Gojira Discuss Performing at the 2024 Paris Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympics featured a rousing performance from French metal band Gojira – Author: Cat Badra, Photo via Gabrielle Duplantier
The Olympics opening and closing ceremonies rarely feature a heavy metal band. Actually, that never happens. But, it did this year. The 2024 Paris Olympics featured a rousing performance from French metal band Gojira. I watched the performance and loved every minute of it. Perhaps it got some viewers around the world wondering what was going on, but wasn’t that the point? Switch things up and make them extra exciting. That’s exactly what Gojira did at the ceremony, and now the world is talking about it.
Gojira Discuss Performing at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Gojira performed during the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday (July 26). Now, the band’s drummer, Mario Duplantier, is reflecting on that huge moment and saying it’s “a big step for the metal community.”
The heavy metal band totally ruled the moment with their incredible performance from platforms that went outside the windows of the Conciergerie building, a former prison and courthouse that’s positioned on the River Seine. The group performed an extreme metal version of the French Revolution-era song “Ah, Ça Ira!” What made it even more dramatic was that opera singer Marina Viotti joined the band, appearing in a wooden ship that was floating down the river.
The official description from NBC’s YouTube channel reads, “Watch as the cloaked figure carrying the Olympic torch crashes a performance of Les Misérables and kicks off a performance dedicated to ‘liberty’ at the Olympic opening ceremony, complete with rock and opera music.” I think that’s an apt description of the splendor.
In a social media post after the performance, the drummer wrote, “What a tremendous honor to be part of this ambitious and epic ceremony in Paris. I have to admit that headbanging in front of a billion people, hitting as hard as I could in a revolutionary scenery made of fire and blood, was a very gratifying experience! A big step for the metal community as well.”
Some from the metal community commented on his post, including Slayer and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, who said, “Pretty much the coolest thing that ever been done in metal I’d say.” That’s high praise.
Korn drummer Ray Luzier also commented, stating, “Dude.. I had chills on chills!! Soooo f***in proud of you guys!! Can’t wait to crush stages with you guys soon!!,” referring to Korn’s upcoming tour with Gojira on the bill.
Commenting on the Olympics appearance in an interview with the New York Times before the show, Mario’s brother and Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier stated, “It was a very bloody era of French history, so it was very metal.” He also said that he felt he would be representing “the whole metal community on the world stage.”
No word yet on whether Gojira will perform at the closing ceremonies, but either way, the world got a great dose of metal music this year.
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