Gojira To Play Olympics Opening Ceremony

French extreme metal band Gojira are set to perform at the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

After months of waiting for the music line-up to drop, the French newspaper Le Parisien confirmed the first artists to perform at this year’s Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris.

French singer Aya Nakamura will perform a Charles Aznavour song. Celine Dion and Lady Gaga are also on the bill. Gojira’s performance will be a collaboration with opera singer Marina Viotti, an artist who has “experimented with jazz, gospel and heavy metal,” according to her website.

At the time of writing, we don’t know if Gojira will perform the soundtrack for Viotti to sing or if vocalist Joe Duplantier will unleash some death growls.

In addition to the acts mentioned above, the Opening Ceremony has also locked in an appearance from Parisian rapper Rim’K from the hip-hop band 113 and more collaborations: a duet with pianist Sofiane Pamart and singer Juliette Armanet, and singer Philippe Katerine will team up with drummer Cerrone.

Gojira will become the first metal band to perform at the Olympics. Approximately 300,000 people will watch them perform live from the ceremony tomorrow, and millions more will watch from across the world.

If you’re a metalhead tuning in from Australia, you unfortunately have to deal with some unfriendly times.

Time Out reports that the Opening Ceremony airs overnight – Saturday, 27 July – at the following times: 2:24 am AWST for WA, 3:54 am ACST for the Northern Territory and South Australia, and 4:24 am AEST for the ACT, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.

Gojira last performed in Australia in December 2022. Catching them at Good Things Festival in Brisbane, The Music’s Tim Price and Jess Wall remarked: “Everything about this set was muscular, aggressive, technical and simply a force of nature. As they played Flying Whales, literal inflatable whales came out from the crowd and began to get thrown about.

“This was a meticulous set, not a note or beat dropped, the sound impeccable, and nary a word wasted in between songs. Flawless. Finishing on L’Enfant Sauvage and Amazonia was a 1-2 punch to the face I didn’t know I needed.”

Gojira is the first French band ever to top the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart, and they hold the record for the loudest concert (and sound) ever recorded at the Stade de France.