Canadian singer Celine Dion made an emotional return to the stage on Saturday, September 12, performing her first full-length concert in six years after stepping away from live performances because of serious health challenges.
Thousands of fans filled the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris, to welcome the Grammy-winning singer back to live performance.
Dion became emotional during her opening song, On Ne Change Pas, briefly pausing to wipe away tears as the crowd cheered her return.
“I promised not to cry,” she told the audience. “Tonight I want to sing for you, for me, for life.”
The 58-year-old singer stopped performing full concert sets in 2020. In 2022, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder that can cause severe muscle stiffness and painful spasms.
The condition made it difficult for Dion to continue singing and touring, forcing her to focus on her health and recovery.
She made a brief public return during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where she performed Edith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour, but Saturday’s concert marked her first full-length show in six years.
During the two-hour performance, Dion sang 26 songs spanning her decades-long career, including some of her biggest hits such as My Heart Will Go On, All By Myself and It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.
She also showed her trademark humour after making a mistake at the beginning of The Chase. Dion stopped the performance, laughed and asked the audience if she could restart the song.
“Finally. It’s amazing we’re all together,” she said during an emotional moment between songs.
“I made a promise to come back and be back on stage. Thank you so much for your support, your patience and, if I may say so, I am everything I am because you loved me.”
Saturday’s performance was the first of a 26-date concert residency at the arena, scheduled to run over the next eight months.
Fans from around the world travelled to Paris for the comeback, with many arriving hours before the show to witness Dion’s return to the stage.