Celine Dion reveals she’s ‘living the life’ ahead of Paris comeback

Her struggles have been well documented.

It’s been some years since Céline Dion stepped away from the spotlight due to the rare illness she’s been battling.

She cancelled a run of shows between 2021 and 2022 after falling ill, and was later diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome.

Though in a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Céline revealed that she had been struggling with symptoms of the disease for nearly two decades.

According to the Stiff Person Syndrome Foundation, the rare neurological disease affects one in 1 million people.

 

The syndrome includes symptoms like “hyper-rigidity, debilitating pain, chronic anxiety,” and muscle spasms “so violent they can dislocate joints and even break bones”.

The pain led to Céline needing to take valium to suppress the pain for some years before she was officially diagnosed in 2022.

Four years after revealing her diagnosis, Céline has said she’s finally coming through to the other side.

Having announced a comeback residency of concerts in Paris which kicks off next month, Céline beamed that she’s currently “living the life”.

Céline has only publicly performed once in the past five years – her spectacular performance on top of the Eiffel Tower for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Given the terrible time she’s faced with her health, it made her rendition of Edith Piaf’s classic ‘Hymne à l’amour‘ all the more triumphant and emotional.

But it also signified that Céline was capable of a comeback, and that she could manage her condition.

In preparation for her Paris shows, Dion has committed to an intense training routine which includes Pilates sessions three times a week, ballet, vocal therapy, and immunotherapy.

For Céline, however, all of the work is totally worth it, as long as she can repay her loyal fans.

Having first announced her Paris residency, the ‘My Heart Will Go On‘ icon admitted that her shows are a gift to her fans.

“It’s been so long, I would like to offer them something to show how I’ve missed them,” she said.

Her return comes after Dion gave an intimate, candid look behind the scenes of her health journey in the 2024 documentary, I Am: Céline Dion, which detailed the effect her condition had on her body and voice.

“They paid for tickets. They bought my records. They gave me that luxury. So the least I can do is tell them that I’m alive.

“It’s got to be because I’m an open book,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “I’m honest, and it’s not always pretty. Sometimes it’s happy things, sometimes it’s sad, but it’s called life.”

Céline has maintained this tough mentality throughout her time with Stiff Person Syndrome.

“It is a progressive condition. I don’t like to say ‘disease.’ Disease makes you go like this,” she told the magazine, screwing up her face. “‘Kevin, you’re such a disease.’'”

Even when she struggled to “function”, as she said in a recent interview, she remained strong for her children.

She acted this way because they’d already lost their father, René Angélil, who died in 2016.

“I barely could walk at one point, and I was missing very much living,” she said.

“My kids started to notice. I was like, ‘Okay, they already lost a parent. I don’t want them to be scared.’”

Dion continued, “I let them know, ‘You lost your dad, [but] mom has a condition, and it’s different. I’m not going to die. It’s something that I’m going to learn to live with.’”