Paris Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: A High-Kitsch, Riverside Spectacle

Paris: The Paris Olympic Games opened on Friday night with a highly creative and message-driven riverside spectacle. An armada of boats carried athletes along the Seine, dancers dangled from high poles, drag queens paraded on bridges, and the Olympic rings illuminated the Eiffel Tower—all under relentless torrential rain.

For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony took place outside the main stadium. Approximately 300,000 people watched in person from specially built stands and along the riverbanks, while another 200,000 viewed from overlooking balconies and apartments.

Throughout the event, a mysterious faceless figure darted across the city’s rooftops with the Olympic flame. At least one billion viewers watched on TV and social media. Filmed segments were as crucial as the live performance, with France’s former football star Zinedine Zidane starting the ceremony by carrying the Olympic flame through a film set of kitschy 1960s café terraces and onto a Métro train. He arrived to cheers at the Trocadero.

The Paris Olympics are set against a troubled backdrop, including the Ukraine war and the Israel-Gaza conflict, which has mobilized pro-Palestine groups. The current political climate in France adds another layer of complexity for the organizers, echoing the challenges faced a century ago during the 1924 Games amid domestic and international turmoil.

Paris's rain-soaked river party marked the first time the opening ceremony of the world’s largest sporting event took place outside a stadium, with athletes parading on a flotilla of boats rather than around an athletics track. This outdoor ceremony, once described by Emmanuel Macron as "a crazy idea that must be made real," faced significant obstacles.

The event was a testament to determination in the face of adversity. Thomas Jolly, the young French director behind the surreal and irreverent show, sought more than just "ephemeral glitz" but an exploration of "our shared humanity."

He chose the Seine for its "power to heal" from tragedies such as the 2015 Paris attacks and the 2019 Notre Dame fire. Part of the show featured a pre-filmed dance routine of workers performing high-risk moves while hanging from Notre Dame’s scaffolding.

The faceless figure symbolized terrorism and conflict between countries, and also served as a message of peace, prosperity, fraternity, liberty, synchronicity, and solidarity. As France’s national anthem played, the focus shifted to celebrating women’s contributions to various fields and promoting women’s empowerment. Statues of notable French women—Olympe de Gouges, Alice Milliat, Gisèle Halimi, Simone de Beauvoir, Paulette Nardal, Jeanne Barret, Louise Michel, Christine de Pizan, Alice Guy, and Simone Veil—were unveiled.

Hours before the ceremony began, a series of sabotage attacks on the high-speed TGV rail network caused travel chaos across France. This was followed by severe weather, with rain falling at the equivalent of 15 days’ worth in just six hours.

The evening commenced with 6,800 athletes being bussed from the Olympic Village to Pont d’Austerlitz in the east of the city, where the French military guarded them as they boarded boats. Greece’s boat set out first, followed by the Olympic refugee team and other nations on 85 boats. The Ukrainian delegation received a massive ovation from the riverside crowd. The Refugee Team made its third appearance at an Olympic Games since its formation for Rio 2016.

Not since the time of Louis XV had a formation of boats sailed in the same direction down the Seine, and the spectacle was cheered by people hanging from windows.

The Technicolor tribute to French clichés included a woman in a dress covered in croissants leading a vibrant crowd towards French can-can dancers in bright pink outfits. They delivered a traditional can-can performance, ending in the splits on the edge of the Seine.

In a nod to the heavy rain, hundreds of dancers performed a synchronized routine through troughs of water on the Île de la Cité, near Notre Dame. Dancers dressed as hotel bellboys performed acrobatics on a bridge while transporting Louis Vuitton suitcases—a nod to sponsors. France’s biggest death metal band, Gojira, performed amid shooting flames, with vocalist Marina Viotti, and dancers swung from poles over the Pont Neuf.

Axelle Saint-Cirel, a French mezzo-soprano from Guadeloupe, sang a new arrangement of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, draped in the tricolor flag on the glass roof of the Grand Palais.

Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe champion and chief organizer of the Paris Olympics, welcomed the athletes with a heartfelt message: “Welcome to your moment in history—live it and love it.”

The ceremony also gave a sweet nod to 'Hindi' as it was among the six languages used in infographics to pay tribute to the contribution of prominent French women during the segment titled 'sisterhood'.

The show promised to light-heartedly deconstruct French stereotypes. US singer Lady Gaga set the tone with a kitschy spectacle, appearing from a giant golden staircase on the Seine surrounded by pink pompoms and feather fans for a high-kicking cabaret performance of France’s famous 1960s music-hall number "Mon Truc en plumes" by Zizi Jeanmaire.

Later, pop singer Aya Nakamura, the most-listened-to French-speaking artist globally, performed on the Pont des Arts in a bold musical juxtaposition with France’s Republican Guard. She sang extracts of Charles Aznavour's songs and her own hits "Pookie" and "Djadja," accompanied by the French army choir and military brass band. Nakamura’s performance was particularly significant following a racist backlash earlier this year, which led to a Paris prosecutor investigating alleged abuse against her. Some on the French far right had questioned her French identity, which was countered by a surge of tactical voting in the recent snap parliament election.