The Ceremony started with Emeli Sande performing a cover of a song called "Read All About It", originally by Professor Green. As she sang, riding in a circle around the stadium, the scene displayed the major landmarks of London, celebrating everyday life with a newspaper city.
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| The Eye, Big Ben, etc (the streets are up only 'cause the scene is changing) |
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| Emeli Sande |
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| The stage, shaped as the Union Jack |
There was also a little something done by STOMP. If you don't know what STOMP is, they're a group of people who use everyday items as instruments, such as pots and pans, sticks, books, etc. Their performances are really cool (I'm not sure if they did their own little segment 'cause we had a commercial break, but you should really check them out!).
STOMP's drumming led to the National Anthem. Then, the big performances began. Madness sang the ever popular song "Our House".
Enter the Pet Shop Boys, singing their own signature song, "West End Girls". I have to say, they get the weird vote this year. I think they were trying to be like Lady Gaga or something? I don't even know.
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| They're the ones in the black (just to make it clear) |
It was definitely an interesting performance. The singing was fine too, just the outfits... and the bikes... just... I don't know...
Next on the performance list was One Direction, singing "What Makes You Beautiful" !
Zayn dyed the tips of his hair blond, while Niall donned the same hairdo, only I guess he'd had to have dyed everything but the tips of his hair brown... Let's just say the hairdo looked better on Zayn than Niall, I think he should just stick to blond. The group was excellent as always. They're voices are awesome, and always nice to hear ;P
After them, there was another group, but I didn't manage to catch their name. It was a short performance, and then Ray Davies came out to sing his song "Waterloo Sunset".
Again, Emily Sande took the stage and finished off the segment with the rest of her cover.
Then came the flag bearers, Canada's flag bearer being Christine Sinclair, captain of our women's soccer team. She was grinning ear to ear as the walked with her escort.
As they walking in, highlights of the 2012 London Olympics where shown on screen as workers scrambled to create a mini stage of sorts out of three hundred white blocks, each one representing an event in the summer Olympics.
Once all of the athletes were in, they took a moment to hold the victory ceremony for the last event of this Olympics: the Men's Marathon. Two Kenyans won Bronze and Silver, while a Ugandan Olympian won gold. Once the Uganda anthem was played, they did a little tribute to all of the volunteers who took part in creating both ceremonies and helping throughout the Olympic games of 2012.
Then, the music began.
The audience was lit up as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was played, transitioning to Imagine by John Lennon. A choir sang it along with a recording of John Lennon in a video (likely his music video or something). As the song finished, volunteers rushed on stage with grey pieces in hand. As everyone watched they formed a puzzle of sorts, creating Lennon's face.
I personally thought it was cool, and yet a little weird, haha.
Once the stage was cleared, George Michael came out and sang "Freedom", and a new song of his own (which was cut off by RONA and RBC commercials, which I'm not too upset about... /guilty.). Honestly, though, I'm not too sure how many people were interested in him (no offence bro). Great voice, but eh.
Next came the Kaiser Chiefs, performing The Who's song "Pinball Wizard".
There was a David Bowie tribute during the next segment as large billboards stage things (technical, I know) were rolled into the stadium. Upon ripping off the outer posters, top models were revealed, wearing fashions designed by a number of British designers, including Victoria Beckham.
Ladies and gentlemen, make way for the amazing Annie Lennox, singing "Little Bird"!
In all honestly, her performance was like a creepy dark angel version of Pirates of the Caribbean, haha. Her voice was as powerful and amazing as its always been. I also really liked her dress ~ Dark Wings, behind her, kind of stalked her through the performance, though refused to get off of that boat when she did...
Then came Ed Sheeran, singing "Wish You Were Here", with Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford and Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason. As the song was sang, a little tribute to Pink Floyd was performed by recreating one of their album covers in real life, with a tightrope walker and a flaming dummy.
Welcome, Russell Brand to the stage performing "I Am The Walrus", originally by the Beatles. As per usual, he was as crazy as ever, but it was definitely entertaining as the dancer flew around him, and the bus he had ridden in on spontaneously transformed into an octopus, revealing Fatboy Slim, who gave a party worthy performance.
Now, for modern day hits, we had Jessie J, performing her hit song "Price Tag", as well as singing Eric Turner's parts in Tinie Tempah's song "Written in the Stars" as he rapped awesomely. The place blew up as Taio Cruz came out singing Dynamite, all of them cruising around in Roll Royces, zooming around the stadium, pretty fast. Gathering together on stage, they performed their rendition of the Bee Gee's hit song, "We Should Be Dancing".
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want!! Well, my mom told me over and over during the Opening Ceremony: The Spice Girls. She finally got them, as they reunited once more to perform "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" in a show stealing performance!
After that were performances by Beady Eye, Eric Idle, and Muse.
Then was a moment were Queen's lead singer came on screens to get the crowd revved up, and then an epic guitar solo was performed by Queen's Brian May, which led into their hit song "We Will Rock You" with Queen drummer Roger Taylor at the drums (duh) and featuring Jessie J for vocals.
I really loved Jessie's outfit there! And her voice, it was amazing!
Out with the music and in with the traditional formalities. As Queen and Jessie J cleared the stage, Greece's national anthem was played as well as the Olympic anthem. The Olympic flag was lowered and passed on from London to the Olympic 2016 host, Rio. There was a segment for them, as Brazilian stars, dancers, singers, and performers took the stage in a very bright and colourful performance.
Back to the formalities, speeches were made (I didn't really listen to them...), and then Take That sang to close the speech portion of the night. Darcy Russell, blasted off as a phoenix.
Once she was back on stage, she and a number of others danced beautifully before the Olympic torch (or well, horns) was extinguished, signalling the end of the 2012 London Olympics.
The Ceremony was closed by a performance by The Who.
Here it is everyone, the end of the 2012 London Olympics, the last, the final... Google Doodle!
We hope everyone has enjoyed watching the 2012 London Olympics as much as we have (fishandchips more so than eggtart)
-fishandchips
Hi!
Just wanted to add in a quick little blurb before I go out later on. I'm currently in Vietnam right now and will be leaving here on the 16th to go to Shenzhen, China. From Shenzhen, I'll be heading back to Hong Kong to board the flight on the 18th back to Toronto! I have a super long post coming up about my entire trip this summer, hehe.
Anyways, unlike fishandchips, I probably wasn't able to watch as much of the Olympics as I hoped. I was able to catch the opening ceremony back in China. However, much of the Olympics there focused on the success of Sun Yang, China's newest Olympic hero. I missed a lot of the days due to many reasons; going out with family, flights, and because certain events in the Games just bored the hell out of me.
Today, unfortunately, I was stuck on the other side of the world, so I had to wake up at around 2:00-3:00 a.m to catch the closing ceremony. With my iTouch locked, which means I had no alarm clock, I missed a huge chunk of the closing ceremony. I woke up right when the Spice Girls were about to finish. I managed to miss One Direction's performance, which I was super excited for and anticipating since the opening ceremonies. Le sigh.
Anywho, I'm off to do random shit. See y'all when I'm back in Canada!
I miss Canada so much :(
- eggtart
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