London Opening Ceremony 2012: Musical Highlights and Lowlights

The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics was many things.

Entertaining, comical and intelligently done are just some ways to describe it. It was definitely an event filled with both highlights and lowlights. It touched on some issues as well, but the best and worst of the event were quite apparent to everyone watching at home.

Highlight: Queen Elizabeth and Daniel Craig Skydiving out of an Airplane Together

When the James Bond music hit, everyone was excited to see him come down by jumping out of a plane. However, no one expected the Queen of England. Yes, Elizabeth herself jumped out of an airplane and shocked the world. 

This also provided tremendous laughs because she showed that not only could she have a sense of humor, but she also made sure that the British crowd got into the festivities with her bold and daring move. Quite a few people would never jump out of a plane, Queen Elizabeth proved that she is brave enough to laugh in their faces.

Highlight: Paul McCartney Closing out the Opening Ceremony

Outside of Elizabeth, the Beatle was the most entertaining act of the night. What made it unique wasn't that McCartney was just up there singing up a storm, but that he was asking for the London crowd to help him out by singing along.

Hearing the thousands in attendance sing along to "Hey Jude" was amazing and made it feel like the entire city was ready for the games to begin. Having one of Great Britain's best acts closing the show just did the entire Opening Ceremony justice.

Lowlight: The Extremely Creepy Healthcare Showing

In one of the best opening ceremonies in recent history, the only real lowlight was the completely creepy musical number done about healthcare. There were kids all around, nurses and giant floats. Then Mary Poppins jumped right in to quash all the villains.

All in all, this was the only sketch that confused and creeped out quite a few. Had this been something closer to a Mick Jagger and David Bowie number, it would have been much better and not been the creepy thing that made some change the channel.

So congrats, London. You put on a great show last night that was filled with amazing talent, portrayed some great stories and even had quite a bit of humor involving Queen Elizabeth herself. Because honestly, who thought the Queen of England would jump out of a plane?

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL Draft. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek and also runs the NFL Draft Website ScarDraft.com and the host of Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

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