LIST: 5 memorable moments at Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony

PARIS, France — Boundary-breaking, genre-defying and unprecedented: the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics got the 2024 Summer Games underway with a pulsating energy and unique show that will never be forgotten.

Here are five memorable moments:

Opening ceremony mastermind Thomas Jolly, a renowned French theater director, had carefully choreographed every minute of the festival along the banks of the River Seine.

But there was one factor he could not plan for — the weather. The opening ceremony had the misfortune to take place as heavy summer downpours descended on Paris even as forecasts showed days of hot sunny weather ahead.

As the national teams paraded down the Seine on boats, they sought to make the best of the situation, likely hoping the damp would have no impact on health before events.

Renowned French classical pianist Alexandre Kantorow was drenched as he performed on a Paris bridge without any cover, while social media users expressed concern for his equally unprotected instrument.

Ironically, the piece he played was "Jeux d'eau" ("Water Game") by Maurice Ravel.

An image of Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, meanwhile, went viral showing him refusing to wear the standard plastic poncho to stay dry — showing classic British defiance in the face of poor weather.

Canadian singer Celine Dion, who had been battling a rare illness, made a spectacular comeback by singing from the Eiffel Tower at the climax of the ceremony with a rousing version of the "Hymn to Love" by Edith Piaf.

Showing pitch-perfect intonation and hitting the notes with ease, she serenaded a captive Paris as the cauldron lit by France's most-decorated track athlete Marie-Jose Perec and three-time Olympic gold medal-winning judoka Teddy Riner soared into the Paris sky in a balloon.

Last month, she vowed she would fight her way back from the debilitating rare neurological condition that has kept her off stage.

Dion first disclosed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disorder.

Some 80 artists from the celebrated Moulin Rouge cabaret performed the iconic cancan dance that dates back to the 1820s, in pink costumes