Celine Dion overcame the challenge of stiff person syndrome at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday to give her first live performance in four years.
Dressed in a stunning white gown, she belted out Edith Piaf’s classic song Hymne de l’Amour (Hymn To Love) as the final number of the ceremony against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
It marked the end of an extravagant, four-hour 2024 Olympics opening ceremony unfolding along a six kilometer (4.5 mile) stretch of the River Seine under the pouring rain.
There was hardly a dry eye along the river at the end of the Dion’s dramatic return after battling stiff person syndrome for close to five years.
The star, who last performed live in New York in the spring of 2020, has strong connections with the Olympic games.
In 1996, she performed ‘The Power of the Dream’ at the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic games, with the song written and produced specially for the occasion.
Celine Dion performing on the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Paris 2024
IOC via Getty Images
Dion’s appearance in the opening ceremony was confirmed earlier this week after sightings of the star in Paris. However, fears reigned that she might not make an appearance if her health failed at the eleventh hour.
The artist appeared immediately after the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by French sports personalities, sprinter Marie-José Pérec and three-time Olympic gold medal winner judoka Teddy Riner.
Alongside Canadian superstar, the other big international name of the evening was Lady Gaga, who performed a rousing rendition of French 1960s cabaret tune ‘Mon truc en plumes’, as the first live singing act of the evening.
A raft of local artists also vowed the more than 300,000 spectators along the route including Aya Nakamura with a sassy performance of her hit songs Pookie, Djadja and Charles’s Aznavour’s For Me Formidable.
Other highlights included mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel’s singing the French anthem, the Marseillaise, on the roof of the Grand Palais and a moving interpretation of John Lennon’s Imagine by Juliette Armanet.