Jean-Michel Jarre, Etienne de Crécy, Martin Solveig… The cream of French electro provides the grand finale

It’s a giant electro party at the Stade de France, with no fewer than 24 artists, which will close the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Sunday.

Since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games kicked off on July 26, artistic director of ceremonies Thomas Jolly and musical director Victor Le Masne have continued to showcase French singers and musicians, particularly electronic ones, live, such as Air, Myd and Kavinsky, but also in setlists featuring Justice, Cassius, Mr Oizo and Stardust. For the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, scheduled for Sunday, September 8, 2024, it is therefore not surprising that they have imagined transforming the Stade de France into a giant dancefloor as a grand finale.

The ceremony, initially intended to honour the 5,000 para-athletes, will begin at 8:30 p.m. with the official anthems, speeches and flags, before starting, from 9:45 p.m. and once the cauldron has been extinguished at the Tuileries, a crazy evening bringing together 24 artists and DJs, embodying different generations and trends of the French Touch around the theme “Paris is a party“.

For one hour (out of the three hours that the ceremony should last in total), Etienne de Crécy, Boombass de Cassius, Chloé, Kavinsky, Martin Solveig, Kungs, Irène Drésel, Breakbot and Irfane, Agoria, The Avener, Kittin, Chloé Caillet, Ofenbach, Polo & Pan, Pedro Winter (former manager of Daft Punk, known under the pseudonym Busy P), DJ Falcon, Alan Braxe, Kiddy Smile, GREG, Tatyana Jane, Anetha and Boston Bun will take turns behind the decks and at the microphone.

The French pope of electro, Jean-Michel Jarre, 76, will open the show. He says he plans to “make a medley of [ses] most famous pieces, completely reworked“. “I’m not doing a show within a show, the idea, when I open, is to pass the baton to the cream of French electro artists and DJs, to the younger generation.“. All participants will then play a single piece each, generally their flagship title, without exceeding two minutes, before passing the baton to the next one.

Victor le Masne, musical director of the ceremonies, has imagined a “wave journey“in which”all artists are connected“. This musical journey will cross four scenes entitled “French Touch“, “High Energy“, “Forever Rave” And “Radio Star“. “You have to put in a very precise rhythm, emotion and a real narration.” he said.

On the visual side, the keys to the evening were entrusted to producer Romain Pissemen, 46, known worldwide for his work with DJ Snake and David Guetta and for his spectacular staging of the biggest clubs in Ibiza. It was his job to tell the story of electronic music. He promises “lots of lights” and “very symmetrical designs“to dress the musical universes which will follow one another during this desired show”as much as a show as a party”.

While some were surprised by the absence of several major figures of electronics made in France, Romain Pissemen, who produces David Guetta’s shows, explained on Wednesday in The Team that the most famous DJ abroad would not be at the party”because he plays in Germany on Sunday. Same for Bob Sinclar who is in the United States, Laurent Garnier at a festival in Marrakech, these are all artists that we contacted.“, he justified.

“I am delighted that finally French electronic music is being highlighted alongside the common values ​​of Olympism: universality, fraternity, and play, like the Olympic Games and playing music.“, enthused DJ Kittin (ex Miss Kittin).

“It’s a big family. We all meet in clubs or at festivals and, there, we have the chance to be able to perform like that in front of millions of people around the world.“, enthuses Valentin Brunel, alias Kungs, who hopes “make people dance“.

For Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer and ambassador of electronic music aged 76 but still as dashing as ever, transforming the Stade de France into an open-air nightclub for the occasion “is a way of celebrating the legitimacy of French electronic music“. Because, he tirelessly reminds us, “Electronic music was born in France and then invaded the world. A century ago, it was the birth in France of the first electronic musical wave“, the Martenot wave, subsequently used by Ravel to Coldplay.

“There is an almost chronological link between the history of the Games in Paris and the history of French electronic music over the past century, since Paris hosted the Games in 1924.“, the author of the imperishable further emphasizes Oxygen at the AFP microphone. A fact that could not have escaped the musical director of the Olympic Games Victor Le Masne, who made it a sort of common thread for this final evening.