Celine Dionis coming back to the public eye now.
The “My Heart Will Go On” singer turned heads with an ultra-rare appearance in Paris ahead of her performances in the French city next month.
For the Aug. 28 outing, Dion kept it as chic as ever in a beige trench coat and sunglasses. She wore her signature slicked back bun and oversized sunglassesasshe greeted fans and photographers outside her hotel.
But this appearance is just a prequel to what will be an even grander comeback for her. After all, Dion’s appearance comes five months after she announced she’d gifted herself residency in the city of love as a 58th birthday present.
“This year, I’m getting the best birthday gift of my life,”Diontold fans in aMarch 30video announcing the Plentitude Arena residency. “I’m getting the chance to see you, to perform for you.”
The Grammy winner—mom toRené-Charles, 25, and 15-year-old twinsNelsonandEddywith her late husbandRené Angélil—will hit the stage in September for the first time since the 2024 Paris Olympics and will continue the string of shows through May 2027.
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During preparation for the event, Dion—who shared her diagnosis with stiff person syndrome in 2022—toldHarper’s Bazaarin an interview published earlier this month she was hoping to give her fans everything she had. As she put it, “It’s been so long, I would like to offer them something to show how I’ve missed them.”
Meanwhile, it has not been an easy couple of years for Dion behind-the-scenes. After her health diagnosis, “The Power of Love” singer admitted she’s been working extra hard to ensure she can keep performing.
“The way I see it, I have two choices,” Dion explained after her Olympics performance. “Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it’s over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself.”
And while her fans would certainly understand if she chose the latter, Dion’s heart couldn’t go on that way.
“I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team,” she emphasized. “I want to be the best I can be.”
For a deeper look into Dion’s health battle, keep reading…
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A note on her website further explained that she’d been treated for “severe and persistent muscle spasms which are preventing her from performing, and her recovery is taking longer than she hoped.”
Dion said in a statement, “I need to be in top shape when I’m on stage. I honestly can’t wait, but I’m just not there yet… I’m doing my very best to get back to the level that I need to be so that I can give 100 percent at my shows because that’s what you deserve.”
“As you know, I’ve always been an open book,” she said in an Instagram video. “I wasn’t ready to say anything before, but I’m ready now. I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time, and it’s been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.”
She suffered muscle spasms that affected “every aspect” of her daily life, Dion explained, making it difficult to walk sometimes and, saddest of all, it was going to be impossible for her to go back on tour as she’d been planning.
“I’m working hard with my sports medicine therapist every day to build back my strength and my ability to perform again,” Dion said. “But I have to admit, it’s been a struggle.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, symptoms include stiff muscles in the torso, arms, and legs, and greater sensitivity to noise, touch, and emotional distress, all of which can trigger muscle spasms.
She had previously recorded five songs for the rom-com Love Again, and the title track dropped ahead of the film’s May 5 release. “I think it’s a wonderful feel-good story, and I hope that people will like it, and like the new songs too,” stated Dion, who also appeared as herself in the movie starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan.
Dion already had several signature movie tracks to her name—”Beauty and the Beast,” “Because You Loved Me” and the Oscar-winning Titanic anthem “My Heart Will Go On”—but somehow she had never been in a movie before. (You can check out her debut in this one on Netflix.)
“I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100 percent. It’s not fair to you to keep postponing the shows, and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything now until I’m really ready to be back on stage again.”
The Montreal Canadiens shared footage of the family’s meet-and-greet in the visiting team’s locker room, Dion telling coach Martin St. Louis (per an English translation) that it had been “an incredible night.” She even gave the players a pep talk, advising, “Just stay healthy, strong…do what you do best.”
But better yet, according to Canadiens executive Chantal Machabée, their VIP guest sang “a few notes” for them and it was “an incredible moment.”
“She’s been through a lot, and to see her like this and smiling and being so happy…it’s amazing,” the team’s VP of hockey communications told People. “I know she has good days and not so good days, but this was a very good day, and it was reassuring.”
“What breaks my heart is that she’s always been disciplined,” Dion’s big sister said. “She’s always worked hard. Our mother always told her, ‘You’re going to do it well, you’re going to do it properly.'”
The former judge on Quebec’s L’Étoile des aînés (a competition for singers 65 and older) said it was her and Dion’s dream that the singer would be able to return to the stage. “In what capacity?” she added. “I don’t know.”
Amazon announced the upcoming documentary I Am: Céline Dion, directed by Irene Taylor, would reveal the lengths Dion had been going to in hopes she could go back to doing what she loved.
“As the road to resuming my performing career continues, I have realized how much I have missed it, of being able to see my fans,” Dion said in a statement, explaining why once more she was opening the door. “During this absence, I decided I wanted to document this part of my life, to try to raise awareness of this little-known condition, to help others who share this diagnosis.”
As soon as Dion was announced as the night’s final presenter (after social media got wind of her presence elsewhere in the building, but still), the audience was on its feet.
The five-time Grammy winner may not have been ready for a spotlight performance on music’s biggest night just yet, but she did sing a few bars with Sonyaé Elise backstage, the “Collide” artist sharing the moment on Instagram afterward amid other highlights from her “ICONIC night.”
Dion and Taylor Swift also shared an off-stage hug, silencing the immediate uproar over Swift seemingly not paying proper homage to the elder legend onstage when Dion presented her with Album of the Year for Midnights. Not wanting to be an anti-hero on her history-making night, Swift posed for pics with Dion and René-Charles, who had sweetly escorted his mom to the microphone.
Celebrating the momentous night with Dion was her longtime stylist Law Roach, who dressed the star in a flowy Valentino dress and striking overcoat, with Tiffany & Co. diamonds upping the sparkle factor.
“This makes me so much Joy!” he captioned a next-day Instagram snap with Dion. “Not just to dress my Queen again but the fact that she’s HEALTHY AND HAPPY! The UNIVERSE always PROTECTS and PROVIDES.”
She was still learning to live with stiff-person syndrom, she shared in the article published April 22, but was working her butt off with athletic, physical and vocal therapy five days a week to not let it defeat her.
“The way I see it, I have two choices,” Dion said. “Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it’s over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself.”
Dion wrote on Instagram afterward that she was “so full of joy to be back in one of my very favorite cities!”
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