The mystery surrounding the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games continues

With three days to go until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, rumors are flying about the participation of a world-class singer. Some are talking about Celine Dion or Lady Gaga while others are betting on Aya Nakamura.

Published on: 07/23/2024 – 6:23 p.m.

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Excitement is building three days before the opening of the Paris Olympics. Celine Dion and Lady Gaga spotted in Paris, Aya Nakamura on everyone’s lips: the little game of predictions around the performances of great singers with international aura is in full swing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday.

The greatest secrecy remains around the 3h45 show, conceived along six kilometers of the Seine – a first outside a stadium – and concocted by the artistic director Thomas Jolly.

The latter comes from the theatre – he has worked on works by Shakespeare – but he knows pop culture, since he relaunched the rock opera “Starmania” in France and its neighbouring countries.

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Thomas Jolly © France24

The showman’s ambition is to have a show that lives up to the City of Light’s influence and to do better than London and its 2012 Olympic Games, when Queen Elizabeth II took part in a hilarious video with James Bond (Daniel Craig).

Thomas Jolly has always said that he does not forbid himself anything (or anyone) as long as there is a connection with France.

The return of Celine Dion?

For Céline Dion, it’s obvious. In France, she exploded with the album “D’eux” (1995), written by French hitmaker Jean-Jacques Goldman. In 1997, the entire planet succumbed with “My heart will go on”, on the soundtrack of the blockbuster “Titanic” by James Cameron.

The participation of the Quebecer would be an event: the diva has not sung live since March 2020, between the global health crisis and then the revelation of an illness that is eating away at her, stiff person syndrome (SPR), an autoimmune disease with no known cure.

Few imagined her in Paris when they recently watched the shocking passage from the documentary “I am: Celine Dion”, where she appears shaken by spasms, overcome by pain, in the middle of a crisis.

But on Tuesday, three days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Celine Dion, 56, was filmed by her fans outside her Paris hotel and bodyguards wearing the Olympic accreditation badge. Her private plane left the day before from Las Vegas, where the megastar used to do concert residencies, as revealed by French radio RTL.

The Lady Gaga Rumor

There is also the Lady Gaga rumor. Her fans, nicknamed by the person concerned her “little monsters”, like to point out that she performed, in French, “La vie en rose”, a standard by Edith Piaf, in “A star is born” (2018), directed by the actor Bradley Cooper.

The 38-year-old American’s die-hard fans are even convinced that it is her, hidden under a futuristic hood in a furtive trailer for the opening ceremony broadcast on French television. She was also filmed by her fans in recent days greeting the crowd in front of her Parisian palace.

Aya Nakamura victim of racism

And finally there is Aya Nakamura, who has been the talk of the town since March. The rumor of the 29-year-old Franco-Malian’s participation, mentioned in the spring, has raised the hackles of the country’s far right.

An identity group had thus posted on its social networks the photo of a banner, stretched on the banks of the Seine, proclaiming: “There’s no way Aya (an expression taken from her hit “Djadja”, Editor’s note), this is Paris, not the Bamako market!”

Aya Nakamura denounced her detractors on her social networks, calling them “racists”. “I am becoming a number 1 state subject” and that is “what hurts you”, she said, before concluding: “What do I really owe you? Kedal (nothing)”. The Paris prosecutor’s office also opened an investigation in March into these comments.

The controversy has had a global impact, since she is the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world. “Djadja” (2018) has now reached 970 million views on YouTube.

Dua Lipa, the British megastar of Kosovar origin, once rumored to be visiting, has still not been spotted in Paris.

With AFP