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Several international stars set the Dionysian stadium alight on Sunday evening with some world-famous hits.
Transforming the Stade de France into a big nightclub for a few minutes? Paris 2024 has done it. During the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, on Sunday, August 11, several French-speaking stars sang in the Saint-Denis stadium (Seine-Saint-Denis). Enough to get the stadium’s 71,000 spectators and athletes from all the delegations present in the mood with hits calibrated to get the audience dancing.
Phoenix was the common thread of this musical part. The French group led by Thomas Mars performed several of its songs in front of the athletes and the public, such as Lisztomania, If I Ever Feel Better Or 1901. But the Versailles quartet singing in English was not alone: it was accompanied in particular by Ezra Koenig, leader of the group Vampire Weekend, but also by DJ Kavinsky and Angèle, who covered Nightcall in parallel.
The group Air also performed their hit Playground Lovewhich features in the film’s soundtrack The Virgin Suicides. Less known in France than Air but famous throughout the world, the Cambodian artist VannDa sang his rap Time To Rise.
During this performance in the heart of a Stade de France plunged into darkness, dozens of athletes stayed a little longer than expected on the temporary stage set up for the occasion. The stadium announcer asked them to return to the pitch, to allow the performances to go smoothly, which went off without a hitch.