About halfway through the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday (August 11) — after a parade of athletes triumphantly opened the Stade de France to mark the end of the 2024 Summer Olympics — the Phoenix band were huddled underground awaiting their cue .
“Usually, backstage can be a sad place,” says Phoenix's Laurent Brancowitz, who plays guitar and keyboards. Bulletin board. “All you usually see is a security guard waiting for his shift to end and a guy handing out bottles of water. But this time it was beautiful. Looking out and seeing the light and fog and people in costumes. We could see dancers jumping right above our heads. It was an ant colony full of people who were really happy.”
Hordes of volunteers, performers and athletes gathered to help say goodbye to Paris in the 19 days of the global spotlight. Along for the ride was a bevy of artists to help preview the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics: HER sang the US National Anthem from the stadium, while Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performed live at the location from Long Beach, California.
Those representing France were French singer Zaho de Sagazan and dancer Arthur Cadre, as well as Phoenix, one of the country's most popular musical products of the past two decades. (They were originally formed in nearby Versailles in 1995.) But while the Olympics usually take years of intricate planning to come together (the plot for Paris began in 2017), Phoenix had just two weeks to build what amounted to 20- minutes.
“We knew what we were thinking and at some point we were first approached to perform at Opening Ceremony,” frontman Thomas Mars says of the initial design, masterminded by creative director Thomas Jolly (who also designed July 26's Opening Ceremony). “We were telling them that whatever they needed, we'd like to be involved,” says Mars. “The Olympics have this kind of pressure that's kind of appropriate for music.”
While the rain-soaked opening ceremony famously concluded with Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, Phoenix didn't receive word until late July that plans had changed for the band to perform during the games' grand finale. “We thought, 'Is this a gift or are we kidding ourselves?' Aris mused that he only received two weeks' notice. “The only thing we've been told is to put on a show for the athletes who are probably going to freak out.”
One of the first major decisions was to introduce a number of fellow artists and friends to round out their set. “We contacted some people and it didn't work out for some because they were on tour,” says Mars. They eventually successfully recruited Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, French duo Air, Cambodian rapper VannDa and Franco-Belgian pop singer Angèle. In a full-circle moment, they also invited electro pop artist Kavinsky to perform his 2010 song “Nightcall,” a track Mars was originally asked to sing before its release. “The producer of that song, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk, first came in when he made it and asked me to keep going, but we have a rule that we don't do music outside of Phoenix,” says Mars. . “So when we approached Kavinsky, I thought, 'Which part should I sing first?'”
Phoenix's set also featured an unscripted moment where hundreds of athletes stormed the stage in excitement, smashing the LED screens and crowding the venue along the way. “When we saw everybody, we knew something unplanned was going on,” Brancowitz recalls. “But it turned out to be the perfect situation for a live show. It was a very happy kind of chaos.”
However, there was some anxiety. “In the back of my mind, the structural engineer in me was saying, 'Is this stadium going to survive 800 muscular athletes jumping on top of it in sync?' But the people of the organization handled the situation and managed to clear the scene without creating any drama.”
Aris also couldn't help himself, at one point he jumped into the crowd and stood up. “I asked the producers if I could and I thought they'd say no because of security, but it was totally game,” says Mars. “All the American athletes really came together in one section, so when we did '1901' (the song that helped break the band in the States), the Americans were more excited. A man actually gave me his gold medal and wanted me to wear it, but for a split second I thought it would be wrong to wear it. The heroes are the athletes, but it was a beautiful exchange.” Along the way, Aris raised his finger in the air in tribute to Philippe Zdar, the French producer who worked on “1901” and died in 2019.
After Phoenix (and Tom Cruise's much-discussed acrobatic jump from the top of the stadium), the focus shifted to Los Angeles in a segment produced by producer Ben Winston's Fulwell 73, the outfit known for their recent work on the Grammy Awards . Production began at Long Beach's Belmont Coast last week when a fleet of trucks and hundreds of employees moved in. It was so secretive that many of the employees weren't even told what they were working on beforehand. The Los Angeles portion started around 2 p.m. PT, featuring some of the city's biggest musical acts, including Billie Eilish, who sang her latest “Birds of a Feather” accompanied by brother Finneas.
When the action cut to Paris, the grand finale came in the form of French singer Yseult belting out a soulful version of Frank Sinatra's 1969 hit 'My Way'. It was a lively choice given that the song has French origins. Composed by Jacques Revaux, it was originally titled “Comme d'habitude” before Paul Anka coined his now iconic English lyrics, written to order in Sinatra's then-retirement.
“I was told in confidence a few weeks ago that they might just play 'My Way' as part of the show,” says Anka. Bulletin board from an appeal that came from the organizers to give a heads up to its author. “The song has had all kinds of lives and means a lot to France. I thought, “Wow! If they do, that would be great.” In the interval, there was radio silence until he watched at home like everyone else. “I respected the concept and thought it was amazingly orchestrated, and in the end I thought it was a real hit,” says Anka. “I also like how they chose a female performer because you usually hear men singing it. But with what the Olympics mean and what these athletes go through, finishing the games with 'My Way' was one of the greatest moments I've ever had with that song, let alone my career.”
When all was said and done and the audience left, the performers could only stay and enjoy the moment. “We had the stadium to ourselves,” says Aris of Phoenix. “Everybody involved in making the show just wandered in and stayed up really late.” In fact, Mars compares its Olympic turn to 2009's star-making Saturday Night Live debut, which they said was the most important performance of their career. Until last night that is.
“People are asking what's next and the only other thing would be to play SNLIts 50th anniversary special, if the powers that be are listening,” Aris says, winking at the show's upcoming anniversary special in February. “But really, performing at the Olympics was like when you have a child. You come back and you can't sleep, you're just so excited. It was that good. It's comparable to having a child.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/phoenix-paris-olympics-closing-ceremony-1235751375/
