Gojira named as the 'only good thing' about derided Olympic opening ceremony

Viewers of the 2024 Opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France named the performance by French heavy metal as the 'only good thing' in a widely derided ceremony.

In a unique twist on the opening ceremony, the event was performed on the River Seine as opposed to the traditional arena of a stadium. This meant that the athletes officially entered the games on board boats while getting battered by persistent rain.

Singers, dancers and other performers, including Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, were then spotted around various iconic venues in Paris including the Eiffel Tower and The Conciergerie – a former palace and prison which is now a French national monument and a museum.

The latter location was the spot where Gojira really turned up and rocked the opening ceremony alongside opera singer Marina Viotti, who played a headless vision of Marie Antoinette, the former queen of France.

Viotti and Gojira performed a version of 'Ah! Ça Ira', a song that was popular during the French revolution and the results were rather spectacular and everything you'd expect from a metal act at the Olympics.

Gojira have since been showered with more praise than the rain they likely got soaked by on Friday night.

One viewer called it "the only good part of the whole ceremony."

Metal magazine, Revolver , declared, "Gojira won gold at the Olympics."

Another viewer raved: "Sorry but Gojira playing metal in front of windows with beheaded Marie Antoinette in the Olympics opening ceremony completely f**king rules."

A fourth added: "Gojira playing a metal version of a song popular during the French Revolution during the opening of the Olympics on the side of a castle has to be a top 5 moment in metal history."

Prior to Friday, the band's lead singer Joe Duplantier, commented on a metal band playing a revolutionary anthem. "It was a very bloody era of French history, so it was very metal,” said the 47-year-old.

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