Milan Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: Biggest Moments, Performances

The Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off on Friday with an unprecedentedly widespread opening ceremony that was actually extra somber that the Paris 2024 opener however nonetheless delivered an aesthetic spectacle and projected an general magnificence that displays its Italian spirit.

Held within the two host cities and in a number of Alpine venues, the occasion featured greater than 1,000 performers — together with Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli — who celebrated Italian historical past, tradition and vogue.

Milan’s San Siro 75,000-seat stadium was the principle venue for the roughly three hour stay Olympic opener. The ceremony befell amid tight safety with 1000’s of Italian cops, aided by surveillance drones and robots that patrolled the realm across the stadium the place dozens of heads of state, together with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, watched the present.

The lead-up to the video games had been marked by protests over the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers, who won’t be within the streets however are as a substitute there as safety for Vance and Rubio, in addition to a Russian cyberattack geared toward some Olympics-related web sites and lodges. Tensions over the presence of ICE in Italy induced the official hospitality hangout house for the U.S. Olympic group in Milan to bear a reputation change from The Ice Home to The Winter Home.

Veteran Olympic ceremonies wizard Marco Balich, who produced the opener, constructed the multi-location present across the Greek idea of “concord,” supposed to convey collectively metropolis and mountains, man and nature and the two,900 athletes from cultures that share the Olympic house.

Balich informed Selection that, in contrast to earlier Olympic openers such because the star-studded Paris 2024 opener, “That is the primary time we’re going to have a somber ceremony.” Olympics organizers are specializing in deploying much less glitz and extra ecological sustainability, whereas nonetheless producing numerous pleasure.

Which they did, in a extra understated method than the bombastic, and enjoyable, Paris 2024 Olympics spectacle held on the River Seine.

Learn on for the largest moments from this yr’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Welcome to Italy

The stay motion in Milan’s San Siro stadium began on time with a countdown and a tribute to Italian magnificence and Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. Canova’s 18th century statue depicting the parable of Cupid and Psyche was delivered to life on stage, aspiring to turn out to be symbolic story of attraction, transformation, and union, visually embodying the idea of  “Armonia,” or “Concord” in English, that organizers say is impressed by the phrase’s unique Greek which means of a concord as a dialogue between numerous components.

The piece, during which the stadium was reworked right into a residing museum, featured 70 younger dancers from Milan’s Accademia del Teatro alla Scala. This section showcased reproductions of 4 iconic works by Antonio Canova: the Venus Italica, the Genius of Loss of life, the Bust of Paris, and the Naiad.

Italian Concord: Fantasia

Italy’s Matilda De Angelis, who made her worldwide performing breakthrough in Susanne Bier’s “The Undoing” – alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant – took to the stage as an orchestra conductor and launched into what’s being known as a Symphony of Fantasia celebrating Italian creativity. The music shifted between totally different registers: from a trumpet harking back to Nino Rota’s movie scores for Federico Fellini films to a stadium choir, then from an Antonio Vivaldi aria to the pop music of the late Raffaella Carrà, the long-lasting Italian singer, actor, and dancer who was a TV sensation throughout Europe and Latin America.

The musical medley culminated in an digital remix of of Gioachino Rossini’s opera “La Gazza Ladra” and ended with the aria “Vincerò” from Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot,” carried out by the late nice Luciano Pavarotti, in a recorded model.

Grand Parade/Mariah Carey Sings

A grand parade of characters impressed by symbolic classes of Italian creativity by the ages culminated in Mariah Carey Carey, surrounded by a kaleidoscope of colors on stage, performing totally in Italian for the primary time. Carey sang Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu” – identified internationally as “Volare.”

Written by Domenico Modugno and carried out on the 1958 Sanremo Competition, “Volare,” with its well-known chorus – “volare! oh, oh!” – marked a milestone within the historical past of Italian tune, changing into a world phenomenon and successful two Grammy Awards, an unprecedented achievement for Italian music on the time. Carey’s “Volare” efficiency was conceived as a symbolic gesture, once more underscoring the occasion’s “concord” theme and the ambition to focus on native tradition whereas giving the printed international attraction.

