Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony LIVE CHAT

[panamfan]

Just a bit of explanation. That bit with the vertical piano and the "Hymn to Apollo". Hymn to Apollo was performed as a tribute to the birth of the modern Olympic Games. At the International Congress at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1894, where Baron de Coubertin persuaded the delegates to create the modern Olympic Games, Coubertin arranged for "Hymn to Apollo" to be sung. Hence it's incusion here. Most people would not understand the background for it.

[MisterSG1]

You know, there seems to be a lot of hatred and comparing these to Super Bowl halftime shows, but in reality, I think it’s the Super Bowl that borrowed from the Opening Ceremonies.

Before the early 2010s, in most cases the Super Bowl halftime show was merely set up with an act on a makeshift stage on the field who would then perform a short set.

The concept of “dancers” in elaborate costumes, similar to those you see in Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics didn’t really appear until maybe the Madonna or Black Eyed Peas performance in the early 2010s.

By this, what makes the closing ceremony of Vancouver or London any different really then what happened today. They were very much just concerts with dancers.

[Sir Rols]

11 minutes ago, MisterSG1 said:

They were very much just concerts with dancers.

I can only wish that that was what today’s was.

[MisterSG1]

6 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

I can only wish that that was what today’s was.

To be fair, I didn't see the whole thing, but there were many on this site comparing this to the Super Bowl halftime show, what do they mean by this exactly?

[FYI]

31 minutes ago, MisterSG1 said:

To be fair, I didn't see the whole thing, 

The CC itself was okay, but the handover..

32 minutes ago, MisterSG1 said:

but there were many on this site comparing this to the Super Bowl halftime show, what do they mean by this exactly?

Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Billy Eilish & tom cruise thinking he's all that. So does that answer your question. 

[illustrado]

I slept over it here's my verdict 

 

3/10 where the flavour?

 

It felt more like a funeral than a celebration. I know they hacked the script to get rid of the 'woke' but by god it's the closing. A drag queen or a threesome could have livened this ceremonies. just double down and ask for forgiveness later.

 

The segment with the golden space bee feel more opening ceremony that a closing. It's temu greece 2004. 

 

Even the 'fun' segment were felt like a wet towel. 

 

Overall all terrible time. And what a waste of time to be up at 2am

 

(My Handover review will be posted on the LA2028 thread)

[MisterSG1]

1 hour ago, FYI said:

The CC itself was okay, but the handover..

Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Billy Eilish & tom cruise thinking he's all that. So does that answer your question. 

Well, would it have been any different if they had performed in Paris?

I mean I fail to understand what makes this that much different from what we’ve seen in previous closing ceremonies, like London for example.

[FYI]

16 minutes ago, MisterSG1 said:

Well, would it have been any different if they had performed in Paris?

I mean I fail to understand what makes this that much different from what we’ve seen in previous closing ceremonies, like London for example.

Well, like some others have said, the ceremonies seem to be becoming more like a rock-concert lately than an Olympic ceremony. If I want to go watch musical acts, then I'd just go to an actual concert.

And for all the money that it costs to throw on this kind of spectacle these days, that one could get just about anywhere at anytime, seems like a big let down. And yes, to answer your question. It would've been better at least, had they actually performed in Paris instead. Cause otherwise, it just gives the sense of faux-paux performance (just like the Opening where people were complaining that they couldn't get to see all the action live, but instead had to rely on large screens to try & catch all the action).

Just look at some of the twitter feeds already. Fans in the stands disappointed that they're looking at singers from a screen, instead of right there in front of them. I'm sure if someone paid to watch their favorite performer live, only to be disappointed to watch them on a large screen instead, would be quite ticked off.

[MisterSG1]

16 minutes ago, FYI said:

Well, like some others have said, the ceremonies seem to be becoming more like a rock-concert lately than an Olympic ceremony. If I want to go watch musical acts, then I'd just go to an actual concert.

