I don't know when Paris came up with the amazing idea of not hosting it in a stadium and instead centering it around Paris. I wonder if this will become a fairly common thing in future. Not everything worked. I think the idea of teh athletes floating down the Siene was better in thought than execution, but many was it so great to just highlight the incredible architecture of Paris. The people dancing on roofs, the use of the bridges from the opening salvo of a smoke flag; The singer showing up at the top of the Palais for the anthem. All of it so well done. You can argue the performances as a whole weren't up to par (some of that probably due to the weather) but in a sense the performacnes drift over time. The moments of the city, this beauitful city, won't be forgotten. Certainly, if nothing else, it was the most unique opening ceremony maybe ever.
5.) The Use of the Eifel Tower
The Eifel Tower obviously is Paris's main feature and man did the organizers milk it entirely, but in all great ways. Of course, there was Celine Dion playing on top of it - more to come on that - but before that we got the amazing laser light show, turning the Eifel Tower into the world's largest open air club for ten minutes. Also I loved the makeshift stage resembling the Eifel Tower, sitting right in the shadow of the main thing. It was a magical presence, a beautiful lighthouse in the misty skies of Paris. Kelly Clarkson got a lot of much deserved shit on her over-use of calling everything cool and amazing, but the one thing she was right about is that the rain made it seem, visually at least, a bit more magical.
4.) The Heavy Metal Performance
Yeah, Gojira's awesome performance, befit with the Marie Antoinette intro, the fireworks and smoke, the set piece with teh boat, adn of course the monstrous performance by the band itself. I had no idea that France has a bit history with metal music, and I still don't know how big Gojira really is, but all I know is that I do wish the US can embrance metal with such fervor and enjoyment. There are a ton of options, even for 2028 itself, but the idea of Metallica being called on to play over some iconography of the Revolution or some such is, sadly, a pipe dream.
3.) The Interspersed Parade of Nations
While I think the boats didn't work as well as probably intended (the rain didn't help), I actually did like the curveball of having the parade of nations be throughout the ceremony, switching back and forth from nations to performances. I far preferred that mixed approach versus just having a block of 60-90 minutes of parade of nations like prior ceremonies. The parade can really start to drag, but here it was like a little sprinkling of countries mixed in with everything else, which kept it fresh. It probably only works in this style when each boat went on its 40-minute boat ride or whatever - not sure how feasible this would be in a normal stadium-based ceremony, but the whole thing flowed nicely for me without it being so rigid between formalities, performances and the parade.
2.) Zidane to Nadal to the Boat of Champions to the Balloon Cauldron
There's such importance placed on the end of the torch relay and lighting of the cauldron, and what the cauldron is and what not. It started rocky, with the masked man traipsing around Paris, and then the elongated run down the Siene on the mechanical horse. That was forgettable. From the second Zidane took it back, walking down the stage in front of the Eifel Tower, it was somethign special. Of course, Zidane passing to Nadal is something after my heart in particular. They've overlapped in my life, but beyond that, when Nadal won his first French Open, Zidane was the special presenter. Nadal is a passionate Real Madrid fan. And of course, Nadal was so good at the French Open that they built a statue of a Spaniard there. Zidane playing a role in teh opening ceremony was obvious - he is arguably France's most legendary living athlete. But them deciding to elevate a non-Frenchman in Nadal was something special. As was the boatride with him, Serena, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci. And then of course the score of French athletes leading up to in my mind the most creative cauldron, or at the very least the most beautiful adn picturesque one to date.
1.) Celine Dion
I mean, could it be anything else? That was insane, jsut a perfect, haunting, glorious moment. The image of her in the middle of the Eifel Tower, rain falling on the piano beside, backlight to the nines, was just stunning. That I will never forget. As clsoe as you can come, in all honesty, to Ali being brought out in 1996 to light to cauldron. Perfect.
