Recap: London's Opening Ceremonies

By Brett Stewart

This evening the Olympic flame finished it's long 70 day journey into the Olympic Arena in East London. London's opening ceremonies were a Cirque Du Soleil style extravaganza that featured some of the country's most notable figures. How did it stack up to 2008?

Sir Paul McCartney this evening 

I think that London did exactly what they needed to do. They put Paul McCartney on stage. Nothing could have topped that. The Beatles are one constant throughout the entire global community. Their music unites us and brings us together; it was absolutely beautiful to see the entire world sing along with Paul to 'Hey Jude.' Having recently turned 70, Paul looked absolutely fantastic and his performance alone made the ceremonies spectacular.

More so to the theatrics and build up to Sir Paul: They were great. London started with a stunning walk through of their country's history moving into the industrial age, and eventually, the digital age. Once they hit the digital age, they went through four decades worth of their music. I thought the idea of going 60's-90's was great, but at the same time, I feel like the 80's and 90's were a time when America shined in popular music, not so much with Britain. I was actually a bit surprised they didn't break out into "Pour Some Sugar On Me" for their 80's segment. Def Leppard was probably one of their largest 80's bands. Regardless, the musical segment was fantastic.

London made sure to keep it close to home with relevant people and subjects to fill the event with. J.K Rowling made her appearance, as did Mr. Bean and the London Symphony Orchestra. A spark blasting, 100 ft. tall Voldemort haunted children's nightmares before Mary Poppins saved the day. London understood exactly what they were known for, and utilized it.

Overall, it was a masterful and memorable performance. Was it better than 2008? No. Was it worse? No. It was different. You cannot compare these ceremonies year to year because each country has something different to work with. London did beautifully with what they had to offer the world. Let the games begin!


Strike Magazine will be attempting to cover as much important Olympic Games news as possible. We are not a timely publication, (You don't read Strike for the news,) but we do specialize in feature stories. So every bit of our Olympic Games coverage will be much different than any other network or news source and will be worth a read!