After Six Years, Canadian Singer Celine Dion Returns To Stage
Popular Canadian singer Céline Marie Claudette Dion, better known popularly as Celine Dion has returned to the stage on Saturday, September 12, opening her Paris residency after six years away.
TGM Recalls that in December 20222, CelineDion publicly revealed that she had been diagnosed with stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition that affects the nervous system and can cause severe muscle stiffness and spasms.
However, the singer became visibly emotional after opening Saturday’s concert with “On Ne Change Pas”, meaning “We Don’t Change” with tears in her eyes as she addressed the audience.
“I had promised myself not to cry,” Dion said to the crowd.
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“Thank you so very much for coming. If it’s your first time in Paris, I hope you fall in love with it just like I did. Finally, it’s amazing we are all together.
“I made a promise to come back, to be back on stage. So here I am, singing for you and singing for me, singing live!”
Naijaonpoint Nigeria reports that the performance marked Dion’s first full concert since March 2020, when she last performed in Newark before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted live music and her subsequent health struggles forced her to suspend touring.
It would be recalled that she made a brief but widely celebrated return to the stage during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, performing from the Eiffel Tower.
On Saturday, rather than a single performance, Dion returned to carry an entire concert as she launched the first leg of a Paris residency that will see her perform 26 shows at the Plénitude Arena, with the residency extending into May 2027.
The opening run alone includes 16 concerts scheduled between September 12 and October 17, before additional performances later in the residency.
Dion fever swept through Paris ahead of her comeback as about 10,000 people gathered on September 11 for a public karaoke event, singing Dion’s songs on the eve of her comeback, while fans also gathered outside her hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the singer.
Although Canadian, Celine Dion became a major star through her French-language music before crossing into the English-speaking market and becoming one of the defining voices of global pop in the 1990s.
The 58-year-old Canadian singer opened the concert with the French song “On Ne Change Pas,” before performing some of her biggest hits, including “Because You Loved Me,” “The Power of Love” and “My Heart Will Go On,” the iconic song from the “Titanic” soundtrack.