And for all the money that it costs to throw on this kind of spectacle these days, that one could get just about anywhere at anytime, seems like a big let down. And yes, to answer your question. It would've been better at least, had they actually performed in Paris instead. Cause otherwise, it just gives the sense of faux-paux performance (just like the Opening where people were complaining that they couldn't get to see all the action live, but instead had to rely on large screens to try & catch all the action).

Just look at some of the twitter feeds already. Fans in the stands disappointed that they're looking at singers from a screen, instead of right there in front of them. I'm sure if someone paid to watch their favorite performer live, only to be disappointed to watch them on a large screen instead, would be quite ticked off.

I get all that, but my original point was not answered, people have compared this to a Super Bowl Halftime show, and as far as I’m aware, every Super Bowl act at least in my life that I can remember has performed in the stadium with a makeshift stage set up quickly.

I even was at the 100th Grey Cup where Justin Bieber infamously performed during its halftime show, and thus saw the stage there.

What seemed cheap were these video concerts, which again have never happened at a Super Bowl.

I remember Vancouver and London featuring musical acts prominently, and Toronto’s Pan Am games featuring Kanye who was clearly angry during his set, he tossed the mic in the air or something. Concerts are nothing new for ceremonies.

[TorchbearerSydney]

And the crowd was not 'watching a performance from LA', they were watching a pre recorded event from 2 days earlier in LA....compare that to the performances in Sydney and London- right there, performing, one after another...

 

 

[TorchbearerSydney]

Here is how I would have done the extinguishing...

Lights go down...they introduce each of the 5 continental athletes with an announcement and spotlight. They are standing on their continents on the World stage. Each is followed by a spotlight as they walk to Paris on the World stage. They form a circle.

Marchard walks in as the music rises and holds the later in the middle of the circle. They blow it out as the music rises. Fireworks.

OK, not perfect, but at least it uses music, lighting, drama and makes some sense of that stage....

[Bear]

my tiktok feed is being filled with athletes who recorded themselves storming the stage when they weren't supposed to haha

based on one of the videos, I think it was a miscommunication between them and the people in charge of the crowd control - they were allowed to invade the spaces between the continents stage, but the athletes took it as permission to invade the stage itself as well.

[baron-pierreIV]

4 minutes ago, Bear said:

my tiktok feed is being filled with athletes who recorded themselves storming the stage when they weren't supposed to haha

based on one of the videos, I think it was a miscommunication between them and the people in charge of the crowd control - they were allowed to invade the spaces between the continents stage, but the athletes took it as permission to invade the stage itself as well.

The David Wolper folks who did 1984 foresaw this eventuality and prepared for it.  Amateurish Jolly team -- who thought they knew everything, obviously misjudged the athletes.  Yup, don't pay attention to experience.  

[Rob2012]

One thing I will say, is that the commentators seemed far better briefed for this ceremony than they were for the opening - they explained what was happening rather than being forced react to it. So Jolly got the balance right this time - secrecy is fine, but you really can't be keeping the commentators out of the loop through creative paranoia!

Definitely better circumstances for them to work in too (kevzz posted a video of the commentary teams during the opening and it looked ridiculous frankly!).

[Olympian2004]

49 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

The David Wolper folks who did 1984 foresaw this eventuality and prepared for it.  Amateurish Jolly team -- who thought they knew everything, obviously misjudged the athletes.  Yup, don't pay attention to experience.  

If they prepared for it, it still didn't keep the athletes from storming the stage in the 1984 closing ceremony. They even had to ask the athletes and performers repeatedly through the PA system to leave the stage because they feared that the stage could collapse.

[Olympian2004]

1 hour ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

Here is how I would have done the extinguishing...

Lights go down...they introduce each of the 5 continental athletes with an announcement and spotlight. They are standing on their continents on the World stage. Each is followed by a spotlight as they walk to Paris on the World stage. They form a circle.

Marchard walks in as the music rises and holds the later in the middle of the circle. They blow it out as the music rises. Fireworks.

