Last night’s Olympics closing ceremony contained a lot of what we expected and a few musical surprises.
Whilst there was no Daft Punk, the organisers did manage to bag three of the most significant French acts of the last two decades.
Indie rockers Phoenix were centre stage and performed a short set that included collaborations with the French synthwave star Kavinsky – best known for the soundtrack to the 2013 movie Drive - and the Cambodian rapper Vannda. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend came on to provide vocals for their hit Tonight and Phoenix brought on their contemporaries Air to perform the latter’s 2000 hit Playground Love.
With an audience of millions, it was easily the biggest ever gig for Phoenix, whose career gives new meaning to the phrase ‘slow burning’. The Versailles band’s first album, United, came out all the way back in 2000, but they didn’t really break through until their fourth album, 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
Part of the protocol of the closing ceremony is the ‘handover’ to the next hosting city, and during this part of the proceedings we witnessed an incredible rendition of the U.S national anthem performed by the Californian singer, songwriter and guitarist Gabriella Wilson, better known as H.E.R. Whilst it wasn’t quite Hendrix at Woodstock, Wilson’s shredding of the Stars and Stripes Forever on her white custom-built Strat will still live long in the memory.
Then it was onto the stuff we already knew about. Yes, Tom Cruise abseiled from the top of the Stade De France and in a pre-recorded sequence appeared to race through the streets of Paris on a motorbike with the Olympic flag, before travelling to LA to attach the Olympic rings to the Hollywood sign.
There then followed a short gig in Venice Beach, which was live, and featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and the ubiquitous Snoop Dogg. Snoop did bring us one more surprise by bringing on Dr Dre and the two old Compton pals performed a (notably clean) version of their 2001 hit The Next Episode.
Then it was back to Paris for the finale – the French singer Yseult belting out Comme D’Habitude, better known to the world outside France as My Way – before the final curtain was brought down on 16 days of Olympic sport for another four years.
Actually, make that two weeks. The Paralympics starts in Paris on 28 August.
