New Delhi: Nearly 30,000 fans gathered in Paris as Celine Dion made her long-awaited return to the stage. The concert on 12 September marked her first full-length performance in six years, after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological condition, in 2022.
Thousands of fans without tickets also joined giant karaoke events across the country to celebrate Dion’s return. The Paris City Hall organised a free outdoor karaoke on Friday night, where almost 10,000 fans sang Dion’s hits such as ‘My Heart Will Go On’, from the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic. The song became one of the best-selling singles by a woman in music history.
The mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, said that the capital’s giant street karaoke would honour Dion as an artist of people and a great unifier in France.
“Music has that singular power to bring together and build society,” he said.
The Dion Effect
The Canadian singer’s comeback turned into a major celebration across Paris. While some fans gathered outside her hotel to catch a glimpse of the Dion before her comeback, others held costume contests, karaoke parties and tribute events on the Seine. Dion regularly stepped outside to greet them, sometimes even singing and dancing with the crowd.
The singer’s return comes after years of uncertainty over whether she would be able to perform again. Stiff-person syndrome caused severe muscle spasms and made it difficult for her to sing and perform. In her 2024 documentary, I Am: Céline Dion, she showed the severity of the condition and the impact it had on her life.
“So here I am, singing for you and singing for me, singing life..I made a promise to come back and to be back onstage,” Dion said during the concert.
Despite her illness, Dion remained determined to return to the stage. She made a surprise appearance at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, performing Edith Piaf’s ‘Hymne à l’Amour’ (1949) from the Eiffel Tower.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)