Celine Dion brought the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics to a stunning conclusion with her first performance since announcing her diagnosis with a rare neurological condition in 2022.
Dressed in a silver glitter dress, she gave a moving rendition of “L’hymne à l’amour,” co-written and famously performed by French singer Édith Piaf, on a platform halfway up the illuminated Eiffel Tower and beneath glowing Olympic rings. She was accompanied by a pianist.
Immediately after the performance, Kelly Clarkson, one of NBC’s commentators, said, choked up and tearful, “I can’t actually talk.”
“People don’t know her story or what she went through physically,” she added. ‘It’s just incredible what she has overcome. And to have that moment, she’s a vocal athlete.
Dion announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with stiff person syndrome, a condition that has affected her ability to sing. Since then, she has significantly cut back on public appearances.
She created hype that she would be performing at the opening ceremony when she was spotted in Paris this week.
You can watch her performance here.
It was the second time that Dion performed at the Olympic Games. In 1996, she sang “The Power of the Dream” at the Summer Games in Atlanta, a snippet of which the official Olympic social media accounts shared:
In an interview in June, the five-time Grammy winner said she had broken ribs due to the muscle spasms associated with stiff person syndrome, which made it difficult for her to sing.
She said that sometimes it felt like “someone is choking you” when she tried to sing.
But she hit her high notes flawlessly during her comeback on Friday and deservedly high praise and drawing strong emotions from viewers, who called the performance ‘beautiful’ and ‘inspiring’.