An Olympic Farewell

After Sunday's Olympic closing ceremony, I feel that I must comment again on our Olympic effort. It seems that I was perhaps a little hasty in describing the games as a success from start to finish. Don't get me wrong, the closing ceremony was a fabulous spectacle, but I disagreed with some performances. The commentators made a point of telling the viewers that music is Britain's greatest export, and who could argue with the likes of The Beatles, Queen and The Spice Girls to name but a few acts that performed at either of the ceremonies. We, as a musical nation, have produced such extraordinary talents that I imagine the organisers had a tough time of deciding who would get to perform at all. Surely, they could barely scratch the surface of Britain's remarkable plethora of musical expertise in just two concerts? Many bands and artists would surely have to be left out, with only a select few lucky enough to perform for the world. And yet, this wasn't quite the case. During the closing ceremony, the popular British hit "Our House" was performed not once, but twice, all in the space of about twenty minutes!! And the decision to allow Emeli Sande to perform three times over the two concerts was utter Madness.  Don't get me wrong, she is a fantastic singer, but I wonder if she quite has the calibre to get a slot in either ceremony, let alone both! I felt that the first half an hour of the closing ceremony was really a celebration of Emeli Sande's one song. It was well sung on the second occasion and the accompanying video was heartfelt and inspiring, but I can not understand the decision to open the ceremony with her slow, moving song, when what was really in order was something extravagant, a little panache. In short, I thought it was a shame to end on an Emeli Sande dominated ceremony, when we have so much to offer.