State Champ Radio

by DJ Frosty

Current track

Title

Artist

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

8:00 pm 12:00 am

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

8:00 pm 12:00 am


olympics

Page: 6

Snoop Dogg brought a little bit of silliness to the otherwise no-nonsense Olympic Games over the weekend, starting an impromptu dance party with the Team USA gymnasts right in the middle of competition. In a newly shared video from the women’s gymnastics qualification Sunday (July 28), Simone Biles points at a mystery person in the […]

Even without a gold medal, Snoop Dogg has been a star of the show at the 2024 Paris Olympics with his wall-to-wall coverage of the games. Snoop caught up with Michael Phelps to pick up some lessons in the pool from the American swimming icon and 23-time gold medalist in a video shared by NBC […]

When it comes to overheated claims that their explosive 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony set on Friday was somehow in league with Beelzebub, French metal band Gojira could take a page from Vice President Kamala Harris’ playbook. Just as the potential democratic presidential candidate and her supporters keep describing Republican rivals Donald Trump and his veep pick JD Vance as “weird,” lead singer Joe Duplantier told Rolling Stone that suggestions their eye-popping set was “satanic” is just, well, weird.
“It’s none of that. It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine, and blood all over the place — it’s romantic, it’s normal,” Duplantier said of the unexpected explosion of double kick drums, growling vocals, pyro-mania and raining blood-like streamers that accompanied the group’s performance of the 19th century French anthem “Ah! Ça Ira” from the windows of Paris’ Conciedrgerie palace during a four-hour opening spectacle.

Trending on Billboard

“There’s nothing satanic [laughs]. France is a country that made a separation between the state and religion during the revolution,” Duplantier added. “And it’s something very important, very dear to the foundation of republican France. We call it laïcité. It’s when the state is not religious anymore, so therefore it’s free in terms of expression and symbolism. It’s all about history and facts. We don’t look too close closely at symbolism in terms of religion.”

In addition to the sight of a dozen decapitated Mario Antoinettes singing along as columns of fire shot up all around them, Gojira were joined by mezzo-soprano Marina Voitti, who floated by on the prow of a ship. With a few days to let it all soak in, Duplantier told RS that things are still feeling a bit “unreal.” He described getting a call from Olympic committee and opening ceremony composer Victor le Masne months ago and thinking it was a long shot that they would end up in the final cut because the whole thing sounded “completely unreal.”

“The amount of people that would see us live kind of eclipsed the moment. I wasn’t thinking about what it was going to be because it was just too mind-bending to think about,” he said, noting that the Olympic Committee could have picked a more well-known global hard rock act such as Metallica or AC/DC for the honor. “So the reality of the moment was absolutely mind-blowing from where we were, up there at the Conciergerie and the view we had of the scenery and all the Olympic teams, passing by on boats. It was pretty surreal… We never considered ourselves the biggest band in the world that would be worthy to play the Olympics or anything like that. It’s so weird.“

Not only didn’t Gojira pick the song they performed, but Duplantier said they were totally in the dark in terms of how they would fit into the full ceremony along the Seine River, including the fact that Celine Dion and Lady Gaga would also be performing that night. “We didn’t know what was going to happen at all,” Duplantier said, adding that they never got a chance to rehearse on site beforehand. “We just went back and forth with the composer of the Olympic ceremony, Victor le Masne. He threw us a tempo and a guideline. And then we did our thing.” The only time Duplantier even got a feel for the historic building was when he climbed up on the balcony he performed from for 10 minutes three days before to try out his harness, without his guitar.

Determined to represent and honor the metal scene, the singer said they didn’t want to “play a few notes to shock people,” but rather go all-in with the double-kick drums, growling vocals and a tempo breakdown at the end to really “show what metal is all about.”

While brushing off comments from such social media trolls as Andrew Tate and some talking heads on Fox News that the performance was inspired by the devil, Duplantier also had to shrug at similar pearl-clutching on the American right from Donald Trump Jr. and House Speaker Mike Johnson that the ceremony’s recreation of the “Last Supper” featuring drag queens was an insult to Christians. “I haven’t seen it, as surprising as it seems,” the singer said. “I have a family. I have children. So right after all that work and concentration on the Olympics, I was totally in the dark. I didn’t get to sit and watch the whole thing properly.”

Watch Gojira’s performance again below.

[embedded content]

Italian archer Mauro Nespoli’s knees were weak and his arms were heavy as Team Italy lost to host country France 6-2 during the archery men’s team quarterfinals at the 2024 Olympics on Monday (July 29). However, it wasn’t a complete loss for Nespoli, who found online fame as viewers turned him into a viral meme […]

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Simone Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team made a blazing debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Sunday (July 28). Biles and Suni Lee advanced to the all-around women’s artistic gymnastics final competition scheduled for later this week while teammates Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles advanced to the apparatus final.

Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Nick Jonas, John Legend and Tom Cruise were some of the celebrities in the stands on Sunday.

Trending on Billboard

Biles and Lee will make history as the first Olympics all-around champions to go up against each other in the artistic gymnastics’ final competition. The USA women’s gymnastics team leads the scoreboard going into the final ahead of Italy, China, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Great Britian and Romania.

And it’s not just the women making waves. The men’s gymnastics team took home its first team medal in 16 years on Monday. The team won the bronze medal behind China (silver) and Japan (gold).

See below for ways to watch and stream Olympics gymnastics.

2024 Paris Olympics: How to Watch Women’s Gymnastics for Free

Where can you watch coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics? NBC and Peacock.

The women’s gymnastics competitions will be available to watch live and stream on-demand.

You can access NBC and other local and cable channels with a free trial from DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV or Fubo. All three streaming platforms offer free trials, over 90 live channels, cloud DVR and more.

DIRECTV Stream

Viewers who want to stream the Olympics internationally can use ExpressVPN to access several streaming platforms.

Can you stream women’s gymnastics on Peacock? Yes, and you don’t need the ad-free plan to watch! Peacock starts at $7.99/month for the basic plan, which includes coverage of the Olympics. The Premium Plus plan ($13.99/month) comes with live NBC.

Peacock isn’t offering a limited deal right now, but you can landa discount by subscribing to the annual plan and lock in your rate for a year. Peacock also provides discounts for students and teachers starting at just $1.99/month.

You can also save on Peacock with Xfinity and other third parties. Subscribe to Xfinity’s StreamSaver + Internet plan and enjoy Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ for $35/month. Xfinity Diamond and Platinum rewards customers can get free Peacock through rewards points.

Team USA Women’s Gymnastics Final

The USA women’s gymnastics team consist of Biles, Carey, Lee, Hezly Rivera and Chiles. However, Rivera did not qualify for the final which means only four members will compete. The women’s gymnastics team final is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30.

See the schedule below.

July 30 — Women’s team final (12:15 p.m. ET/9:15 a.m. PT)

Aug. 1 – Women’s all-around final (12:15 p.m. ET/9:15 a.m. PT)

Aug. 3 – Women’s vault final (10:20 a.m. ET/7:20 a.m. PT)

Aug. 4 – Women’s uneven bars final (9:40 a.m. ET/6:40 a.m. PT)  

Aug. 5 – Women’s balance beam final (6:38 a.m. E.T./3:38 a.m. PT)

Aug. 5 – Women’s floor exercise final (8:23 a.m. ET/5:23 a.m.)

STAY have made their way to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Team Mexico’s Alexa Moreno took the mat on Sunday for the ultimate Stray Kids-themed gymnastics floor routine. In a now-viral clip, the 29-year-old athlete is seen performing a series of flips, twists and rolls to the K-pop superstars’ hits including “S-Class,” “Maniac” and “LALALALA.” It’s […]

The morning of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Games, NBC Olympics prime-time producer Rob Hyland woke up a little before 7 a.m. in his Paris hotel room and had a sinking feeling. “I had some breakfast, looked out the window and noticed the rain falling,” he recalls to Billboard. “My first thought was, ‘Wow. This may literally put a damper on an unbelievably ambitious production.’”
In just a few hours, the eyes of the world would witness the grand opening of the Paris Summer Olympics, a gargantuan undertaking that has been in the works for years. An array of highly speculated moving parts hung in the balance, including headline-grabbing appearances from Lady Gaga (who helped open the festivities) and Celine Dion in a stunning comeback performance on the Eiffel Tower to wrap the kick-off celebration.

“Our first meeting about Paris took place the second Tokyo ended,” explains Hyland of the previous Summer Games, which wrapped in August 2021. “When it came to the Opening Ceremony itself, production planning started two years ago with a number of meetings with the creative team who presented this incredibly intricate plan.”

Trending on Billboard

At the helm was creative director Thomas Jolly, an accomplished French theater director who envisioned the banks of the Seine River as the focal point, with athletes from around the world sailing down its waters and a series of al fresco stages along the way, including on the bridges.

“But even back then, we understood that the presentation was secretive,” says Hyland. “Everyone who’s done an opening ceremony as a host nation wants there to be this element of surprise.”

Organizers held their plans so close that even Hyland and his NBC team in charge of broadcasting the spectacle in America had no inkling of specific plans until the relative last minute. “So although we’ve been planning this for a number of years, it wasn’t until a week or two up to the event that we started getting more details and breadcrumbs as to what the night was going to be like and who exactly was going to perform.”

For Hyland, a 20-time Sports Emmy winner who is also the coordinating producer for the popular Sunday Night Football broadcast, it was a delicate dance as rumors flew. “By the midpoint of the week, we did get to see two dress rehearsals without any performers, just stand-ins,” he shares. As a result, he planned his coverage around that. “Seeing the choreography and creative associated with the various performances, I was encouraged to see what it’d look like with whatever top performers Jolly enlisted.”

