100 years after Paris was last host, the Olympic flame has been lit again in the French capital. – The whole show was a bizarre Alice in Wonderland-like journey, says Hobbelstad about the four-hour opening show. Here is a summary of the most memorable non-sports moments from the show in random order. Woke-modemolo over the Seinen Hobbelstad compares the opening ceremony with the one in London in 2012, “a huge nostalgia party”, and the one in Pyeongchang in 2018, “an optimistic vision of a future full of technology”. – This was weirder and weirder than anything I’ve ever seen before, on such a large scale, says Hobbelstad. She points out that there were plenty of angry people on social media, who disliked the revealed “woke’e” message. For example, that “drag queens” and “people who don’t look like Olympians” imitated Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” at a fashion pier on a bridge. – The primordial French was still there, with cabarets, cancan dance and fashion, but the aspects of this that are “queer” and cross-gender were emphasized again and again, she points out. – This is a clear and conscious break with a more traditional Olympic aesthetic, where the masculine and classically powerful have been cultivated. In that sense, the opening went straight into the culture war, says Hobbelstad. Inger Merete Hobbelstad Photo: INA STRØM Dion Comeback Shortly after the flame was lit, Canadian Céline Dion entered the Eiffel Tower. She performed an Édith Piaf song. “L’hymne à l’amour” from 1950. The performance was Dion’s first since March 2020. Many have paid tribute to her on social media. Dion canceled a number of concerts in 2021 and 2022, before she announced in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with autoimmune stiffness syndrome. During the opening, she was on stage again. Rain! It was the first time the opening of the Olympics was held outside a stadium. 85 boats, with 6,800 athletes from 205 nations sailed on the Seine for several hours. – Spectacular and poetic grip. The organizers clearly understood that one of the biggest advantages they were counting on was the city itself, Paris, says cultural commentator Hobbelstad. The organizers gambled that it wouldn’t rain, and lost the bet against the weather gods. – So to those degrees, says Hobbelstad. Tens of thousands of spectators ran home and left the stands half empty. The participants, the VIPs and the rest, dressed in transparent plastic ponchos and gathered under umbrellas, while dancers splashed around in ponds and the musicians played wet instruments. A worker fetches water from the stage in front of the audience dressed in rain ponchos and with umbrellas. Photo: Stephanie Lecocq / Reuters First metal band ever The French metal band Gojira was the first in the genre to play at an Olympic opening ceremony. Accompanied by an opera singer, those dressed in black hammer freely on their instruments between flames and cannons, which shoot out bright red cloth that looks like blood from platforms high up on the Conciergerie, an iconic building from the French Revolution. Before the band came on, the director let a myriad of headless Marie Antoinettes sing “Ah! Ça ira”. A song that was used by some of the most bloodthirsty revolutionaries, says Inger Merete Hobbelstad. – If you have a slightly wrong attitude, you can see it as a celebration of political power. But it was inventive, unexpected and fun, she says. And so did the public, it seemed. Gojira perhaps drew the biggest cheer of all the artists, writes Le Monde. Gojira and Marina Viotto play revolution songs by the Seine. The torchbearer Many who have played “Assasians creed” noticed the similarity between the torchbearer with his face covered and the main characters in the game, their clothes and acrobatics. The mysterious character is inspired by several figures from French culture, in addition to the computer game. Among other things, “Phantom of the Opera” and “The Iron Mask”, write Le Monde. Perhaps most memorable was the character when he “rides” the Olympic flag over the Seine on a mechanical horse. Defying critics and dancing with the republican guard The French pop star Aya Nakamura was one of several “local features” between international heavyweights such as Lady Gaga and Céline Dion. Before the Olympics, the leader of the right-wing populist National Assembly party, Marie Le Pen, criticized Nakamura. Le Pen thought that the artist should not represent France in the opening because she is “too vulgar” and that “she does not sing in French or another language”, writes Aftenposten. But Nakamura did not let the criticism stop him. She performed a mashup of her own hit and a song by a well-known French composer. And received what Le Monde calls “symbolic support” from reasonably stiff (but dancing) musicians in France’s Republican Guard. The whole thing took place in front of the Académie Française, which are strict guardians of the French language. Cultural commentator Hobbelstad believes that the internationally lesser-known artists “definitely” can reach a larger audience after this. – This is probably one of the few real community arenas still standing, where an artist can reach several generations and a global audience in a few compressed minutes, she says. Surfers participated via video from the Pacific Ocean France has surfing beaches on the west coast. But as in Norway, the sea there is so to speak flat in the summer, compared to the winter. That is why the surfing competitions in this year’s Olympics are being held in French Polynesia – in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And that’s why the surfers who take part in the Olympics “hang loose” from a tropical beach, instead of standing in a stampede with the rest of the participants in the rain on the boats in the Seine. This will also be a kind of homecoming for the sport itself. Surfing was actually invented by the old Polynesians, who later took the sport to Hawaii, well before the first European contact in the 16th century, writes Al Jazeera. Mistakes When billions of euros are spent on an opening ceremony that is largely broadcast live – it is also exciting to follow up on mistakes. One of the athletes, for example, experienced a wardrobe malfunction – so that a testicle was apparently hanging out of his shorts, writes the Daily Mail. Despite great security considerations, a testicle sneaked onto the TV broadcast from Paris. Photo: Screenshot / Daily mail And did you notice when Lady Gaga’s dancer fell during the first musical feature? One of Lady Gaga’s dancers fell on stage while the American musician and shoe dancer performed Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc ein Plumes” from the 60s. news’s cultural commentator does not highlight Lady Gaga’s foresight as particularly memorable. – Both her foresight and the cancan dancing, tired under the daylight. This needs stage darkness and lighting to get the full effect, she says. But the fact that the Olympic flag was raised the wrong way probably won’t be forgotten any time soon… Published 27/07/2024, at 15.01
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The most memorable moments from the opening of the Olympics in Paris – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
