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For Italy’s Winter Olympics, Paris 2024’s opening ceremony was always going to be hard act to follow. The French organisers had not one, but two, internationally renowned divas on hand to make the most of one of the world’s most photogenic cities.
Viewers had almost no time to recover from Lady Gaga’s cabaret performance on the banks of the Seine before Céline Dion was hoisted up on the Eiffel Tower for an emotional rendition of Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour. Adding to the drama was the songstress’ surprise live performance being her first after sharing her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis two years prior.
But if anyone was going to match that level of flair, it was the Italians. The fact Milano Cortina 2026 is the most spread-out Winter Olympics in history – competition venues dot an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres – was no handicap to organisers, who turned lemons into Limoncello by treating the four-site opening ceremony as an opportunity to make it compelling for those watching at home.
There were hints ahead of time that they would deliver. After all, only someone with their finger on the pulse would understand the best way to court the Gen Z audience – who presents a challenge for the International Olympic Committee in how they consume sporting content less than half as much as entertainment content – is to tap fictional gay Canadian ice hockey players to be torchbearers (Heated Rivalry hive, rise).
And when the big moment came, they did not crumble under pressure. So much so that it was barely noticeable the opening ceremony went for an hour longer than its scheduled run-time, helped in large part by cameos from high-profilers from Italy and Hollywood alike.
Was Mariah Carey lip-syncing?
First up was Mariah Carey, whose performance has critics questioning if she can live up to her own title of America’s “Songbird Supreme”.
The crowd in Milan’s San Siro Stadium went wild the second the diva, dressed in a sequined Fausto Puglisi creation complete with a feather boa, walked on-stage. And that was before she whipped out her signature whistle note.
But the six-time Grammy winner’s rendition of Domenico Modugno’s 1958 song Nel blu, dipinto di blu – also known as Volare – set social media aflame for reasons beyond the impressive fact that she was not performing her native language.
“I haven’t seen a worse lip sync performance than this in years,” one viewer wrote on X (formerly Twitter), a sentiment echoed by many who made the damning claim that, at times, her lips were moving slower than the vocals heard in the stadium.
Carey was lampooned for supposed lip-syncing when Fridayz Live toured Australia in October. But her lips were moving in Italian, at the very least, to judge by the screen flashing phonetic lyrics at her.
Models wearing creations designed by Giorgio Armani walk during the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony in tribute to the late designer.Credit: Getty Images
A farewell tailor-made for the man who put Italian fashion on the map
Giorgio Armani was synonymous with Italy; in fact, he’s widely credited with putting Italian sartorial artistry on the map.
The late fashion luminary was born in Piacenza in 1934, and died an hour north in Milan, where he founded his empire, in September. He was 91.
How else would he be honoured at Milano Cortina 2026 than with a catwalk, flooded with models in suits in the Italian tricolours, designed by Armani himself? Vittoria Ceretti trailed behind them, also dressed in an Armani-designed gown, carrying an Italian flag.
“The stadium lights up in green, white, and red: three runways, three groups of models, one celebration of Italian elegance,” Milano Cortina 2026 explained on X (formerly Twitter). “A legacy that continues to shine, in sport and beyond.”
Earlier, the opening ceremony paid tribute to Raffaella Carrà, the Italian pop culture pioneer who championed feminism and women’s rights in music and television. Carrà died aged 78 in 2021.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
Most of Team Green and Gold is in Livigno, where flag-bearers Jakara Anthony and Matt Graham led a snowy march under an Olympic ring.
Australia’s figure skaters and speed skaters were led by a placard bearer dressed in a floor-length, silver Remo Ruffini puffer jacket, and the team in Predazzo jazzed up their walk with fist pumps and shadow-boxing. Sorry to our Cortina-based competitors, but a regulation march is not that creative.
Andrea Bocelli’s chill-inducing aria
Who else but Andrea Bocelli could be up to the task of sound tracking the lighting of not one, but two Olympic cauldrons?
The legendary Italian singer delivered a masterclass in navigating one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera, performing Nessun Dorma as torch-bearers kicked off the Olympic flame’s final leg.
The flame was carried three kilometres from San Siro Stadium to light the cauldron under Milan’s Arch of Peace. A second cauldron was also lit 400 kilometres away in Cortina. It’s the first time two Olympic cauldrons have been lit at a Winter Olympics.
Bocelli’s countrymen, singers Laura Pausini and Cecilia Bartoli (accompanied by classical Chinese pianist Lang Lang), and actors Pierfrancesco Favino and Sabrina Impacciatore (of The White Lotus), also performed during the ceremony.
Italian rapper Ghali, meanwhile, performed a poem of peace during the symbolic releasing of doves, before South African-American actress Charlize Theron made a surprise cameo.
Charlize Theron’s powerful message
Unity, respect and peace was emphasised repeatedly throughout the opening ceremony – which was themed “armonia” (harmony) – including by IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to lead the body.
But it was Theron’s powerful address, delivered after Team Israel and Team USA faced boos from the crowd, that truly drove it home.
“Athletes, spectators, from every corner of the world, this is a message of peace by my beloved countryman, Nelson Mandela,” Theron, who is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, said as she walked San Siro Stadium’s stage.
Theron then echoed words spoken by Mandela at the Global Convention on Peace and Non-violence in New Delhi, India, in 2004: “Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference.
“Today, this message seems more relevant than ever, so let these Games be more than just sport, let them be a reminder of our common humanity, our respect for one another, and a resounding call for peace everywhere,” Theron, in her own words, concluded.
Beauty! Glamour! Bobble heads!
It would be a crime not to acknowledge the ginormous bobble heads of legendary maestros Verdi, Pacini and Rossini, who kept popping up to dance to perhaps the most catchy song of the night, a Milano Cortina 2026 jingle.
Honourable mentions go to the fact that the humble Moka pot stove-top coffee maker was included in the medley of Italian icons, and France’s flag-bearer Jules Lapierre made hearts stop with what seemed to be an epic wipeout, but later proved to be a comedic, coordinated slip.
The humble Moka pot, a stove-top coffee maker, made an appearance during a segment dedicated to Italian icons.
We will have to wait more than two weeks to see if Milano Cortina 2026 organisers can top Paris 2024’s closing ceremony, which called on Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise, Billie Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg – who is reportedly earning $12.8 million as Team USA’s “honorary coach” – to pass the baton to Los Angeles for 2028’s Summer Olympics.
Will French-Canadian Dion be given the nod again, this time for a handover to French Alps 2030? One can dream.
The Winter Olympic Games will be broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
