Parade on the Seine, Aya Nakamura, dissolution of the Assembly: a behind-the-scenes look at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

That evening, they thought they knew all the surprises. Until they discovered Emmanuel Macron's tweet, still in the official gallery, so bold that it infuriated the artistic team behind the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games. "But the guy is making fun of us!" one of the architects marveled.
How can one not roll one's eyes at the three words chosen by the Head of State to celebrate Aya Nakamura's performance, accompanied by the slightly rigid hip movements? of the Republican Guard? “At the same time” , a slogan supposed to encapsulate the essence of Macronism.
A recovery that is all the more difficult to accept when we know that this painting, one of the most striking for what it tells of a France that is "at the same time" universal and plural, almost ended up in the trash.
Emmanuel Macron didn't want it. Or rather, not like that. To the point of engaging, for several weeks, in a long standoff with the show's designers. One of them speaks "without hesitation of the most intense discussion" ; another of a "big war" with the president.
The Élysée Palace resident never directly questions the casting of this artist, a favorite target of the far right. Even in the corridors of the Palace, where some advisers dream of Michel Sardou, no one dares to imagine depriving billions of viewers of the most listened-to French singer in the world on streaming platforms.
However, Emmanuel Macron regularly makes it a source of tension during the progress reports provided by the "3 Ts" (Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee, Thierry Reboul, director of ceremonies, and Thomas Jolly, their artistic director).
And it doesn't matter if the soundtrack is already in the can and the choreography is finished. He doesn't want Aya Nakamura to cover songs from her repertoire, namely Pookie and Djadja mixed with Aznavour's formidable For Me . Because no other "top artist" is entitled to this privilege, he argues. "It was a form of inconsistency that was justified by the message to be conveyed, but which overly rational minds pick up on," deciphers Thierry Reboul.
Should they give in to the wishes of the man who had previously given them free rein? "The question has arisen," admits a member of the writing team, who is preparing for a change...
L'Humanité