Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: All the Biggest Moments From the Games’ Kickoff (Updating Live)
The Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off on Friday with an unprecedentedly widespread opening ceremony.
Held in the two host cities and in several Alpine venues, the event is set to feature more than 1,000 performers — including Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli — who will celebrate Italian history, culture and fashion.
Milan’s San Siro 75,000-seat stadium is the main venue for the two‑and‑a‑half‑hour live Olympic opener, expected to draw an audience of 2.2 billion globally. The ceremony is taking place amid tight security with thousands of Italian police officers, aided by surveillance drones and robots, patroling the area around the stadium where dozens of heads of state, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will be watching the show.
The lead-up to the games has 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 is producing the opener, has 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 tells 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.
Still, Snoop Dogg is attending as a special correspondent for NBC’s coverage; and Sabrina Impacciatore, known to U.S. audiences for roles in “The White Lotus” and “The Paper,” will be performing a musical number retracing 100 years of the Winter Olympics.
For the the first time in Olympic history, two Olympic cauldrons — one at Milan’s Arco della Pace and one in Cortina’s Piazza Dibona — will be lit simultaneously. Also, the traditional Parade of Nations will be divided across four locations — Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo — with TV coverage weaving it all into a seamless narrative.
Read on for the biggest moments from this year’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony, updating live.
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.
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.
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.”
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 walk the runway wearing Armani creations in green, white, and red, transforming the Italian flag into a living image. It’s a moment of collective recognition, a tribute to Italian fashion and the timeless 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 is supermodel Vittoria Ceretti who is currently romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Global pop icon Laura Pausini, a multiple Grammy Awards winner, sings Italy’s national anthem which resounds simultaneously in both host cities, creating a shared moment between Milano and Cortina where a mountain choir amplifies its emotional power.
Milano joins Cortina in this unprecedented multi-location ceremony, with the Olympic circles multiplying in a dance number that embraces the city and the mountains, until they recompose into the emblem of the Games, with music played by a Stradivarius violin as accompaniment. As the Olympic emblem appears, the ceremony shifts into multi-location mode.
Held in the two host cities and in several Alpine venues, the event is set to feature more than 1,000 performers — including Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli — who will celebrate Italian history, culture and fashion.
Milan’s San Siro 75,000-seat stadium is the main venue for the two‑and‑a‑half‑hour live Olympic opener, expected to draw an audience of 2.2 billion globally. The ceremony is taking place amid tight security with thousands of Italian police officers, aided by surveillance drones and robots, patroling the area around the stadium where dozens of heads of state, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will be watching the show.
The lead-up to the games has 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 is producing the opener, has 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 tells 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.
Still, Snoop Dogg is attending as a special correspondent for NBC’s coverage; and Sabrina Impacciatore, known to U.S. audiences for roles in “The White Lotus” and “The Paper,” will be performing a musical number retracing 100 years of the Winter Olympics.
For the the first time in Olympic history, two Olympic cauldrons — one at Milan’s Arco della Pace and one in Cortina’s Piazza Dibona — will be lit simultaneously. Also, the traditional Parade of Nations will be divided across four locations — Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo — with TV coverage weaving it all into a seamless narrative.
Read on for the biggest moments from this year’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony, updating live.
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.
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.
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.”
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 walk the runway wearing Armani creations in green, white, and red, transforming the Italian flag into a living image. It’s a moment of collective recognition, a tribute to Italian fashion and the timeless 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 is supermodel Vittoria Ceretti who is currently romantically linked to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Global pop icon Laura Pausini, a multiple Grammy Awards winner, sings Italy’s national anthem which resounds simultaneously in both host cities, creating a shared moment between Milano and Cortina where a mountain choir amplifies its emotional power.
Milano joins Cortina in this unprecedented multi-location ceremony, with the Olympic circles multiplying in a dance number that embraces the city and the mountains, until they recompose into the emblem of the Games, with music played by a Stradivarius violin as accompaniment. As the Olympic emblem appears, the ceremony shifts into multi-location mode.