Carey segued from “Volare” into her hit single “Nothing is Inconceivable” from the 2025 studio album “Right here For It All.” She wore a an Artwork Deco-inspired robe that includes beads and crystals on the bodice, waist and skirt. And a diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet, valued at $15 million.

Presidential Entrance, Adopted By Giorgio Armani Tribute

The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the President of the Worldwide Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, took their seats within the San Siro grandstand.

Their symbolic grand entrance was adopted by a vogue present impressed by the Italian flag and primarily based on one in every of Armani’s final drawings earlier than he died at 91 final September.

Three teams of fashions walked the runway sporting Armani creations in inexperienced, white, and pink, remodeling the Italian flag right into a residing picture. It was a second of collective recognition, a tribute to Italian vogue and the magnificence of one in every of its most celebrated figures.

Armani can also be the official technical clothing store of Italy’s winter sports activities athletes.

The flag bearer chosen to embody Milan’s inventive and up to date spirit was supermodel Vittoria Ceretti who’s at present romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Laura Pausini Sings Italy’s Nationwide Anthem

International pop icon Laura Pausini, a a number of Grammy Awards winner, sang Italy’s nationwide anthem which resounded concurrently in each host cities, making a shared second between Milan and Cortina the place a mountain choir amplified its emotional energy.

Olympic Rings/Transition To A number of Places

Milan joined Cortina on this unprecedented multi-location ceremony, with the Olympic circles multiplying in a dance quantity that embraced town and the mountains, till they recomposed into the logo of the Video games, with music performed by a Stradivarius violin as accompaniment. Because the Olympic emblem appeared, the ceremony shifted into multi-location mode.

First Widespread Parade of Athletes

Reflecting the truth that these are essentially the most unfold out Olympics within the video games’ historical past, the athletes’ parade befell within the websites closest to the place they’ll compete. Milan’s San Siro Olympic Stadium is internet hosting the athletes competing in ice sports activities. Livigno has the Livigno Snowboard Park. So athletes competing in Bormio and Livigno will compete in freestyle snowboarding, snowboard, and likewise males’s Alpine snowboarding. Predazzo has the ski leaping stadium. And Cortina will host athletes in ski leaping, cross-country snowboarding and Nordic mixed, moreover sliding sports activities and curling, amongst others.

Organizers are happy with pulling off the feat of remodeling the geography of the Video games into what they name a single, shared stage with TV protection weaving it right into a seamless narrative. There are greater than 2900 athletes from 92 collaborating delegations, together with 4 skiers from Iran. Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and the United Arab Emirates are collaborating for the primary time.

Russian skiers and lugers on the Video games are usually not displaying a nationwide identification with group colours, a flag or an anthem and weren’t a part of the opening ceremony.

The final group to parade was host Italy. As quickly as they started, the music switched to the rambunctious “Largo Al Factotum” quantity from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Sabrina Impacciatore Dazzles With Time-Touring Musical Quantity

Sabrina Impacciatore, identified to U.S. audiences for roles in “The White Lotus” and “The Paper,” carried out a time-traveling musical quantity celebrating 100 years of Winter Olympics historical past that includes a panoply of on-stage costumes, together with a superb classic ski outfit designed by Emilio Pucci for jet-setting Princess Soraya of Iran who wore it in Cortina the place Italy’s first Winter video games had been held in 1956.

That yr no synthetic snow was utilized in Cortina. However in at present’s international warming world there are plans for snow cannons to spew almost 2.4 million cubic meters (3.1 million cubic yards) of fine-grained flakes. Organisers are vowing to make use of totally renewable vitality to energy the cannons which ought to assure enough cowl for the 116 Olympic medal occasions scheduled over 17 days.

