Paris is closing out the 2024 Olympics with a final star-studded show
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Paris is closing out two and a half extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion with a star-studded sunset show in France’s national stadium, handing over hosting duties for the Summer Games to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028.
Paris is closing out two and a half extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion with a star-studded sunset show in France’s national stadium, handing over hosting duties for the Summer Games to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028.
Speculation was rife that Hollywood star Tom Cruise — seen around town during the final weekend — would feature in the closing ceremony that unlike the rain-drenched July 26 opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games, basked in sunny, hot weather.
For Los Angeles, topping Paris could be mission impossible. The French capital made spectacular use of its cityscape for its first Games in 100 years. The Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments became Olympic stars in their own right, serving as backdrops and in some cases venues for competitions.
But Los Angeles was bringing star power of its own: singer Billie Eilish, rapper and Paris Olympics mainstay Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are scheduled to perform Sunday as part of the handover from the City of Light to the City of Angels.
Each of the music artists is a California native, including H.E.R., who is expected to sing the U.S. national anthem live at the Stade de France, which hosted Olympic track and field and rugby sevens. The audience was expected to top 70,000 people.
The stadium, France's largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The joy and celebrations that swept Paris during the Games as swimmer Léon Marchand and other French athletes racked up 64 medals — 16 of them gold — marked a major watershed in the city's recovery from that night of terror.
The closing ceremony also will see the last medals — each embedded with a chunk of the Eiffel Tower — hung around athletes’ necks.
