PARIS.- The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games It will be a massive spectacle along the Seine, but the organization has planned big stars to give it a special touch, including: Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and Frenchwoman Aya Nakamura.
Lady Gaga
One of the world’s most successful artists, pop queen Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, is no stranger to extravagant shows, with costumes, syncopated choreography and spectacular sets.
The author of Bad romance It fits well into a ceremony that will last 3 hours and 45 minutes and will require the collaboration of thousands of acrobats and dancers.
He won an Oscar for Shallow, a song he co-wrote for the 2018 film remake A star has been born. It was in that movie where he sang the classic La vie en rose by French legend Edith Piaf, one of the classics whose repertoire is expected to be part of the show.
Lady Gaga was spotted arriving at a hotel in the French capital days before the opening ceremony.
Her long-awaited appearance at the Olympics comes in a busy year for the 38-year-old American composer. Earlier this month she announced she was back in the studio working on a new album; and in a few days, the second part of her new album will be presented at the Venice film festival. Joker, the film in which she plays Harley Quinn, a crazy woman in love with the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix).
“Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer,” he said before his electrifying performance at the Super Bowl show in 2017.
“No matter what your race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or gender, it has the power to unite us.”
Celine Dion
The Canadian superstar could be the star of the evening: if she sings, it would represent her return to the stage after four years of absence due to the rare autoimmune disease that affects her.
Dion has been in Paris for several days, and has been posing for selfies with fans.
According to sources from the organization, he could sing the moving Hymn to love Piaf at the ceremony. If she does perform, it will be her second time performing at the Games, after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Dion first revealed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an incurable neurological disorder. But in June she told US broadcaster NBC: “I’m going to get back on stage, even if I have to crawl. Even if I have to talk with my hands, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it.”
He has sold more than 250 million albums during a decades-long career, and won two Grammys for his portrayal of My Heart Will Go Onthe immortal song from the movie Titanic (1997).
Dion is adored by the French public, with whom she has maintained a special relationship since the 1990s.
Aya Nakamura
She is probably the best-known French singer abroad. Of Malian origin, with a strong temperament and diva airs, Aya Nakamura, 29, cultivates a style somewhere between soul and hip hop, with borrowings from contemporary African music.
His great international success is Djadja, a song with almost a billion views on YouTube alone.
When rumours began circulating a few months ago that she might take part in the ceremonies at the Paris Games, small right-wing extremist groups laughed at her and her level of French.
President Emmanuel Macron publicly supported her.
Born Aya Danioko in the Malian capital Bamako in 1995 to a family of traditional musicians, she moved with her parents to the suburbs of Paris as a child.
Nakamura responded to her detractors on social media, calling them racist. “I become a state matter number 1 and that’s what hurts them,” she wrote.
Source: AFP
