After more than two weeks of action-packed sport, Paris is preparing for the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony, which takes place on Sunday, 11 August and is being held at the Stade de France, starting at 20:00 BST and finishing at 22:30.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director who brought us Céline Dion singing Edith Piaf’s classic, L’Hymne à l’Amour halfway up the Eiffel Tower at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, is also heading the Closing Ceremony.
To get an insight into how past Olympic Games closing ceremonies have panned out, here’s a descriptive throwback to some of the celebratory moments:
- London 2012 saw a reunion of the British pop group, the Spice Girls, arriving into the arena standing atop the famous London black cab taxis singing ‘Spice up your Life’;
- Both Atlanta 1996 and London 2012 featured the haunting John Lennon song ‘Imagine’, the former sung by an emotional Stevie Wonder, the latter, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir performing alongside the Liverpool Signing Choir, inclusive for the hard of hearing.
- At Sydney 2000, Australian popstar Kylie Minogue brought the curtain down on the first Games of the new millennium with a rendition of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ clad in a bright pink showgirl costume, complete with feathers.
- More poignant moments have included Canada’s tribute to Indigenous people at Montreal 1976 with the Closing Ceremony including hundreds of performers from their communities, while to introduce the next host city after Los Angeles 1984 a traditional Buchaechum dance was performed at Seoul 1988.
- Numeris Média is officially accredited media to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games