After a year-long break from concerts due to illness, superstar Céline Dion has announced a stage comeback. “This year I will receive the most beautiful gift of my life”said the “My Heart Will Go On” singer in a video posted to Instagram on her 58th birthday. “I get the opportunity to see you and perform for you again, starting in September in Paris.”
Again and again she had am Stiff Person Syndrome Dion has stressed in the past that he wants to return to the stage. Now she will give ten concerts in the La Défense Arena in Paris in the fall. It starts on September 12th. The last concert in the hall, which can accommodate up to 45,000 people, is planned for October 14th. “I feel good, I’m strong, I’m excited, a little nervous of course, but most of all I’m very grateful to all of you!” Dion said in the video. “I can’t wait to see you again.”
Dion suffers from a rare illness
Dion made the diagnosis public in 2022 and has rarely appeared on stage since then. Whether she could travel or perform depended on her form on the day. That’s why the “My Heart Will Go On” singer canceled all dates of her “Courage World Tour” in Europe planned for 2023 and 2024.
At the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she sang publicly for the first time since 2020. She then performed, among other things, at a show in Saudi Arabia. However, at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel 2025, fans waited in vain for a possible appearance by the singer.
The disease can be well managed with therapy
According to Peter Berlit, Secretary General of the German Society for Neurology, Stiff Person Syndrome is as incurable, but symptomatically treatable quite well. “It is possible that the symptoms can be treated so well that the people who have the disease are hardly affected in everyday life.” The expert explains: “If autoantibodies can be detected, and this is the case in the majority of all patients, you can establish a therapy that is directed against these autoantibodies and can thus achieve a largely symptom-free situation even over longer periods of time, i.e. over a few months.”
The autoantibodies produce too little of an anti-irritant transmitter. This could cause muscle cramps. It is assumed that autoantibodies probably always play a role in stiff person syndrome, even if the exact antibodies are not known in all patients.
With more than 200 million albums sold worldwide, Dion is one of the most successful musicians of her generation.