Celine Dion made an emotional stage comeback on Saturday night in Paris, opening a five-week residency at La Plenitude Arena in front of an estimated 30,000 fans.
The 58-year-old singer, wearing a strapless ruffled black dress, wiped away tears as she made her entrance. It was her first run of concerts since she was forced to cancel the remainder of her Courage world tour in 2023 because of a debilitating battle with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder that causes severe muscle stiffness and painful spasms.
SPS can also cause an unsteady gait, double vision or slurred speech. There is no cure, but treatment can help manage symptoms and slow its progression. Dion has performed only twice, briefly, since revealing her diagnosis, making Saturday's show a milestone after months of gruelling training.
'I'm So Happy to See You'
In the opening moments of the show, Dion told the crowd: "I had promised myself not to cry, I don't keep my promises. But I'm so happy to see you all. I missed you. I'm going to sing like you without crying."
She went on: "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." She added: "Thank you so very much for your support, your patience and if I may say so, I am everything I am because you loved me."
Fans Gather to Welcome Her Back
Before the show, Dion was greeted by fans as she left her hotel.
In her honour, fans known as "the red heads" set up a candy apple stand, a reference to an apple tree comment they made when she first revealed her health battle. At the time, fans said: "We're not here for the apple, we're here for the tree," meaning they cared more about her health and wellbeing than her hits. Dion appeared touched by the gesture and stopped to talk with them.
Understanding Stiff Person Syndrome
SPS is an extremely rare disorder that makes the muscles in the torso and limbs alternate between spasming and being rigid. It is estimated to affect around 70 people in the UK and 330 in the US, and hits roughly twice as many women as men. The progressive disease can eventually leave patients needing a wheelchair. There are three recognised types: classical, which affects the back, stomach and sometimes the thighs and neck; stiff limb, which mainly affects the legs, feet and hands; and jerking stiff person syndrome, the rarest and most aggressive form, which also affects the head and eyes.
Experts do not know exactly what causes the disease, though it is believed to stem from an autoimmune reaction in which the body attacks nerve cells that control muscle movement. Around 40 per cent of sufferers also have type 1 diabetes, and the condition is also linked to vitiligo and pernicious anemia. It is more common in people with breast, lung, kidney, thyroid or colon cancer and lymphomas, though researchers do not know why. In SPS, the immune system attacks a protein that helps produce gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which regulates the motor neurons controlling movement; low GABA levels cause those neurons to fire continuously, resulting in spasms and rigidity.
Spasms can be triggered by loud noises, with sufferers also experiencing heightened sensitivity to touch and emotional distress. They can be severe enough to cause falls or difficulty walking, and the unpredictability of the condition, combined with low GABA levels, tends to raise stress, anxiety and other mental health effects.
Karaoke Tribute and Rehabilitation
Fans also sang during a giant karaoke event held in her honour in front of the La Rotonde Stalingrad monument in Paris.
Dion's rehabilitation plan has included new medication, physical therapy, vocal therapy and immunotherapy. To build her strength, she has done 90-minute Pilates sessions three times a week alongside twice-weekly ballet and barre classes, and her home gym is fitted with weights, a treadmill and a reformer machine. She has said her flexibility has increased since starting the new regime.
Speaking to Harper's Bazaar about her training, Dion described it as falling and getting back up repeatedly, and said she was proud of achieving something her body "wasn't born to do." "It is a progressive condition," she said. "I don't like to say 'disease.' Disease makes you go like this," she said, scrunching her nose, "'Kevin, you're such a disease.'"
She laid bare the brutality of the condition in her 2024 documentary, I Am: Celine Dion, though in recent days she has appeared in high spirits while greeting fans in Paris ahead of the shows.
Residency Dates and Diagnosis
The residency runs to 16 shows in autumn 2026, with 10 further dates added for May 2027. Dion announced her comeback in March, and tickets sold out instantly.
She was diagnosed with SPS in 2022 after a flare-up in 2020, at the same time as the start of the pandemic. She isolated herself from fans for three years, partly out of fear they would assume she was living a full, happy life while still cancelling shows, and she developed a deep appreciation for nature during that period.
"I love trees so much, and I had this vision of myself trying to disappear through the leaves," she said. The trees were bare, as it was autumn, an image she saw as a metaphor for her own struggle. "I was trying to tell them, I'm sorry, I don't have any apples to give you anymore," she said, until a voice told her: "But we did not come for the apples; we came for the tree."
Back on Stage
Dion's last performance before Saturday was in Riyadh, after singing at the Paris Olympics earlier that same year. Addressing herself but speaking to a reporter, she said: "Well, girl, if you don't want to sign autographs and you don't want to get yourself pretty and you don't want to be disturbed because your pasta is going to get cold, you can always stay home. But look at what you have."
