IT was the breathtaking comeback that nobody dared predict.
After Celine Dion revealed to the world in 2022 that she had secretly been battling a rare and incurable neurological condition that could leave her unable to walk or sing, she all but vanished from the public eye.
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Forced to axe her North American and European tour dates, fans feared that stiff person syndrome would rob the French-Canadian chart icon of her incredible music career.
But when Celine appeared as a tiny figure, clad in glittering silver, 187ft up on the Eiffel Tower for the climax of Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony, her world was put to rights at last.
Her unmistakable voice was strong and powerful.
And her breath-taking performance had France — and indeed the world — talking.
Brave Celine, 56, was on stage in public for the first time since 2020.
With the Eiffel Tower as a glittering backdrop, her note-perfect rendition of Edith Piaf’s Hymne A L’amour truly stole the show.
She triumphantly told fans: “I’m honoured to have performed tonight for the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, and so full of joy to be back in one of my very favourite cities.
“Most of all, I’m so happy to be celebrating these amazing athletes, with their stories of sacrifice and determination, pain and perseverance.”
The five-time Grammy winner has told how her rare condition makes her muscles tense uncontrollably.
In Prime Video documentary I Am: Celine Dion, released last month, she discussed her longing to return to the stage.
But giving a harrowing insight into life with her condition, she shared footage of herself suffering a ten-minute seizure which made her so stiff she could not move.
She was only able to moan in pain and cry with distress as doctors administered medication.
So when courageous Celine stepped into the spotlight on Friday, a poignant figure beneath the showpiece Olympic rings, fans were delighted to see how well she looked.
She dazzled in a shimmering floor-length gown with a stunning train.
And despite the crippling pain that has secretly plagued her for years, she showed no outward signs of the syndrome which can leave sufferers static, like human statues.
Celine — whose ballad My Heart Will Go On from the Titanic soundtrack won the Best Song Oscar in 1998 — previously put her career on hold in 2014 as her beloved husband and long-time manager Rene Angelil had throat cancer.
Although her Las Vegas shows resumed, she stepped away from the limelight once again in early 2016 following two family tragedies.
Rene, who first became her manager when she was 12, died aged 73 and, just two days later, her brother Daniel, 59, passed away. He had brain, throat and tongue cancer.
Recalling meeting her husband, Celine revealed she “fell in love” with him “immediately”, adding: “Not in the romance way — I was 12 years old.
“I was in love with the way he treated everyone around me, including my whole family and myself.”
‘Learn to live with it’
Celine was devastated when she lost Rene.
But supported by her three sons, Rene Charles, 23, and 13-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy, she found the strength to return to music.
She released 2019 studio album Courage, featuring the likes of Sia, Sam Smith and David Guetta.
I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time
But the record’s promotional tour was put on hold during Covid — then cancelled due to her illness.
In her documentary, Celine candidly revealed she had been hiding the symptoms of stiff person syndrome for some 17 years, including vocal cord spasms which cause her voice to crack and sound thin or strained.
For more than a year, film crews followed the star as she struggled on.
It was the first time she had allowed cameras to capture her private life and showed how she had lost control of nearly all of her muscles.
And despite being surrounded by doctors, specialists and physio- therapists, her humour, charm and spontaneity still shone through.
Which is remarkable given Celine had been taking up to 90mg of Valium a day for pain relief, before admitting: “I did not know it could kill me.”
She continued: “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.”
Celine told fans that the disorder causes excruciating pain when the muscles in her torso and limbs alternate between spasming and rigidity — but vowed to return to the stage, even if she “had to crawl”.
And getting there was not easy.
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While waiting for a “miracle” cure, she has gruelling “athletic, physical and vocal therapy” five days a week.
In April, she said: “I hope that we’ll find a miracle — a way to cure it with scientific research. But for now, I have to learn to live with it.”
In a nod to this weekend’s glorious comeback, she added at the time: “My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again.
“For four years I’ve been saying that I’m not going back, that I’m ready, that I’m not ready.
My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again
“As things stand, I can’t stand here and say, ‘Yes, in four months’. I don’t know.”
This weekend, Celine proved that, while her body may be frail, her voice is not.
And she threw her heart and soul into the song that Edith Piaf wrote for her lover, boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was killed in a 1949 plane crash on his way to see her.
As Celine held back tears, French athletes Teddy Riner and Marie- Jose Perec lit the Olympic cauldron attached to a huge model hot air balloon.
The moment marked 28 years since the singer made her Games debut in Atlanta in 1996.
And on Friday, she told competitors at this year’s event: “All of you have been so focused on your dream and, whether or not you take home a medal, I hope that being here means that it has come true for you.”
Celine’s latest climactic performance hopefully lays to rest many fans’ fears that her singing career is over.
For now, her music will go on . . . and on.
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