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 certainly more somber that the Paris 2024 opener but still delivered a classy spectacle and projected an overall elegance that reflects its Italian spirit.

Held in the two host cities and in several Alpine venues, the event featured more than 1,000 performers — including Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli — who celebrated Italian history, culture and fashion.

Milan’s San Siro 75,000-seat stadium was the main venue for the roughly three hour live Olympic opener. The ceremony took place amid tight security with thousands of Italian police officers, aided by surveillance drones and robots that patrolled the area around the stadium where dozens of heads of state, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, watched the show.

The lead-up to the games had been marked by protests over the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who will not be in the streets but are instead there as security for Vance and Rubio, as well as a Russian cyberattack aimed at some Olympics-related websites and hotels. Tensions over the presence of ICE in Italy caused the official hospitality hangout space for the U.S. Olympic team in Milan to undergo a name change from The Ice House to The Winter House.

Veteran Olympic ceremonies wizard Marco Balich, who produced the opener, built the multi-location show around the Greek concept of “harmony,” intended to bring together city and mountains, man and nature and the 2,900 athletes from cultures that share the Olympic space.

Balich told Variety that, unlike previous Olympic openers such as the star-studded Paris 2024 opener, “This is the first time we’re going to have a somber ceremony.” Olympics organizers are focusing on deploying less glitz and more ecological sustainability, while still generating lots of excitement.

Which they did, in a more understated manner than the bombastic, and fun, Paris 2024 Olympics spectacle held on the River Seine.

Read on for the biggest moments from this year’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Welcome to Italy

The live action in Milan’s San Siro stadium started on time with a countdown and a tribute to Italian beauty and Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. Canova’s 18th century statue depicting the myth of Cupid and Psyche was brought to life on stage, intending to become symbolic tale of attraction, transformation, and union, visually embodying the concept of  “Armonia,” or “Harmony” in English, that organizers say is inspired by the word’s original Greek meaning of a harmony as a dialogue between diverse elements.

The piece, in which the stadium was transformed into a living museum, featured 70 young dancers from Milan’s Accademia del Teatro alla Scala. This segment showcased reproductions of four iconic works by Antonio Canova: the Venus Italica, the Genius of Death, the Bust of Paris, and the Naiad.

Italian Harmony: Fantasia

Italy’s Matilda De Angelis, who made her international acting 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 is being called a Symphony of Fantasia celebrating Italian creativity. The music shifted between different registers: from a trumpet reminiscent of Nino Rota’s film scores for Federico Fellini movies to a stadium choir, then from an Antonio Vivaldi aria to the pop music of the late Raffaella Carrà, the iconic Italian singer, actor, and dancer who was a TV sensation across Europe and Latin America.

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

Grand Parade/Mariah Carey Sings

A grand parade of characters inspired by symbolic categories of Italian creativity through the ages culminated in Mariah Carey Carey, surrounded by a kaleidoscope of colours on stage, performing entirely in Italian for the first time. Carey sang Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu” – known internationally as “Volare.”

Written by Domenico Modugno and performed at the 1958 Sanremo Festival, “Volare,” with its famous refrain – “volare! oh, oh!” – marked a milestone in the history of Italian song, becoming a global phenomenon and winning two Grammy Awards, an unprecedented achievement for Italian music at the time. Carey’s “Volare” performance was conceived as a symbolic gesture, again underscoring the event’s “harmony” theme and the ambition to highlight local culture while giving the broadcast global appeal.

Carey segued from “Volare” into her hit single “Nothing is Impossible” from the 2025 studio album “Here For It All.” She wore a an Art Deco-inspired gown featuring beads and crystals on the bodice, waist and skirt. And a diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet, valued at $15 million.

Presidential Entrance, Followed By Giorgio Armani Tribute

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

Their symbolic grand entrance was followed by a fashion show inspired by the Italian flag and based on one of Armani’s last drawings before he died at 91 last September.

Three groups of models walked the runway wearing Armani creations in green, white, and red, transforming the Italian flag into a living image. It was a moment of collective recognition, a tribute to Italian fashion and the elegance of one of its most celebrated figures.

Armani is also the official technical outfitter of Italy’s winter sports athletes.

The flag bearer chosen to embody Milan’s creative and contemporary spirit was supermodel Vittoria Ceretti who is currently romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Laura Pausini Sings Italy’s National Anthem

Global pop icon Laura Pausini, a multiple Grammy Awards winner, sang Italy’s national anthem which resounded simultaneously in both host cities, creating a shared moment between Milan and Cortina where a mountain choir amplified its emotional power.

Olympic Rings/Transition To Multiple Locations

Milan joined Cortina in this unprecedented multi-location ceremony, with the Olympic circles multiplying in a dance number that embraced the city and the mountains, until they recomposed into the emblem of the Games, with music played by a Stradivarius violin as accompaniment. As the Olympic emblem appeared, the ceremony shifted into multi-location mode.

