“Celine Dion had this dream of singing on the Eiffel Tower, without playback“, recently confided the artistic director of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Thomas Jolly, on the set of the show C to Youbroadcast on France 5 on Monday.
According to him, the rehearsals with Celine Dion, who was to sing Edith Piaf’s hit song, The Hymn to Love, on the first floor of the Parisian monument, took place the day before the opening ceremony at 3 a.m.
When the star arrived, the team offered her two staging options. In the first, she was to perform on the Trocadéro stage, and in the second, on the first floor of the enigmatic Eiffel Tower.
Celine Dion visits the Louvre Museum on Wednesday July 24, 2024.
Photo from Instagram, @celinedion, LAURA GIL
“She said: ‘I’ll try, but I’ll sing up there, come wind, snow or rain, I’ll sing on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. That was your initial idea and it’s been my dream, in fact, for a very long time,'” the artistic director, accompanied by his accomplice, Thierry Reboul, told host Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine.
“She had this dream of singing on the Eiffel Tower, without playback. She is there, and she is another iron lady. Two iron ladies intertwined,” continued Thomas Jolly, who had invited the brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet in advance to capture the behind the scenes of the Olympics for their documentary. At the heart of the Gamesbroadcast on France 2.
According to figures from Radio-Canada, 1,257,000 people watched Celine Dion’s performance on ICI Télé on July 26.
