Kelly: It makes perfect sense that Céline Dion is making her comeback in Paris |
Céline Dion announced on Monday that she will be doing a series of concerts at a Paris arena beginning in September.
Dion could have launched her concert comeback anywhere. Las Vegas would have been an obvious choice, given that she and her family live there and she has already done two incredibly successful, long-running residencies on the Strip in Vegas. New York City would have been another unsurprising choice. Even Montreal could have been the spot, given that she grew up in the area and is universally adored in her home province.
But she chose Paris of all places, and it makes perfect sense. Dion is known around the planet primarily for her English songs — hits like The Power of Love, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, All by Myself and, of course, the Titanic theme song My Heart Will Go On. However, even when her English career was going wild, she never neglected her French-language music. In fact, in the ’90s when she was dominating the worldwide pop scene, Dion recorded and released two of her best francophone albums, Dion chante Plamondon and D’eux.
On Monday, Dion confirmed what had been an open secret for days: She is making her stage return after a lengthy absence, with a series of concerts at the 40,000-seat Paris La Défense Arena. She will headline 10 nights at the venue, with two shows a week from Sept. 12 to Oct. 14. General ticket sales kick off Friday, April 10, but there are presales from Tuesday to Thursday next week.
Dion’s team had teased the announcement with billboards across Paris last week featuring the titles of some of her most famous songs.
Dion had cancelled a bunch of dates on her Courage tour because of health issues, and she later revealed she was suffering from a rare neurological disease called stiff person syndrome that causes debilitating spasms. The 2024 documentary I Am: Céline Dion chronicles her battle with the illness and includes a downright horrifying scene in which her entire body goes into intense spasms.
Dion released a video to unveil the concerts, and she looked great, seeming to be in good health and fine spirits. Many Dion fans, myself included, wondered if she would ever perform again after seeing how the disorder had ravaged her body, but she surprised everyone and wowed the world with her performance at the Paris Olympics in 2024, delivering a heart-stopping rendition of the classic Édith Piaf number Hymne à l’amour. It is very cool to know she is returning to the stage, but the most important thing is to see she looks healthy.
“I want to let you know that I’m doing great, managing my health, feeling good,” Dion says in the video. “I’m singing again, even doing a little bit of dancing. Obviously, I love it so much.”
The announcement was timed to come out on Dion’s 58th birthday.
“This year, I’m getting the best gift of my life,” Dion says. “I’m getting the chance to see you, to perform for you once again, in Paris, beginning in September this year. I’m so happy. I’m so ready to do this. I’m feeling good, I’m strong, I’m feeling excited, obviously, of course a little nervous. But mostly I’m grateful to all of you. I can’t wait to see you again.”
The video is classic Céline. What I’ve always loved about Dion is that what you see is what you get. There’s no hiding behind a persona; there’s no presenting some phoney agenda dreamed up by her agents. Dion speaks from the heart, as she does here. She feels good. She wants to dance. She wants to sing for us. And she’s touched by all the support she receives from her fans. And it’s always a little offbeat the way she delivers her message, always a bit of a twinkle in her eyes, a certain je ne sais quoi.
And she, of course, does two versions of the video, one in each of Canada’s official languages. Dion remains Quebec’s ideal ambassador, a French-Canadian who has made it to the top of the pop universe yet has never made the slightest attempt to hide her francophone roots. She speaks perfect English, but you can still hear the accent and she was always committed to raising her three sons in a French household even though they have lived in the U.S. for over two decades.
So Paris is the perfect place for le retour de Céline. She began her career in the language of Brel, and all close Dion watchers agree that her greatest work by far is D’eux, a collection of songs written especially for her by the great French songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman. With sales of 12 million copies, it remains the bestselling French-language album in history. There is just something about Céline en français that simply cannot be matched by anything she has done in English, and the chance to see her belt out the tunes in both languages in the City of Light is one impossibly attractive concept.
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Céline Dion to make comeback with series of concerts in Paris this fall