primarily an inventory of stats, names and bullet factors about sustainability from the duo and commentators 1998 Olympic determine skating gold medalist Tara Lipinski, two-time Olympian determine skater Johnny Weir and Terry Gannon. Although the “God, the French are cool” comment as a piano vertically performed “The Hymn to Apollo” made one marvel if any of them had ever attended a Vegas residency.
Irritating nobody however the IOC, NBC minimize away from most of retiring Olympic boss Thomas Bach speech concerning the position the Video games play in making a tradition of peace speech. Whereas anticipated to be the final time we hear from Bach in his current capability, the remarks had been, just like the closing ceremony itself, pretty tame and boilerplate, all issues thought-about.
Coming off the re-normalization of the Olympics in Paris, the Metropolis of Angels and the Casey Wasserman-led Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee made certain to placed on a real Hollywood manufacturing. Earlier Sunday, Wasserman informed NBC’s Tirico that what he realized probably the most from Paris 2024 was “their willingness to essentially assume exterior the field.”
Honestly, there wasn’t a lot considering exterior the field with the LA portion of the closing ceremony, however there was a whole lot of what invented the field.
French singer-songwriter Yseult performs through the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games
Paris might have achieved it their manner, as Yseult sang the famed Sinatra tune based mostly on based mostly on the music of ‘Comme d’habitude’ on the very finish of at the moment’s occasion. LA clearly plans to go full bread and circuses in 2028 and provides the folks what they need.
