It's hard to believe two weeks have passed by so quickly: on Sunday night, the Rio Olympics will come to an end. It's been two weeks of drama, heartbreak, and triumph. And while it will be exciting to see who will be performing at the Olympic closing ceremony, I'm not going to lie... I'm sad to see it end.
NBC will be airing the closing ceremony starting at seven o'clock EST and run for approximately two and a half hours. The ceremony will actually start at six o'clock at the Maracana stadium in Rio, where the opening ceremony was held, but NBC plans to air an edited version (and most likely a whopping pile of commercials). Fans can expect another relatively modest ceremony compared to previous Olympic closing ceremonies (the budget for Rio is approximately one-tenth of the budget for the 2012 London Olympic Games), but there will still be plenty of excitement and out-sized performances to make it worth watching. One of the creative directors of the opening ceremony, Rosa Magalhaes, will be running the show for the closing ceremony. Magalhaes is a Brazilian professor of scenography, and she has been involved with the world famous carnival in Rio since 1971. So she knows a little something about theatrics.
One performer fans will be excited to see is Kygo, the DJ, songwriters, and performer from Norway. Apparently Kygo lived with his parents in Brazil as a boy. Kygo gained internation recognition with his remix of "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran, which has over 60 million views on YouTube. He is expected to perform the song, "Carry Me" along with singer Julia Michaels at the closing ceremony. According to The Chicago Tribune, Kygo is feeling pretty enthusiastic about his performance.
The opportunity to be a part of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio is a huge milestone in my career and it will be the biggest performance of my life. I've been a sports fan forever.
The rest of the performers have not been announced, which means we can expect some surprises. But one thing is for certain; the closing ceremony will celebrate Brazilian culture. According to creative supervisor Abel Gomes, the closing ceremony will focus on "all that's best in Brazil". There have been a few rumors that iconic Brazilian soccer player Pelé will be on stage at the closing ceremony, particularly since he was considered a fan favorite to light the torch at the opening ceremony. Unfortunately, poor health kept him away, but fingers crossed that he's feeling better for Sunday.
The ceremony will close with remarks from IOC President Thomas Bach, and the symbolic passing of the Olympic flag to the governor of Tokyo,Yuriko Koike, in preparation for the 2020 Games.
The Olympic flame will be extinguished... and then we all have to go back to living our regular lives again.
