John Legend, Keith Urban Among Stars Singing ‘Imagine’ at Opening Ceremony

Singers from around the world, including John Legend and Keith Urban, performed “Imagine” at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.

</iframe

Our redesigned local news and weather app is live! Download it for

iOS or Android — and sign up for alerts.

The song, co-written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono 50 years ago, played while a giant Earth made of drones rotated above the Olympic stadium. The artists singing hailed from different continents, with Legend representing the Americas, Urban representing Australia, Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz representing Europe, Angelique Kidjo representing Africa and the Junior Chorus representing Asia.

“We’re not the first to say ‘Imagine no countries’ or ‘Give peace a chance,’ but we’re carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing it hand to hand, to each other, to each country, to each generation,” Lennon once said. “And that’s our job.”

While some on social media took issue with the song choice because of the opening line, noting that without countries to compete against each other there may not be an Olympic Games, Ono explained in a Twitter post that the song embodies what she and Lennon believed together at the time, saying “he comes from the West and I come from the East – and still we are together.”

IMAGINE.John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met – he comes from the West and I come from the East – and still we are together.#IMAGINE50 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/mj2wJEUIiV

— Yoko Ono ☁️ (@yokoono) July 23, 2021 More Opening Ceremony Coverage