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Lady Gaga, beheadings, Céline Dion and more. The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics didn't disappoint with the big moments.
Heavy rain couldn't dampen the celebrations either, unless you were, like many music-lovers, more concerned with the instruments caught in the downpour.
Since the very first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, music has always played an important role.
Opening those first Games was a new Olympic Hymn by Greek composer Spýros Samáaras with words by Kostís Palamás.
The performance was huge. Samáaras conducted nine orchestras and 250 singers.
According to official reports from the Games, the piece was so well-received the audience requested it be played twice.
Despite the popularity, the piece didn't become a fixture at Opening and Closing Ceremonies until 1960.
The Olympic Games have produced some of music's most memorable performances on a global stage, from pop mega-stars like Queen and Céline Dion to classical music royalty like Pavarotti, and Montserrat Caballé.
Here are just a few highlights, including some nominated by ABC Classic audiences.
We also agree with Catherine on social media, who said her favourite music in the Olympics is "every time they play Advance Australia Fair for a Gold Medal presentation."
Torvill and Dean's gold-winning performance to Boléro
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean changed the sport of ice dance through their performance at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, with a little help from Ravel's Boléro.
Their gold medal performance made them the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single program. It was one of the most-watched TV events in the United Kingdom at the time.
Ravel's orchestral piece is usually 17 minutes long. Torvill and Dean worked with a music arranger who cut the music to 4 minutes and 28 seconds, while still trying to preserve the feeling of build-up in the music.
This was still 18 seconds more than the time allowed by Olympic rules.
The pair scoured the rule book and found a loophole stating that timing would not start until the athletes started skating. Thus, was born their iconic opening kneeling on the ice for the first 18 seconds, and the rest was history.
Ravel once said of Boléro "Unfortunately, there is no music in it." But 40 years after Torvill and Dean's iconic performance, it's still one of the most well-known and well-loved pieces of classical music.
Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé's Barcelona at the 1992 Games
In what might be the most unexpected musical pairing of the 80s, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé recorded an album together including the song Barcelona. It was originally proposed as an official song for the opening of the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Mercury and Caballé performed the song together twice in front of a live audience, but Mercury died eight months before the Games performance. Their recording was instead used over a travelogue of the city at the start of the international broadcast.
Big names in film music, Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor) and Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks) also wrote music especially for the ceremony, but Australians might best remember Andrew Lloyd-Webber's song Amigos Para Siempre [Friends for Life].
Performed by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras (one of the Three Tenors), the song topped the ARIA charts for six weeks.
Céline Dion's first Olympic outing in Atlanta, 1996
Céline Dion taking the stage at Paris was a moving performance from the star, who hadn't performed since 2020. She disclosed her diagnosis with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022.
Dion made her Olympic debut in 1996 at the Atlanta Opening Ceremony performing The Power of the Dream, which became the unofficial anthem for the Games.
Star Wars composer John Williams made his second Olympic appearance in 1996 as the composer of the official anthem, Summon the Heroes, following the success of his 1984 Olympic Fanfare.
In another notable appearance, Gladys Knight sang Georgia on My Mind, a Ray Charles classic, but also the official song for the state of Georgia, of which Atlanta is the capital.
Georgia native, soprano Jessye Norman, closed the ceremony with the song Faster, Higher, Stronger, based around the Olympic motto.
The who's who of Australian music at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John, Farnsey. "The best Olympic Games ever" pulled out all the stops.
Yorta Yorta and Yuin soprano Deborah Cheetham Fraillon composed music for the Welcome to Country segment, performing Dali Mana Gamarada in the language of the Gadigal people.
Hero Girl, 13-year-old Nikki Webster, captured imaginations as she swooped through the air to music composed by Elena Kats-Chernin, in a dream sequence evoking the Great Barrier Reef.
Simone Young conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing music especially for the Games by Australian composers including Richard Mills and David Stanhope.
Bruce Rowland's score for The Man from Snowy River played to a dazzling accompaniment by 120 choreographed stock horses.
There was homage to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, and Australia's multiculturalism, as well as kitsch Australiana pop-culture from Kylie on a giant thong, to references from Strictly Ballroom and The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Homegrown acts included Christine Anu, Vanessa Amorossi, Savage Garden, INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil, and Yothu Yindi.
Soprano Yvonne Kenny performed the Olympic Hymn at the Closing Ceremony, in a performance that was almost foiled by a swarm of giant bogong moths.
A hugely popular compilation with Australian audiences, the album of music from the Sydney Olympics topped the ARIA charts and went double Platinum.
A tear-jerking final performance from Three Tenors star, Pavarotti
Sport catapulted the already successful opera singer Luciano Pavarotti onto the global stage when the Three Tenors performed at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
It was fitting that the Italian tenor's final public performance would be at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, where he performed his signature aria, Nessun Dorma.
It's one of the best-known tenor arias in opera, in no small part thanks to Pavarotti.
Tears are visible in the tenor's eyes as he sings the final word, vincerò, which means I will win in English.
It was later revealed that Pavarotti lip-synced the Turin performance. Declining health mixed with the cold weather at the Games led the tenor to record the music a few days in advance. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer soon after and died in 2007.
Billions watch Lang Lang and five-year-old pianist in Beijing, 2008
The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Games showcased thousands of years of Chinese art and culture to an estimated two billion people.
Marking the transition between ancient and modern China were superstar pianist Lang Lang and five-year-old Li Muzi seated at a grand piano, performing a new piece by Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang.
Through eight minutes of music, the pair performed surrounded by hundreds of dancers, accompanied by the China Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lang Lang said it was an honour to perform. "I'm part of a new generation in China enjoying a very different way of life from our parents. We love American culture and classical music, but we also have strong Chinese traditions," he told Reuters.
This year, Lang Lang was a torch bearer for the fourth time, carrying the Olympic Flame through Paris on July 14, followed by a public performance as part of the annual Concert De Paris.
"Olympics is always very special for me," he said during the relay. "Despite all those conflicts around the world and negative feelings, I think we really need this big sport event to synergise the world again," he said.
Mr Bean, Queen and a Spice Girls reunion at London in 2012
A testament to the power of Olympic unity, the 2012 London Games brought together musical magic.
The closing ceremony reunited 90s pop icons The Spice Girls, who had been in and out of hiatus for nearly a decade. Their performance became the most-tweeted moment of the London Olympics.
Poignantly, the ceremony also paid tribute to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who was projected on screens performing from the band's 1986 Wembley Stadium concert. This was followed by band mates Brian May and Roger Taylor performing We Will Rock You with Jessie J on vocals.
But perhaps the most unexpected pairing was the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, with a guest appearance by Mr Bean. In a very meta performance, the orchestra performs the music from Olympic-themed film Chariots of Fire.
Tasked with playing a repeated note on a synthesiser, Mr Bean looks disgruntled with his fellow orchestra members. After antics like looking at his phone and blowing his nose and throwing the used tissue into the neighbouring piano, he falls asleep to a Chariots of Fire dream sequence.
It "has to be the best sport related moment, no contest," says Delwyn on social media.