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Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, who performed at Sunday’s concert at the Stade de France for the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, said that he worried for athletes’ safety during the show.

French indie rock band Phoenix delivered a rousing rendition of their hit “Lisztomania” surrounded by hundreds of athletes.

While Mars is accustomed to live performances, the Olympics’ closing ceremony was a different kind of gig, he told French radio France Inter on Monday morning, due to the overjoyed crowd of athletes who were out of control during the musical act.

“We were told that generally at closing ceremonies, the athletes are very happy with the pressure from the Olympics coming down so they let loose,” said Mars. “But there, they got up on screens, they broke the screens,” he said. “In fact, we were afraid for them because we had been told for the last two weeks of rehearsal ‘Above all,...

Phoenix is taking over the 2024 Paris Olympics!

The iconic French band, made up of brothers Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai along with Thomas Mars and Deck D’Arcy – took center stage at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday (August 11) in Paris, France.

For their performance, Phoenix delivered a set of hits, fan favorites, collaborations, and covers with special guests.

Keep reading to find out more…

“We are infinitely happy to have had the chance to celebrate with all the athletes and the entire world at the Closing of the Olympic Games in our beloved city of Paris. It was a wonderful moment to have been invited to take the stage with our friends from France and around the world, honoring the French spirit and remaining true to our motto: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix! We are thrilled to both pass the baton to the Paralympics athletes and to Los Angeles for the forthcoming 2028 games,...

French bands Phoenix and Air will both perform at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday, August 11th.

The two Versailles-based groups helped usher in the Olympics with a special concert at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport on July 17th — along with Étienne de Crécy and Izzy Lindqwister, Phoenix and Air performed on the roof of Terminal 1, serving as a pre-Olympics summer party as well as a commemoration of the airport’s 50th anniversary.

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Now, after the massive Olympics opening ceremony included performances from Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Gojira, Aya Nakamura, and dozens others, the closing ceremony will feature even more spectacle. In addition to “French Touch” legends Phoenix and Air, Tom Cruise is reportedly set to pull off a stunt on the Stade de France — Le Parisien confirms that Cruise will be a part of the handoff that symbolizes the transition between Paris...

“Most musicians know how to whistle,” reveals Thomas Mars, whose band Phoenix did the music for “On the Rocks.” In the A24 film streaming on Apple TV+, Bill Murray’s character Felix chastises his daughter Laura (Rashida Jones) for forgetting how to whistle. In our exclusive video interview, Mars continues, “Whistling is a big part of how you get harmony and learn to tune. I’m lucky it works for me. I don’t know if you can lose the ability to whistle like Laura, but all Phoenix musicians are pretty good at whistling.”

In “On the Rocks,” Laura suspects her husband of having an affair and recruits her father Felix to get to the bottom of things. The film is written and directed by Sofia Coppola, who won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for her previous Murray film “Lost in Translation” (2003). Mars is married to Coppola and says that...

For Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, the scoring and music supervision on “On the Rocks” became the highlight of his five-film collaboration with director and wife Sofia Coppola. Indeed, this father-daughter comedy, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, turned into a musical expression about bonding over New York on so many levels.

For starters, Coppola came up with Chet Baker’s “I Fall in Love Too Easily” as the perfect entry for Murray’s charming and irresistible Felix, the Don Juan-like art dealer. The movie opens with a voiceover of Felix telling young Laura (Jones) that her heart will always belong to him, even after she gets married. Fade in to Laura and husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) running off after their wedding for a playful tryst to the romantic strains of the iconic trumpeter Baker. It immediately conveys Felix’s strong hold on her, which must be resolved during their later...

Halloween hasn't even half-killed us with Reese's overload yet, but we're already counting the days until Netflix starts streaming "A Very Murray Christmas."

The Sofia Coppola-directed special is an "homage to the classic variety show featuring Bill Murray playing himself," and it arrives on December 4. The holiday event has an all-star cast, including George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, David Johansen, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix's Thomas Croquet, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Mazzalai, Frederic Moulin, Rashida Jones, and more.

The famous names are on display in Netflix's new 30-second trailer, which shows Murray promising, "This night will go down as the greatest night in history."

Check it out:

Here's the plot synopsis from Netflix:

Set inside New York City's iconic Carlyle hotel, A Very Murray Christmas opens with Murray preparing to host a live, international holiday broadcast.

Netflix has a Christmas special coming called A Very Murray Christmas, which will star Bill Murray as himself. The story centers on Murray worrying that “no one will show up to his TV show due to a massive snowstorm in New York City. Through luck and perseverance, guests arrive at Gotham’s Carlyle hotel to help him — dancing and singing in holiday spirit.”

Guest include George Clooney, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, David Johansen, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix’s Thomas Croquet, Christian Mazzalai, Laurent Mazzalai, Frederic Moulin, Rashida Jones, Miley Cyrus and more.

Is it just me or is that a lot of guests? Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) will write and direct the special.

Netflix is spreading out as far as it can. It has original TV shows, it’s picking up potential Oscar-contenders, and now it’s reached the highest echelons of programming: Christmas Specials. The streaming service has picked up A Very Murray Christmas, which will star Bill Murray as himself. Per Variety, the plot centers on Murray worrying that “no one will show up to his TV show due to a massive snowstorm in New York City. Through luck and perseverance, guests arrive at Gotham’s Carlyle hotel to help him — dancing and singing in holiday spirit.” Those guests will include George Clooney, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, David Johansen, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix’s Thomas Croquet, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Mazzalai, Frederic Moulin, Rashida Jones, Miley Cyrus, and more. That may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that...

