Dion dazzles at Olympics

Celine Dion made a comeback to the live stage on Friday singing Edith Piaf’s classic L’Hymne A l’Amour to close the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
“In the ceremony we have a love anthem and that’s L’Hymne A l’Amour. We all wanted to finish the show with this song and our first idea was very simple and clear. We wanted to ask the best singer to sing live and this is Celine Dion,” artistic director Thomas Jolly told Reuters. “It was obvious for us to ask her to do that to close the ceremony.”
The 56-year-old singer said in late 2022 that she had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome that causes muscle spasms. The syndrome causes muscle rigidity and increased sensitivity to sound, touch and emotional stimuli that can trigger spasms. The condition led the multiple Grammy winner to cancel all of her tour dates for 2023 and 2024. The Canadian singer, who started her career singing in French, had not performed live since March 2020, when she appeared in New Jersey.
“How proud we are! Our Celine singing Edith Piaf’s L’Hymne à l’Amour at the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Olympic Games,” Quebec Premier Francois Legault wrote on X.
“A proud Quebecer from Charlemagne is on stage at the Opening Ceremony! Celine Dion is a Canadian icon, an incredible talent, and she overcame a lot to be there tonight,” Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X. “Celine, it’s great to see you singing again.”
Dion, best known for the Titanic movie theme song My Heart Will Go On, was first spotted in Paris on Tuesday, triggering speculation that she would be part of Friday’s extravaganza.
More live performances
Meanwhile earlier in the ceremony, Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song near Notre-Dame cathedral, a giant plume of blue, white and red smoke was sent high above a bridge over the Seine and a winged man played accordion.
A fleet of barges took athletes on a 6km-stretch of the river, alongside some of the French capital’s most famous landmarks, as Gaga, surrounded by dancers, sang Mon truc en plumes (My thing made of feathers).
As well as Gaga, French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura sang some of her biggest hits, including one by beloved crooner Charles Aznavour, accompanied by the French army choir. Nakamura’s performance drew some of the biggest cheers from those by the river and watching the ceremony in bars. She is the most-listened-to French female singer in the world but when it first emerged she might perform, it sparked a row over French identity. Supporters said she represented the vibrancy of modern-day France while her detractors said her music owes more to foreign influence than French and that her colloquial use of the French language was unfitting.
In addition to live performances, the ceremony also featured recorded footage, including rhythmic sounds of stone chisels and wood saws to images of the restoration of Notre-Dame after the fire in 2019. It was the first time that an opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium.
Security operation
Some 45,000 police and thousands of soldiers had been deployed in a huge security operation in Paris for the opening show. Armed police patrolled along the river in inflatable boats as the armada made its passage along the Seine.
Prior to the opening ceremony, the Olympic flame cruised into Paris on Friday on a diesel-belching tug, the torch held aloft by its white-clad bearer, having earlier been carried by US rapper Snoop Dogg, as it passed under the peripherique motorway.
The 68th stage of the relay since its arrival in Marseille on May 8 was entitled the “Epilogue”. The torch had passed through Paris before, on July 14, the Bastille Day national holiday, and July 15, before circling the suburbs, starting its final journey in Saint-Denis on Friday.
Before the ceremony
Earlier in the morning, the flame had visited the athletes’ village where International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took turns as torchbearers.
Phones in hand and wearing broad smiles, athletes from all over the world had filmed the torch. “It’s a moment that gives you goosebumps, it’s beautiful to see,” said Judith Vandermeiren, a Belgian field hockey player.
The torch passed through Saint-Denis, where rapper MC Solaar, who is from the region, carried the flame, and stopped at the Stade de France where Snoop Dogg took his turn. The flame made its way down the Canal Saint-Denis, handed off to a beaming 17-year-old schoolboy from the area.
It then boarded the first of a series of canal boats, to cruise past the concrete factories and housing blocks to Paris accompanied by a crowd of spectators, security, officials and even canoeists in fancy dress.
“It doesn’t happen very often. It’s exceptional,” said Nathalie, who did not give her surname, from the suburb of Aubervilliers as she stood on a bridge awaiting the flame.
The relay toured the Parc de la Villette, turned into the Parc des Nations housing the ‘clubhouses’ of a string of countries, dominated by France in the Grande Halle, and including Brazil in a circus tent, and Mongolia in yurts. The relay then took to the water and cruised down the Canal de l’Ourcq towards the Canal Saint-Martin and the Seine.