A Light Show takes place as The Olympic Rings on the Eiffel Tower are illuminated whilst spectators watch on during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Place du Trocadero on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France.Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
It’s one of the highlights of every Olympic opening ceremony – the lighting of a flame in a giant cauldron that burns throughout the Games. Only this time in Paris, there’s no fire.
Friday’s opening ceremony was already loaded with firsts – the first time the event has been held outside a stadium and the biggest crowd inhistory at more than 300,000 spectators. It’s also the first time the Olympic flame has been fake.
In keeping with organizers’ ambition of making the Paris Games the greenest Olympics yet, the 30-metre-high cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, is actually a specially crafted light show.
Traditionally the Olympic flame burns in a cauldron that’s located at or near the main stadium, and it remains on fire for the duration of the competition.
The cauldron lit during Friday’s ceremony, by former French Olympians Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner, is designed like a hot-air balloon in honour of France’s Montgolfier brothers, who pioneered hot-air balloon flying in 1783.
While the fire looks real, organizers say it’s a 100-per-cent electric flame created by designer Mathieu Lehanneur and energy company EDF.
The balloon will take flight every evening during the Games from a seven-metre diameter ring and soar more than 60 metres high. The ring houses 40 LED lights, which illuminate a cloud of water vapour created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles. The mist provides the flickering and smoke effect of a fire.
The design “will allow us to save many tons of gas,” said Tony Estanguet, who heads the Paris 2024 organizing committee.
While the lighting of the Olympic “flame” was among the highlights of the opening ceremony, the performance of Canada’s Celine Dion stole the show for many in the crowd.
Celine Dion sings at Paris Olympics opening ceremony in first public performance since 2020
There had been speculation in the days leading up to the opening that Ms. Dion would sing, but organizers kept everything under wraps. She finally appeared just after the cauldron was lit and sang Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour (Hymn to Love) from a platform on the Eiffel Tower.
It was Ms. Dion’s first performance in four years and came after her highly publicized battle with diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscles to spasm and affected her voice. And the performance nearly didn’t come off.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening ceremony, said on Saturday that organizers wanted to include Ms. Piaf’s anthem in the program from the early planning stages 18 months ago.
“There are two obligatory anthems during the opening; the national anthem and the Olympic anthem,” Mr. Jolly explained. “But in France we have a third anthem, the Hymne à l’amour.”
Organizers then asked themselves which singer best celebrated love? It didn’t take long for them to settle on Ms. Dion. Mr. Jolly said they contacted her agent who said that while she was game, her health at that time wouldn’t allow it.
Mr. Jolly said he proposed other possible sites to accommodate Ms. Dion’s health, but the signer was determined to do it on the Eiffel Tower if she could. “And finally, we were very honoured, she got better,” he said, and she was able to perform on the tower.
“I’m honoured to have performed tonight, for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, and so full of joy to be back in one of my very favourite cities!” Ms. Dion said on X, formerly Twitter, late Friday.
Not everything went smoothly during the opening. Steady rain forced organizers to make some adjustments to the entertainment and the wet weather dampened enthusiasm in fan zones across the city.
And in one key moment during the ceremony, French soldiers raised the Olympic flag upside down, with its two rings at the top instead of the bottom.
The Games’ announcers also nearly caused a diplomatic furor by introducing the South Korean contingent as the team from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which is also known as North Korea.
“Clearly deeply regrettable, and we apologize wholeheartedly,” said Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, who called it an operational mistake. “In an evening of so many moving parts that mistake was made, and we apologize to people from the Republic of Korea for that.”
As for the flag mishap, Mr. Adams said, “It’s regrettable. But in a four-hour show occasionally things do happen.”
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