Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, and H.E.R. were among the performers for the energetic Olympics closing ceremony in Paris on Sunday.
The Los Angeles-based artists were chosen to help usher in the handover to LA28, when the summer Olympics head to L.A. from June 14 to July 30, 2028. The performances were a blend of pretaped deliveries alongside live sets.
Kicking things off, H.E.R. performed the “The Star-Spangled Banner” live from Paris. Dressed in white and playing guitar, H.E.R. delivered a pitch-perfect U.S. national anthem with red, white, and blue spotlights flashing across the Stade de France.
After the song, she continued to play guitar as cameras panned to the rim of the stadium, where Tom Cruise appeared and rappelled down to the floor. Once on the ground, the actor shook hands with athletes, including Simone Biles. He headed to grab the Olympics flag, attached it to the back of his motorcycle, and drove off.
The broadcast then moved to pretaped footage. In the clip, Cruise tells someone “I’m on my way” on a phone call before he jumps from an airplane and parachutes into a field in Los Angeles, rushes up a hill, makes a change in clothing, and does some quick work — fastening the Olympics logo to the Hollywood sign. Cruise is then joined by cyclist Kate Courtney, who repped the U.S. at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She takes the flag to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum while Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “By the Way” plays. Courtney hands off the flag to four-time Olympics sprinter Michael Johnson, who’s joined by others on the street as he runs the flag through Los Angeles. Jagger Eaton, the recipient of first Olympic skateboarding medal, takes the flag next and leads the gathering crowd to the final stretch to the California beach where more performances take place.
At the beach, Red Hot Chili Peppers performed “Can’t Stop” before Billie Eilish, who also performed at the beach on a lifeguard lookout, delivered “Birds of a Feather” with Finneas. Then, Snoop Dogg, who has been serving as a correspondent during the Paris Games, showed up in Team USA Olympics garb to perform “Drop It Like It’s Hot” in the sand while backed by a dancer in a bikini. Later, he took a jog over to a nearby stage, where he teamed up with surprise guest Dr. Dre for “The Next Episode.”
The event was produced under the creative direction of Ben Winston, who said in a statement that the LA28 handover promised to “showcase the heartbeat of L.A. — which like the Olympics — is where people come from all over the world to pursue their dreams.”
Earlier during the closing ceremony, Phoenix performed with surprise guests Air, Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend, and more artists.
The Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony featured a performance by Lady Gaga, Gojira going viral, and Celine Dion’s long-awaited return to the stage.
