- Celine Dion performed at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
- It was the Canadian singer’s first live performance since 2020.
- Dion announced in late 2022 that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome.
Celine Dion closed the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday, marking the Grammy Award-winning artist’s first live performance in four years.
She will perform French singer Edith Piaf’s classic “Hymne a l’amour” at the Eiffel Tower when the Olympic Games open in the French capital in 2024.
Dion wrote in an Instagram post after the show that she was “honored” and “so happy to be back in one of my favorite cities.”
“Most of all, I am so happy to celebrate these incredible athletes, whose stories of sacrifice and determination, pain and perseverance,” she wrote.
The singer’s performance was widely praised, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau writing to X, “A Canadian icon and an incredible talent. She has overcome so much to be here tonight.”
“Celine, good to see you singing again,” he added.
Dion also performed at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
This will be Dion’s first live performance since 2020, nearly a year and a half after announcing that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome.
According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, stiff-person syndrome is “a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that most commonly causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms that may come and go and worsen over time.”
The disease most commonly affects people between the ages of 40 and 50, according to the website.
Reflecting on her diagnosis, Dion told French Vogue in April that she was determined to return to the stage and had a goal of seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris one more time.
“The way I see it, you have two choices,” she says. “You can either train and work hard like an athlete, or you can turn it off and stand at home in front of the mirror listening to songs and talking to yourself.”
“I’ve chosen to work with my medical team, fully committed from head to toe, to be the best I can be,” she added.
