Celine Dion: The heart goes on

The agony of the art she’d spent a lifetime mastering, slipping away was palpable in Irene Taylor’s poignant 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion.

2 min readSep 15, 2026 06:10 AM IST First published on: Sep 15, 2026 at 06:10 AM IST

Six years after her last full concert, pop icon Celine Dion walked onto the museum-like stage of Paris’s Plénitude Arena in a black pleated Dior dress and kicked off with her 1998 French hit, ‘On ne change pas’ (We don’t change). Moments later, visibly overcome with emotion, she told the packed stadium, “I made a promise to be back… So here I am, singing for you and singing for me…” Dion was opening the first of her 26-concert ‘Celine Dion Paris 2026’ residency.

The Canadian chanteuse moved between French songs, power ballads, an opera aria and pop. But this was no ordinary comeback. Dion has spent the last six years grappling with a rare neurological disorder, which affected her body and her vocal cords, challenging the sheer power and astounding high notes that have long been her signature. The agony of the art she’d spent a lifetime mastering, slipping away was palpable in Irene Taylor’s poignant 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion.

That is why Paris was different from a usual comeback concert. Here was a star returning after a hiatus, but here was also an artiste who discovered her voice and body could not be taken for granted. Dion wasn’t defeated by her changed body; she found a way to work with it. “I am gonna come on stage… And my vocal cords will not scare me… and I will hit those notes because I am not brave, I am smart. And I can’t wait to go back… and hit whatever I can hit,” Dion had said in 2024. In Paris, the key was lowered; she was more often than not on point with the notes, and sometimes just about in the vicinity. Against the odds, she triumphed.