Who Will Perform At The Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony?

Obviously the Olympics is about sport – but there’s a special moment for music and culture lovers, too: the Opening Ceremony. Every four years, the Olympics kicks off with a huge bonanza in the host country, featuring musical performances, each nation’s athletes parading through the stadium, the lighting of the cauldron, and the past, present and future of the host country presented in an artistic manner.

Back in 2012, the London Olympics Opening Ceremony had a tough act to follow: Beijing’s 2008 Opening Ceremony cost a whopping £65 million and was hailed as the greatest ever opening event. However, the Brits pulled out all the stops, stretching the £27 million budget to create a love letter to Britain, showcasing the Industrial Revolution, the NHS, our literary heritage, music and pop-culture, and even Queen Elizabeth II jumping from a helicopter into the stadium James Bond style (don’t worry, it was actually a body double).

Tomorrow night, it’s Paris’ turn – the first Opening Ceremony in Europe since 2012. Millions of people will flock to the French capital to catch a glimpse of the Ceremony, which will mainly be hosted in Jardins du Trocadéro and with boats bobbing along the Seine from Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iena, and spectator seating stretching from the François-Mitterrand Library to the Eiffel Tower. This is the first time the ceremony will be hosted en plein air and not inside a stadium.

Celine Dion in I AM: CELINE DION. © Prime Video

Who Will Perform At The Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony?

Celine Dion and Lady Gaga are expected to perform Édith Piaf’s classic song ‘La Vie en Rose’ at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony. If the rumours are true, this will be Dion’s first live performance since London’s 2019 BST Hyde Park concert series. Soon after, she was diagnose with a rare illness, which she recently opened up about in Prime documentary, I Am: Celine Dion.

French singer Aya Nakamura is also expected to perform, with rumoured performances from Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande, too.

Elsewhere, more than 2,000 dancers have been enlisted, with a whopping 45,000 people involved in the water, air and land performances. Keep your eyes peeled for the procession of British athletes, with Tom Daley and Helen Glover joint flag bearers.

The Opening Ceremony will also see the big reveal of the final torchbearer, who will ignite the cauldron to officially open the Games. At London 2012, the torch arrived via a speedboat piloted by David Beckham, with the flame passed by footballer Jade Bailey to rower Steve Redgrave, who then, inside the stadium, handed the torch to the seven young athletes who lit the cauldron.

How To Watch The Opening Ceremony In The UK

The Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony will be aired live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with commentary from Hazel Irvine and Andrew Cotter. Coverage will commence at 5.45pm, with the ceremony scheduled to begin at 6.30pm BST (7.30pm in Paris).

Will King Charles III Be There?

No, King Charles III will not be at the Opening Ceremony due to health reasons; his sister, Anne, Princess Royal, will attend in his stead, alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Notably, US President Joe Biden will also not attend, with First Lady Jill Biden representing him instead, attending alongside Jennifer Siebel Newsom, First Partner of California (i.e. the wife of Governor Gavin Newsom) and Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass; LA will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

BBC Sport brings the Paris Olympics 2024 to TV, Radio and Online this summer. (L-R) Fred Sirieix, Isa Guha, Hazel Irvine, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan, Jeanette Kwakye, JJ Chalmers, Laura Kenny. © Sam Riley/BBC

How To Watch The Olympics In The UK

Paris 2024 Olympics coverage will commence on BBC One at 8am daily, flitting between events all day long until the 10pm news, when it will move to BBC Two. There will also be plenty to watch on BBC iPlayer, plus a nightly highlights/recap at 10.40pm.

Note, however, that a lot of this will not be live: while the BBC is still the British Olympics’ main broadcaster, live broadcasting rights have been sold to Discovery and Eurosport. To ensure you catch the action live, you will need to tune into Eurosport 1 or Eurosport 2 or purchase a Discovery+ subscription.

Before Tokyo 2020/21, the International Olympic Committee sold the majority of UK broadcasting rights to Discovery, meaning we now have to pay to view much of the action. However, thanks to some very-British laws on the broadcasting of listed events including the Olympics, the World Cup and Wimbledon, the action has to be broadcast somewhere for free, too. This means the BBC can broadcast two live streams and 500 hours of coverage total.