Impacciatore’s stay stage efficiency featured scenes spanning from the Twenties to the Nineties, and into the current day, with a musical choice that includes jazz and swing music, and iconic Italian singer Adriano Celentano’s hit tune “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” thought of the primary Italian rap tune ever written. The tune’s improvised textual content is an invented language that phonetically mimics English.

“Prisencolinensinainciusol,” which is alleged by Celentano to face for common love, options in Spike Lee’s movie “Highest 2 Lowest” recorded by Aiyana-Lee with the title “Prisencolin (Americano Joint).”

Italian President Opens the Video games – Bocelli Sings “Nessun Dorma”

From the presidential field, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, formally declared the Olympic Winter Video games Milan Cortina 2026 open. Then a pair of torchbearers entered the stadium, kicking off a symbolic relay. The Olympic flame was first entrusted to a gaggle of three Italian athletes after which the relay motion continued uninterrupted. The sequence was segued by Andrea Bocelli belting out Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” culminating within the flame’s exit from San Siro, symbolically opening the trail for the Video games to kick off past the ceremony venue.

Charlize Theron Delivers Message of Peace

Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron addressed the opening ceremony as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, delivering a message of hope impressed by Nelson Mandela.

“Peace isn’t just the absence of battle. Peace is the creation of an surroundings the place all can flourish, no matter race, colour, creed, faith, gender, class, caste or every other social markers of distinction,” Theron stated. “As we speak, this message appears extra related than ever. So let these video games be extra than simply sport. Allow them to be a reminder of our widespread humanity, our respect for each other, and a powerful name for peace in every single place.”

The South African-born actor, identified for her performances in “Monster,” “Bombshell” and “Mad Max: Fury Street,” spoke in the course of the ceremony’s protocol section targeted on the Olympic Truce and symbols of peace. Her handle concluded a bit exploring peace symbols discovered throughout totally different cultures, religions and traditions, representing reconciliation, hope and the rejection of violence.

Lang Lang and Cecilia Bartoli Mild up San Siro

After the Olympic flag was raised concurrently in Milan and Cortina, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli sang the Olympic anthem accompanied by Lang Lang, clad in white at a white grand piano, and the Teatro alla Scala Youngsters’s Choir. Their efficiency was adopted by the Olympic oath carried out in Italian. The oath was first pronounced by Belgian athlete Victor Boin on the Video games of the VII Olympiad Antwerp in 1920. The oath of the trendy Video games was initially written by Pierre de Coubertin, the French educator and historian who based the Worldwide Olympic Committee but it surely has been modified over time.

Grand Finale: Olympics Flame and Lighting of the Cauldrons

In Milan and Cortina, for the primary time within the historical past of the Winter Olympics, the flame was handed from hand handy to succeed in two Olympic cauldrons, one for every host metropolis. The one in Milan is on the Arco della Tempo (Peace Arch) that is likely one of the metropolis’s iconic monuments and represents the thought of peace achieved after battle. The cauldron in Cortina is within the central Piazza Dibona.

Each cauldrons function greater than 1,400 elements and are modelled after the intricate knot design of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Nodi Vinciani.” Leonardo embedded these intricate knot patterns in a number of of his masterpieces, together with the tapestry within the Final Supper and the ornamental embroidery on the neckline of the Mona Lisa. The flame grew to become reworked into Armonia, the ceremony’s overriding theme. Fireworks and a cascade of sparks from the Olympic rings adopted.

Within the U.S., the Video games are getting full-court-press therapy from NBC and Peacock. In Europe, HBO Max is streaming the Olympic competitors alongside native broadcasters.

As for American illustration, the U.S. is fielding its largest Winter Olympics group ever, with 232 athletes together with Lindsey Vonn, whose comeback try at age 41 is being threatened by the latest rupture of her left anterior cruciate ligament. We are going to identified on Sunday if Vonn manages to compete.

Let the Video games start!