Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony: All the Biggest Moments From the Games’ Kickoff (Updating Live)

After braving political chaos, major train disruptions and threats of defecating in the Seine, the Paris Olympics are finally about to kick off under cloudy skies.

Years in the making, this opening ceremony has been envisioned as the French answer to the Super Bowl, boasting pop legends such as Lady Gaga, who has been spotted rehearsing with a grand piano floating down the Seine, as well as Celine Dion, who is expected to make her big comeback this evening with an Edith Piaf song. Other artists, like R&B star Aya Nakamura, will sing songs by late French-Armenian crooner Charles Aznavour. The show, which is orchestrated by artistic director Thomas Jolly, will also pay tribute to French cinema classics with references to films like Leos Carax’s “The Lovers on the Bridge.”

With estimated costs nearing $10 billion, these Olympic Games will be the least expensive in recent history but likely the flashiest, thanks to Paris’ iconic landmarks serving as backdrop.

For the first time, the opening ceremony is unfolding outdoors and outside of a stadium. A nautical parade of 85 boats carrying some 10,500 athletes from each Olympic delegation will unfold along the Seine running through the city, starting from the Pont d’Austerlitz and culminating at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

More than 3,500 actors, dancers and musical performers will take their marks on Paris’ historical sites, bridges and rooftops. Jolly, who is best known for his rock-opera musical “Starmania,” has created 12 tableaux, or scenes, that will encapsulate the ambition of these Paris Olympics to mix postcard-worthy settings with ultra-contemporary artists, choreography, costumes and props. Bringing the Summer Olympics back to Paris for the first time in a century, these games will also stand out as the first ever gender-balanced edition.

However, the weather isn’t playing ball, as rain is expected to fall down during festivities. But organizers have made sure no technical glitches could ruin the show by pre-recording the voices of all performers, while immersive audio from the performances will be produced through walls positioned along the Seine.

Read on for the biggest moments from this year’s Olympics opening ceremony, updating live.

It kicked off with Zizou

Zinedine Zidane, regarded as the greatest player to ever wear a French soccer shirt and winner of the 1998 World Cup, was the first big name of the ceremony. In a pre-recorded video, he was seen picking up the Olympic flame in an empty Stade de France before running outside, weaving through a colourful traffic jam and delivering it to a group of children. As the video finished, the flotilla of boats carrying each national Olympics team began their journey along the Seine, just as the colours of the French flag exploded over a bridge in spectacular style.

Then things went Gaga

After the opening video, Lady Gaga took over headline proceedings and on a flamboyant note, giving a colorful performance of Renée Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc en Plumes” (My Thing With Feathers). She was accompanied by a troupe of dancers from the revered Moulin Rouge cabaret and played on a piano floating down the Seine. . Although this marks the first time Gaga has performed at the Olympics, she has sang in French before – Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose — in Bradley Cooper’s “A Star is Born.” This is to be her biggest performance to date, topping her 2017 SuperBowl Halftime Show.