Cult favorite French band Phoenix has released a music video for "Trying to Be Cool," the latest cut off of the band's recent album, "Bankrupt!"

Phoenix band members Laurent Brancowitz, Deck d'Arcy, Thomas Mars, and Christian Mazzala star in the music video celebration of all things cool, including basement jam sessions, mustaches, skinny jeans, modern art, Adidas tracksuits, and scantily clad women. Take a look at the music video to "Trying to Be Cool" above.

"Trying to Be Cool" is featured on the group's fifth studio album, "Bankrupt!" Released four years after Phoenix's last album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix," "Bankrupt!" performed well for the band, hitting No. 4 on the Billboard 200 to much critical acclaim.

"I guess we're perfectionists in the way that when we make an album, we know it's going to last. It's important that it's exactly how we want it to be," Mars said in an interview with the AP.

New York -- Phoenix frontman and singer Thomas Mars says their new album "Bankrupt!" was born out of the negative influences going on in the band after the unprecedented success of their Grammy-winning 2009 album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix."

"At that time, we started talking about success and not music," Mars said. "I guess it was time to protect ourselves and focus on music again."

The band said it took some time to get on track when they began writing songs for the new album, which comes four years after "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" was named a Top 10 album on end-of-the-year lists for Rolling Stone, Time and Spin magazines, among others. The album also reached gold status, a first for the band.

"I guess we're perfectionists in the way that when we make an album, we know it's going to last. It's important that it's exactly how we want it to be," Mars said.

Here's a nice hump-day surprise: French indie-rock darlings Pheonix have unveiled their upcoming album for a week's worth of free streaming on iTunes.

Following a performance on the Melissa McCarthy-headlined episode of "Saturday Night Live" and a highly anticipated stint at the first weekend of Coachella, when R. Kelly joined the band onstage, Phoenix decided to add a bright spot to our week. "Bankrupt!" -- the group's fifth studio album -- will be released officially next Tuesday (April 23). It serves as the follow-up to 2009's immensely successful "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix."

Pheonix revealed in an interview with The New Yorker in February that they recorded the album, then untitled, using the same console that Michael Jackson employed on "Thriller." Guitarist Laurent Brancowitz reportedly said the relic was for sale on eBay and cost the band $17,000 -- a bargain, considering the original asking price was $32,000. The quartet bought the console from Clayton Rose,...

(Adds details of performances throughout)

By Piya Sinha-Roy

Indio, Calif., April 14 (Reuters) - Grammy-winning French indie rock band Phoenix headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival on Saturday, bringing R&B singer R. Kelly as their special guest on stage amid rumors that French electro duo Daft Punk would join them.

Phoenix's lead singer Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai, played a selection of old and new songs against the star-lit backdrop of the festival, held in the desert in Indio, California.

The band, which is due to release its album "Bankrupt!" on April 22, sang new songs "Entertainment" and "The Real Thing". It also serenaded the crowd with favorites from its last album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix", such as "Lisztomania" and "Fences".

Kelly's appearance came as a surprise to an audience expecting to see Daft Punk after a teaser music video by the electronic group was played...

Phoenix is back with a new music video for "Entertainment," the first single off of the band's upcoming "Bankrupt!" album.

The video (shown above) is set in Asia, and features multiple story lines and traditional Asian imagery, but no sight of the band members themselves. Instead of a performance by Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz, and Christian Mazzala, an Asian pop star is shown singing Phoenix's "Entertainment" to a packed crowd.

Phoenix will likely be performing "Entertainment" later this month when the band begins an international tour. Kicking off March 28 in Vancouver, B.C., Phoenix will hit U.S. cities such as Seattle and Las Vegas before heading abroad for an abbreviated summer tour. The band is also set to play this year's Coachella music festival.

Late last year, Glassnote Records head Daniel Glass spoke to HuffPost Entertainment about Phoenix's upcoming album, saying that it was a "treat" to hear the band's new music.

Expect to hear this one on more than a handful of car commercials in the next 12 months: Phoenix has released its first new single since 2009. The song, "Entertainment," is off the band's forthcoming new album "Bankrupt."

"Entertainment," which you can hear above, sounds like a classic Phoenix track: bouncy drums, driving synthesizers and singable hook.

The band first announced the official release of "Bankrupt" last week. The disc will arrive on April 23 in the U.S. (April 22 in England) and include "Entertainment" as well as songs titled "Drakkar Noir," "Chloroform" and "The Real Thing." Back in December of last year, Glassnote Records head Daniel Glass told HuffPost Entertainment that a new Phoenix album was on tap for 2013. The band had been fooling around with a new record since 2011.

From earlier HuffPost coverage of Phoenix:

Phoenix, the French alt-rock band, is made up of Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz.

Phoenix fans looking forward to the band's new album can finally pencil in a date. According to Glassnote Records head Daniel Glass, the next Phoenix album should be out in April of 2013.

Glass made the announcement at a Spotify event on Thursday. Glass was on hand to endorse Spotify; his company represents Phoenix and Mumford & Sons among other indie-rock crossover successes.

"I got to have a treat last Friday. I went to Paris to hear the Phoenix album, which is now done," Glass told Huffington Post Executive Arts & Entertainment editor Michael Hogan at the Spotify event. "That will come out, hopefully, in April."

Phoenix, the French alt-rock band, is made up of Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz. The band's breakout album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix," was released in 2009 and housed hit singles like "1901" and "Lisztomania." At the 2010 Grammys, Phoenix won for Best Alternative Album. Mars, who is married to director Sofia Coppola,...