First Widespread Parade of Athletes

Reflecting the fact that these are the most spread out Olympics in the games’ history, the athletes’ parade took place in the sites closest to where they will compete. Milan’s San Siro Olympic Stadium is hosting the athletes competing in ice sports. Livigno has the Livigno Snowboard Park. So athletes competing in Bormio and Livigno will compete in freestyle skiing, snowboard, and also men’s Alpine skiing. Predazzo has the ski jumping stadium. And Cortina will host athletes in ski jumping, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined, besides sliding sports and curling, among others.

Organizers are proud of pulling off the feat of transforming the geography of the Games into what they call a single, shared stage with TV coverage weaving it into a seamless narrative. There are more than 2900 athletes from 92 participating delegations, including four skiers from Iran. Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and the United Arab Emirates are participating for the first time.

Russian skiers and lugers at the Games are not displaying a national identity with team colors, a flag or an anthem and were not part of the opening ceremony.

The last team to parade was host Italy. As soon as they began, the music switched to the rambunctious “Largo Al Factotum” number from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Sabrina Impacciatore Dazzles With Time-Traveling Musical Number

Sabrina Impacciatore, known to U.S. audiences for roles in “The White Lotus” and “The Paper,” performed a time-traveling musical number celebrating 100 years of Winter Olympics history featuring a panoply of on-stage costumes, including a fabulous vintage ski outfit designed by Emilio Pucci for jet-setting Princess Soraya of Iran who wore it in Cortina where Italy’s first Winter games were held in 1956.

That year no artificial snow was used in Cortina. But in today’s global warming world there are plans for snow cannons to spew nearly 2.4 million cubic meters (3.1 million cubic yards) of fine-grained flakes. Organisers are vowing to use entirely renewable energy to power the cannons which should guarantee sufficient cover for the 116 Olympic medal events scheduled over 17 days.

Impacciatore’s live stage performance featured scenes spanning from the 1920s to the 1990s, and into the present day, with a musical selection featuring jazz and swing music, and iconic Italian singer Adriano Celentano’s hit song “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” considered the first Italian rap song ever written. The song’s improvised text is an invented language that phonetically mimics English.

“Prisencolinensinainciusol,” which is said by Celentano to stand for universal love, features in Spike Lee’s film “Highest 2 Lowest” recorded by Aiyana-Lee with the title “Prisencolin (Americano Joint).”

Italian President Opens the Games – Bocelli Sings “Nessun Dorma”

From the presidential box, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, officially declared the Olympic Winter 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 group of three Italian athletes and then the relay movement continued uninterrupted. The sequence was segued by Andrea Bocelli belting out Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” culminating in the flame’s exit from San Siro, symbolically opening the path for the Games to kick off beyond 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 inspired by Nelson Mandela.

“Peace is not just the absence of conflict. Peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference,” Theron said. “Today, this message seems more relevant than ever. So let these games be more than just sport. Let them be a reminder of our common humanity, our respect for one another, and a resounding call for peace everywhere.”

The South African-born actor, known for her performances in “Monster,” “Bombshell” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” spoke during the ceremony’s protocol segment focused on the Olympic Truce and symbols of peace. Her address concluded a section exploring peace symbols found across different cultures, religions and traditions, representing reconciliation, hope and the rejection of violence.

Lang Lang and Cecilia Bartoli Light up San Siro

After the Olympic flag was raised simultaneously 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 Children’s Choir. Their performance was followed by the Olympic oath performed in Italian. The oath was first pronounced by Belgian athlete Victor Boin at the Games of the VII Olympiad Antwerp in 1920. The oath of the modern Games was originally written by Pierre de Coubertin, the French educator and historian who founded the International Olympic Committee but it has been modified over time.

Grand Finale: Olympics Flame and Lighting of the Cauldrons

In Milan and Cortina, for the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, the flame was passed from hand to hand to reach two Olympic cauldrons, one for each host city. The one in Milan is at the Arco della Pace (Peace Arch) that is one of the city’s iconic monuments and represents the idea of peace achieved after conflict. The cauldron in Cortina is in the central Piazza Dibona.

Both cauldrons feature more than 1,400 parts and are modelled after the intricate knot design of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Nodi Vinciani.” Leonardo embedded these intricate knot patterns in several of his masterpieces, including the tapestry in the Last Supper and the decorative embroidery on the neckline of the Mona Lisa. The flame became transformed into Armonia, the ceremony’s overriding theme. Fireworks and a cascade of sparks from the Olympic rings followed.

In the U.S., the Games are getting full-court-press treatment from NBC and Peacock. In Europe, HBO Max is streaming the Olympic competition alongside local broadcasters.

As for American representation, the U.S. is fielding its largest Winter Olympics team ever, with 232 athletes including Lindsey Vonn, whose comeback attempt at age 41 is being threatened by the recent rupture of her left anterior cruciate ligament. We will known on Sunday if Vonn manages to compete.

Let the Games begin!