What music is at the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony and who are the musicians?

26 July 2024, 22:28 | Updated: 27 July 2024, 10:00

A parade on the Seine, Bizet’s Carmen and performances from icons including Lady Gaga – here’s all the music that was performed at the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris.

Every four years the eyes of the world turn to one place, as sport, history and culture combine in a spectacular ceremony to mark the opening of the Summer Olympics – and it’s a time when music and artistry burns as bright as that iconic Olympic flame.

Olympic organisers have promised an Opening Ceremony that will be “bold, original and unique” and tie together the most memorable moments in Olympic history. As with so many of these occasions in the past, music will form a key part.

Lang Lang, the London Symphony Orchestra, pianist Hiromi and Sir Simon Rattle have all featured in recent Olympic ceremony outings. But here’s who took centre stage in 2024...

Read more: Soaked orchestra plays ‘Olympic Hymn’ in rain covers at Opening Ceremony

Where is the opening ceremony taking place?

For the first time in Olympic Summer Games history, the Opening Ceremony did not take place in a stadium. For Paris 2024, the all-important opening was broadcast live from the city’s most iconic artery, the river Seine.

On Friday evening, a parade of athletes appeared on boats for each national delegation. The parade took place on a 3.7 mile stretch of the river, as athletes wove their way through the city’s landmarks.

The parade began at 7.30 pm local time. The river was the focus for performances and festivities throughout the evening.

What music and performers are at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony?

The ceremony began with a humorous scene of a mix-up with the flame being delivered to the iconic Stade de France – and then the national anthem being sounded not by a rousing chorus, but solo flute.

Atmospheric music then accompanied the flame in a journey in the sewers and crypts of Paris, before Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera blasted from an organ.

After this moment, as the torch came before the hundreds of thousands lining the Seine, it sounds like the event music director Victor le Masne has indulged his love of atmospheric synth pop.

Synth Dvořák featured to welcome the barge of refugee athletes. His Symphony No. 9 resounded with their boat.

Pop icon Lady Gaga then took to the banks of the Seine, and the piano in her sultry tribute to Parisian jazz, singing Zizi Jeanmaire’s ‘Mon Truc en Plumes’.

Accordionist Félicien Brut provided music for the river parade.

Read more: When Lang Lang played piano for 2 billion at the Beijing Opening Ceremony

A synth version of Offenbach’s Can Can then followed not soon afterwards, to begin a dance-centred sequence featuring ballet dancers including Paris Ballet principal Guillaume Diop.

A sequence then featured the cathedral of Notre-Dame, invoking the music of Claude-Michel Schönberg’s music to Les Misérables.

Music from Bizet’s Carmen then featured. Mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti sang the composer’s famed ‘Habanera’.

At Le Pont des Arts, we heard a men’s chorus and the orchestra of the Republican Guard, which set the scene for a spectacular firework display, the setting for a performance by French-Malian singer-songwriter Aya Nakamura.

Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Danse macabre’ and Debussy’s evocative ‘Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune’ accompanied the parade on the Seine. Pianist Alexandre Kantorow then played Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, or ‘water games’ – appropriate for a rainy evening in Paris.

We heard more from Ravel, with his String Quartet in F major, followed by Satie’s meditative piece for solo piano, Gymnopédie No.1. Paul Dukas’ ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ then accompanied the masked torchbearer, as they ran across the French capital’s rooftops towards the Musée d’Orsay.

Soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel delivered a powerful rendition of the French national anthem, from the roof of the Grand Palais.

Polish opera star Jakub Józef Orliński gave an electric performance of Rameau’s ‘Viens, Hymen’, bringing together his two passions: Baroque music and breakdancing.

Pianist and singer duo Juliette Armanet and Sofiane Pamart performed John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ at a burning piano on a drifting raft.

We then heard the Olympic Hymn, a stirring choral cantata composed by Greek opera composer Spyridon Samaras with lyrics by Greek poet Kostis Palamas, performed by the Radio France Choir and French National Orchestra. Members of the orchestra wore rain covers as they played at the Trocadero.

Organ music played out, building momentum and anticipation as the torchbearers approached the Louvre and advanced through the Tuileries gardens.

Édith Piaf’s ‘Hymne à l’amour’ sounded through the air as the cauldron, a ring of flames spanning seven metres in diameter with a hot air balloon attached to it, rose dramatically into the sky. Cued up by a full orchestra and choir, superstar Canadian singer Celine Dion performed the glorious ode to love in her first stage performance since she announced her Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis in 2022.

Piaf wrote the much-loved song for the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash less than a month after it was first performed.

Who is the music director of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games?

French composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Victor le Masne is the games’ musical director. Le Masne is also half of the popular French synth-pop duo ‘Housse de Racket’. He is responsible for the music at the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In total, 600 musicians are expected to take part.

At the end of the Tokyo games, when Paris was handed the treasured Olympic flame, Victor le Masne was charged with writing a new version of the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise. The last time an official arrangement was commissioned was to back in 1830, a duty falling to none other than Hector Berlioz.

“It’s so, so amazing to think that now, my new orchestration, my new harmonisation, will be everywhere this summer,” le Masne said in an interview with The Telegraph. “It’s crazy that I’m the next one.”

He’s not giving anything away in terms of the music on offer, but has said “it was really important to bring a lot of different styles, so you can expect anything”.

Which classical artists are involved in Paris 2024 festivities?

Pianist Lang Lang, French violinist Renaud Capuçon and his cellist brother Gautier Capuçon were all involved in Olympic flame-carrying responsibilities in recent weeks.

The Chinese pianist, who spends much of his time in Paris, was clearly enjoying the build-up to the main event.

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