OK, not perfect, but at least it uses music, lighting, drama and makes some sense of that stage....

That sounds like a great idea - so simple that it is really puzzling that Thomas Jolly didn't have the same idea. Instead, they kept the stadium fully lit, played that stupid "decision time in a casting show" music continuously, the athletes from the five continents and Thomas Bach sometimes looked as if they didn't know where to stand and Thomas Bach had to speak the traditional closing words in between which made this segment look even more disjointed and unemotional.

A few years ago, after another Olympic closing ceremony, I wrote in this forum that it is actually almost impossible to not stage the extinguishing of the flame in an emotional, moving manner. Well, Thomas Jolly proved that it is possible. I would never let that guy stage a ceremony of that scale again. There were a few good ideas especially for the opening ceremony, but also quite a few awful ideas especially for the closing ceremony. And the lack of timing was a thread that ran through both ceremonies. It is a shame actually, since those ceremonies and even those concepts had so much more potential.

[JMarkSnow2012]

5 hours ago, MisterSG1 said:

people have compared this to a Super Bowl Halftime show, and as far as I’m aware, every Super Bowl act at least in my life that I can remember has performed in the stadium with a makeshift stage set up quickly

Set up quickly, of course- but makeshift?

[Rob2012]

 

[Brekkie Boy]

Overall the games are up there with Barcelona, Sydney and London but the ceremonies really let them down.   The closing ceremony was almost as bad as the opener, but with much less to mock which made it an even tougher watch.   It was almost as if it was the Opening Ceremony they wanted to do but couldn't outside the Stadium, though really it was thin on content - just the rings segment they'd forgot to do during the Opener and a couple of stadium performances really.   Once again not worth the ticket price and not really putting on a show for the athletes.

[Roger87]

I wanna tell this.  The L.A. handover show really fucking SUCKED BAD.  You have:

 

-Tom Cruise

-Hollywood

-L.A. Observatory

-Beverly Hills

-Skater culture

-Wellness culture in Venice Beach

-Barbie

 

And the thing you offered is a terrible mixed montage with a MTV unplugged on the beach like being in early 2000s? 

 

The scariest part of this is hearing the organizers of L.A. 2028 giving the idea of planning the Opening Ceremony as a sort of long Super Bowl halftime. WTF? I thought the disaster of Copa America opening ceremony having a priest reading the Bible before the match was the lowest. 

 

The last handovers offered:

 

-Rio 2016: Carnaval and the Latino fire

-Pyeongchang 2018: South Korea sensibility

-Tokyo 2020: Pop culture (Captain Tsubasa, Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Mario Bros)

-Beijing 2022: The soft power starting to push by China

-Paris 2024: The city landmarks as the main actor with the long tradition of parkour

-Milan-Cortina 2026: The contrast of the urban Milan, the romantic Venice and the Alps

 

Every handover had something iconic and representative of the host. L.A. dropped the ball badly and after hearing the words of the organized team, i'm having low expectations of the upcoming opening ceremony. 

[BigVic]

The handover was on par with London's 2012 effort at Beijing 2008's CC which was panned at the time by critics.

The segment had a London bus, Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy riding behind it ending with David Beckham kicking a football into the athletes as the finale.

Rio had Pele who was live and not pre-recorded at Copacabana Beach. The late Shinzo Abe appeared out of a warp-pipe to welcome the world to Tokyo at Tokyo's handover ceremony. 

[Brekkie Boy]

After the Paris handover I wasn't against the idea of future handover ceremonies being done "live" from the next host city, but LA convinced me that they really need to return to doing them in the closing ceremony venue.

 

[BigVic]

Instagram videos of athletes breakdancing in confetti at the Stade de France was not broadcast on TV 

[Cyriln]

5 hours ago, BigVic said:

Instagram videos of athletes breakdancing in confetti at the Stade de France was not broadcast on TV 

That was during the torch relay recap video, so not possible to show both. If you watch a replay of the ceremony, you can hear the cheering for the breakers.