Wow – Great Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics!
Way to go, Vancouver & Canada!!!
I thought K. D. Lang stole the show with Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Just beautiful, so much emotion: I don’t think K. D. ever sang better!
And operatic soprano Measha Brueggergosman was wonderful singing the Olympic hymn. I also enjoyed Quebec singer Garou.
What a treat to see Nikki Yanofsky sing the National Anthem. This girl is only 16 and in grade 10, and possesses an amazing voice. She sings “I believe”, the beautiful, poignant Olympic song being played frequently on CTV.
Another one of my favourites was poet Shane Koyczan, and of course Donald Sutherland as the narrator. Excellent lighting, fantastic multi-media effects with the whales swimming around. The welcome by each of the four First Nations was moving.
Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams’ duet was the only disappointment – I didn’t think the song suited Bryan’s powerful husky voice, but it was nice to see him wear a suit! Nelly seemed tentative, as if she hadn’t adequately rehearsed the song – or maybe she was just unsteady on heels that were too high, and a dress that was too tight.
1 thought on “Olympic Opening Ceremonies”
I didn’t see the opening ceremonies – too late for an old man to stay up – and I have read and heard a number of commentaries, some favourable, some with both pro and con comments and some downright hostile.
Did I ever tell you that I come from the same Nova Scotia town, Bridgewater, as Donald Sutherland? His father was a well driller and they lived a mile or so out of town. When he was in Grade 12, Don had a part time job as a Wednesday night announcer at CKBW where I worked as an announcer and Dorothy was the bookkkeeper as well as host of a morning half-hour Monday through Friday devoted to women’s issues. This was in the early 1950s before TV. Don was given Wednesday evenings because the station carried the CBC’s weekly culture evening from 9 to 12 and all he had to do was give the station break when called for, usually every hour, watch the program levels and generally keep an eye on the control panel. Lots of time to do his school homework. We didn’t have announcers and operators – everybody did both. At midnight, he “read” the news and weather for five minutes, signed off the station’s broadcast day, shut everything down, locked the door and went home. The catch was that he couldn’t read. In fact, none of us knew how he ever passed an audition. His voice quality was fine, but he could hardly even say, “and that’s the news, read by Donald Sutherland” without stumbling. Imagine how the names from the Korean war came out! It was awful. Nobody could believe that a few years later he was making movies in Scotland and then Holywood. We wondered how many retakes he required! Dorothy remembers him coming in after school for his pay cheques – a big, tall kid wearing a pair of bright red trousers. And now …
Jim