French bands Phoenix and Air confirmed for closing ceremony

While the Olympic opening ceremony brought together two North American superstars, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, the closing event will feature two iconic French acts, Phoenix and Air, the event’s executive director Thierry Reboul confirmed. Diversity in the interview.

Reboul, who produced the hit, controversial opening show on the Seine and recently filed a police complaint after receiving death threats, is currently in the final stages of preparations for the closing event with artistic director Thomas Jolly.

“From the beginning, we tried to promote French talent, even when we had international stars (Celine Dion and Lady Gaga); we always promoted a French artist,” Reboul said. “We always had in mind to draw attention to our country, of course.” Gaga, who had to pre-record her performance in anticipation of torrential rain, did indeed sing in French and paid homage to Zizi Jeanmaire’s cabaret-inspired “Mon Truc en Plumes,” while Dion made an emotional return to the stage with Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour.”

Air and Phoenix emerged from the French Touch wave of the mid-90s, taking global popular culture by storm with their original blend of electro, dance, jazz and rock rhythms. While the French Touch movement fizzled out in the late 2000s, Air and Phoenix are still celebrated around the world, alongside one of their most famous contemporaries, Daft Punk.

“Today, when we look at the history of music, it was certainly the French style of music and the artists behind it that had the greatest resonance in the world. So it was important for us to acknowledge that,” Reboul said. In addition to Gaga and Dion, the opening ceremony also featured French musicians, including metal band Gojira — who performed the classic French song “Ah! Ca Ira” alongside a beheaded Marie Antoinette — and Aya Nakamura, a French R&B singer from Mali, who sang her two biggest hits, “Pookie” and “Djadja,” whose lyrics were interwoven with Aznavour’s “Ma Boheme” and “For Me Formidable.”

Air, founded by Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, has released six albums and two million-selling soundtracks. Godin also composed the music for “Fire of Love,” an Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Sara Dosa about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, released in 2022.

Phoenix is ​​an alternative rock band formed in 1995 by frontman Thomas Mars. The band’s seventh album, Alpha Zulu, was released in 2022. Mars is also married to Sofia Coppola and has collaborated with the filmmaker numerous times, including on the soundtrack to her Apple film “On the Rocks.”

Reboul declined to comment on reports of Tom Cruise stunts and rumors of Taylor Swift or Beyoncé attending the closing ceremony, but said Diversity that the segment, produced by the Los Angeles organizing committee, will last 10 to 15 minutes and will include live broadcast elements.

“As is tradition, Los Angeles did a sort of 10- to 15-minute teaser dedicated to them to show what their Olympics would look like — and they had complete freedom to create their segment,” Reboul said. “It’s going to have a lot of stuff. We’re responsible for producing some of the stuff for them, but they’re 100% responsible for it,” he continued. As for Gaga and Dion’s participation, which was kept under wraps, the lineup for the Los Angeles ceremony segment is ultra-secret. Reboul is one of the few people on the Paris 2024 committee who knows the lineup.

Although some French media predicted that Beyoncé would headline the closing ceremony, some staff at the Paris committee reported that Diversity that they are banking on Swift, based on her social media activity and the fact that she is taking a break from her Eras Tour schedule. However, recent news of Swift canceling three shows in Vienna due to a foiled ISIS-linked terror attack would likely complicate potential plans for the Olympic closing ceremony. Swift is scheduled to perform at Wembley Stadium in London for five more shows, from Aug. 15 to 20.

Asked about measures to strengthen security at the closing ceremony following the thwarted attack in Vienna, a representative of the Paris 2024 organising committee said: Diversity that the protocol for these Olympic Games, including the closing ceremony at the Stade de France, “is already at the highest level.”

Reboul confirmed that he and the other organizers have spent an “incalculable” amount of time preparing a tight security plan for the ceremonies. “Security is handled directly by the government, but we have a very good cooperation with them and so far we cannot deny that it has been a success. We are not yet at the finish line, but so far we have not had any obstacles in terms of security,” he said, adding that the venue being set inside the Stade de France rather than along the Seine makes the process “less complicated.”

France has ramped up security to its highest level following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 and the deadly attack on a Russian concert hall in March, which was claimed by ISIS. Referring to the dangerous messages he and Jolly received, Reboul said they contained “all kinds of threats”. “In these types of cases, there are a number of threats that should not exist and I think they are of relative importance, but we have taken all the necessary steps,” he said. The crime unit opened an investigation last weekend.

While preparing for the closing event at the Stade de France is less complicated in terms of security and logistics, Reboul said, it does pose a number of challenges because the sporting events will finish the night before, at around 2am on Saturday.

“We have about 10 to 12 hours to build the whole set and do the rehearsals on site because it can’t be done in advance and you have to be ready at the end of the day, so it’s a race against time,” he said.

The executive director also said Jolly is preparing a show that will use elements of “science fiction” and “dystopia” to highlight the need to protect the Olympic Games and our world.

“There will be a science fiction dimension to his show to raise awareness of the fact that our world is fragile and we need to protect our values,” he said. Reboul did not say whether he thought Jolly’s closing show could be subversive. “If we are accused of being political just because we talk about peace and the need for greater harmony in humanity, I don’t know what to do,” he said, adding that the vast majority of people in France and abroad praised the opening ceremony. Reboul also confirmed Jolly’s claim that the drag queens’ opening-ceremony performance was never intended to mock Leonardo da Vinci’s religious painting “The Last Supper” — rather, it was an homage to Greek mythology.

More Greek gods will be in attendance at the closing ceremony, which was previously announced will mark milestones in Olympic history dating back to ancient Greece. After the closing ceremony, Reboul and Jolly will move on to the Paralympic festivities, which will open at the Place de la Concorde in central Paris.