And suddenly, after nearly four hours of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, silence falls on the American channel NBCFriday July 26, interrupted by stifled sobs. Celine Dion has just finished The Hymn to Love of Edith Piaf, perched on the Eiffel Tower, and the singer Kelly Clarkson – who is commentating on the show for the historic broadcaster of the Olympic Games in the United States – lost her voice, overwhelmed by emotion.
For American television commentators, the ceremony was ” extraordinary “and this is a feeling that is generally shared in the international media. THE Los Angeles Timeswho was particularly scrutinizing the event, while the city is due to host the 2028 Games, can only note that France has set the bar very high. At the highest, even: “Paris 2024 has begun and the French – the people who produce the world’s most delicious cheese, the finest haute couture and countless other exquisite creations – have staged what has surely been the most unique Opening Ceremony in Olympic history.”
The columnists of the Californian daily responsible for following the ceremony live are amazed by a performance “very French” (“very French”) : “A fashion show in the middle of an opening ceremony! With the Eiffel Tower not yet lit up in the background. A bit “campy”, super-chic and very French”, “I can’t be sure, but I think it’s the first ménage-à-trois to appear at an opening ceremony. Very French.” Rare little swipe at the inclement climate: “This event has a budget of $150 million, which is a lot of money, but apparently not enough to avoid condensation on the camera lenses.”
“Audacity” and “genius”
There is no shortage of superlatives. “Paris is magical, enchanting, Olympic. This Friday evening, the exceptional setting of the Seine and its goldsmith quays was the scene of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games. An unprecedented first outside a sports arena. Or when the audacity and genius of our neighbors manage to take the biggest event in the world to the next stadium.”, judge The Geneva Tribune. “One thing is certain: this show will go down in history”, summarizes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. For the Washington Post, Paris “demonstrated that bold thinking can restore some lustre to a global sporting event that has seen its popularity plummet in recent years”.
And yet, “It was all about determination in the face of adversity”summary The Guardian. The rain forced “the organizers have to revise downwards certain games” a spectacle, explains the Financial Timeswhich also evokes “the shadow cast” by the sabotage of railway lines earlier in the day, when the New York Timeshe reminds his readers “the ongoing political crisis” In France.
But “Although the rain played spoilsport – to the point that some spectators quickly left their seats – it did not manage to spoil a moment that the organizers had announced as grandiose”, assure The weatherin Geneva. And THE Los Angeles Times must recognize it : “It seemed that nothing – not even a heavy summer rain – could stop the 2024 Paris Olympics from hosting one of the most spectacular opening ceremonies of all time.”
It was spectacular and filled with “memorable and kitsch moments”, for the Financial Times : “A hooded figure leaping across the zinc rooftops of Paris, drag queens dancing to electro, members of the French Revolution being beheaded to heavy metal, and a silver horse with an armored rider gliding across the Seine.” “A queer Paris festival that looks fabulous in the rain”, summarizes the New York Times : “ [Lady] Gaga and Celine [Dion]Eurodisco dancers, drag queens installed like the apostles of the Last Supper, the banks of the Seine covered in pink and a ménage-à-trois strolling through the National Library.
“A message of universalism and tolerance”
THE Financial Times retains that, in any case, “Far-right politicians had denounced the ceremony before it even began. [Mais] she clearly expressed what kind of France [le pays] believes. » For The Countrythe ceremony thus sent “to the world a message of universalism, tolerance and also modesty”while France is “exhausted by years of attacks and divisions and that it has just experienced an election that the extreme right could have won.”
Among the controversies that preceded the ceremony, that over the presence of the singer Aya Nakamura, of which The Geneva Tribune salutes the performance : “Stronger than venom, she shone for a few moments. Her hits, tied to the classics of Charles Aznavour, slid like the waters of the Seine, with the final support of the Republican Guard in front of the French Academy. A quartet of a France with many facets, much more than tricolor. A country fractured by months of political friction that was reconciled for four hours.”
On the ground, if the difficulties of access are highlighted by the Brazilians ofThe Globe – “The public had difficulty understanding how far he could go”, THE Washington Post estimated that with this ceremony in the heart of Paris, “The city is the Olympics and the Olympics are the city. There is no longer any separation between the two, despite all the barriers: the gates, the fences, the bollards, the closures, the processions, the river itself – a barricaded metropolis that nevertheless breathes, waving the tricolour flag of sport, profit and patriotism.”. Before concluding : “Freedom, equality, humidity.”