Details have leaked about the Olympics Closing ceremony this coming Sunday. Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are all expected to perform as the Games officially hands over from Paris to Los Angeles where it will be held in Summer 2028.
A Variety article reports that the ceremony will be a mixture of live and pre-taped performances. Eilish, Snoop and the Chili Peppers will apparently perform their parts from LA. The location for the concert is being kept secret for the moment, in the light of the cancellation this week of Taylor Swift’s Vienna dates because of a terrorist threat. Representatives of the Olympics and the artists concerned have so far declined to comment.
You can see why the organisers chose the three acts – each in their own way is emblematic of LA. Eilish is an LA native whose 2021 concert film was entitled Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles; Snoop is synonymous with West Coast hip-hop; and the Chili Peppers have hymned their home state and the City of Angels on many occasions during their long career.
Snoop, of course, has already been a memorable part of the Paris Olympics. He’s been over in Europe as NBC’s Special Correspondent, and has been seen at many of the events in an array of, er interesting outfits, cheering on Team USA and doing what he does best: being Snoop Dogg.
It has already been trailed that actor Tom Cruise will have a big part to play in the Closing Ceremony. The Mission Impossible star will apparently descend from the top of the Stade de France on a rope. This live broadcast will then be cut with pre-recorded footage of him careering through Paris on a motorbike, before he ‘magically’ reappears in LA and parachutes down from the iconic Hollywood sign. All in a day’s work for an action hero.
Rolling Stone, meanwhile, reports that H.E.R. will sing the US National Anthem.
Other than that, more than 100 performers will take part in the final spectacle. Musical performances, an original soundtrack and acrobats will all be a feature to take spectators on "a journey through time, both past and future."
There will be more, of course. These things are generally long-drawn affairs. You may recall that the London Closing Ceremony in 2012, which featured an array of musical artists from Ray Davies to the Spice Girls, from Fatboy Slim to the Pet Shop Boys, went on for nearly three hours.