For a host country’s creative director, it’s an unenviable task. The veteran director and choreographer Kenny Ortega, who masterminded opening and closing ceremonies of the Atlanta Summer Games of 1996, as well as the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, is one of the few people who understands the undertaking.

“You have many creative goals including creating a ceremonial pageantry that would excitedly welcome the world, that would celebrate the magnificence of the games history, and to honor the world of athletes coming together in a peaceful competition,” Ortega tells Billboard. He adds of the “exciting and tense” workload: “I remember napping under my desk in our ceremony tent on the cool concrete floor in Atlanta.”

For his own broadcast in Paris, Hyland had a surprise of his own independent of the actual ceremony: enlisting Beyoncé to help introduce Team USA’s highly anticipated appearance on the Seine River during the Parade of Nations, a special video package that aired only in primetime during NBC’s coverage. (A live, uncut version of the festivities aired live on NBC on Friday afternoon in the United States, sans Beyoncé’s appearance.)

“It was a complete collaboration with NBC and her creative team to help bring that to life,” says Hyland of the video featuring the superstar in a call-and-response with Team USA stars including Simone Biles, Lebron James and Noah Lyles set to the superstar’s Cowboy Carter track “Ya Ya.”

“The first time I saw it, I literally wanted to run through a wall with red, white and blue,” jokes Hyland of the video that was directed by Beyoncé herself, styled by frequent collaborator Shiona Turini. Bill Kirstein, who previously co-directed the star in her videos for “Rocket” and “Blue,” served as director of photography.

“What a vision to behold, what a team to believe in, what a night to celebrate,” the star cooed into the camera to help introduce the team, which then cut to the excited group sailing majestically down the river. Said Hyland: “If that doesn’t get you excited for the Olympics, I don’t know what will.”

At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, NBC had their final production meeting. And at 7:30 p.m. Paris time, everyone was in their places for the ceremony, including commentators Kelly Clarkson (in the host booth with Peyton Manning and Mike Tirico) and Snoop Dogg (positioned on the ground).

“In terms of the performances, in my opinion the rain really added to a lot of them, even the raindrops on top of the piano during Gaga’s performance,” said Hyland of the star who belted out a version of “Mon Truc en Plume” in lush French, a song made famous by the cabaret star Zizi Jeanmaire. “Seeing her walk down the steps and perfectly hitting her mark despite the rain was a moment,” says Hyland. In fact, the only casualty from the wet weather, with the rain picking up as the night went on, was an elaborate host of drone cameras to capture overhead shots, all grounded due to the downpour.

The nearly four-hour ceremony represented a variety of genres from the host country, including French rapper Rim’K, the jazz vocalist Axelle Saint-Cirel (who sang the French National Anthem) and singer-songwriter Juliette Armanet covering John Lennon’s “Imagine.” One of France’s most popular stars, Aya Nakamura, performed her hits “Djadja” (a No. 1 French track) as well as “Pookie.” Of course there was some controversy, too.

But it was Celine Dion — in a comeback performance since announcing her diagnosis with Stiff Person Syndrome — who perhaps garnered the most attention. To close the ceremony, she delivered a heartfelt rendition of French icon Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” while on the first level of a glistening Eiffel Tower. “We have a camera dedicated to the host’s position at all times, and I couldn’t help but watch Kelly during Celine’s performance,” Hyland says of Clarkson’s emotional reaction. “She was crying and it was a very authentic reaction to an incredibly moving performance. I got emotional just watching Kelly watch Celine. It was very powerful.”

By the time the ceremony wrapped by 11:30 p.m. Paris time, Hyland and his team breathed a sigh of relief. By Saturday, he was on a plane back to NBC Olympics headquarters in Stamford, Conn., to produce from afar. Then, it’s on to the Aug. 11 closing ceremony, and then plotting the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Get ready, Los Angeles.

Snoop Dogg has quickly become the USA’s unofficial mascot at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Earlier this year, it was announced that the rapper joined NBC’s team to as one of the official reporters of the games this summer, and has been onsite to deliver “regular reports” on the Olympic Primetime Show. Snoop was also a […]

The 2024 Paris Olympics aired its stunning opening ceremony on Friday (July 26) and, as expected, the star-studded event brought some major performances to the City of Lights. Lady Gaga was the first star to take the stage during the Opening Ceremony, delivering a cabaret-style performance of the French-language “Mon Truc en Plume” (“My Thing […]

If Simone Biles and Suni Lee win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, they’ll have Snoop Dogg to thank … kind of.  The rapper spent part of the Summer Games’ first weekend cheering on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, part of which involved a little spiritual coaching with Lee. In a video posted Monday (July […]