Written by Bernard Yeo
The 2024 Paris Olympics opens today. What a stunning Opening Ceremony put up by the French!
The big show began at 1.30am Singapore time and concluded at 5.30am with the stunning rendition of <<L’Hymne à l’amour>> (literally “Song to Love”) by Céline Dion.
Soon after the cauldron bearing the Olympic flame floated over Jardin des Tuileries, the TV cameras switched to the middle-tier of the Eiffel Tower. And voilà, the Céline Dion moment to behold for many Olympics to come!
This is the first Opening Ceremony that was not staged in a stadium. Paris opens its doors to the world taking the world’s audience to her famous sites, such as Champs-Élysées, Trocadéro, Panthéon, Louvre and of course, the Eiffel Tower.
In the run-up to D-Day, social media leaked news that Céline Dion would perform at the ceremony. That should not be a surprise. French was her first language and she is one of the biggest icons in the francophone world (despite being a Canadian).
The question is which song would she perform? At the risk of being labelled a show-off, I had already guessed that <<L’Hymne à l’amour>> would be the song.
The choice ticked several boxes:
· Featuring a famous song of the late Édith Piaf
· Adding glamour to the world event by a non-French global star in Céline Dion (in addition to Lady Gaga, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams)
· Céline Dion performed this song at the American Music Awards on 22 November 2015 to express sympathy over the Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November that year.
· Poignancy of the song (more on that later)
To set the stage for the poignant choice, Juliette Armanet sang John Lennon’s <<Imagine>> before the Céline Dion moment. Through this song, John Lennon had imagined (sorry the pun) that there would be world peace and all the people have overcome the divisions of politics and religion.
“Imagine” thus fit one of the themes of the Games — inclusion.
Firstly, <<L’Hymne à l’amour>> is a love song. It was written by late Édith Piaf to pay tribute to her boyfriend, Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash in 1949.
Her sadness was brilliantly portrayed by Marion Cotillard in this scene in the <<La Vie en Rose>> biographical movie.
Most of the verses expressed her sadness of losing her lover, such as “nothing matters if you love me”, “I will renounce my friends if you asked me to” and “If you die, you will be far from me”.
What makes the song so poignant this morning is the last verse of the song.
And I thought what is special is the word “reunite” (rather than “unite”). It acknowledges that we have divisions today, but we could hope they will be gone tomorrow.
Très jolie. Merci Céline. Merci Paris.
Other resources
1. Celine Dion dazzles Olympics after four-year health absence
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgerkx08dw0o
2. Opening ceremony lights up Paris in unique style
https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/cw4yepmknkpo
3. Spectacular photos from the Paris 2024 opening ceremony
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9x827dnxpgo
4. Paris 2024 Olympics website: Celine Dion’s comeback
https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-2024-opening-ceremony-celine-dion-edith-piaf
5. Paris 2024 Olympics: Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, and Zinedine Zidane star in rain-soaked opening ceremony