Celine Dion performs during the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.Supplied/Getty Images
Asked this week if Celine Dion would be performing at the Olympics opening ceremony, French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra would neither confirm nor deny the rumoured blockbuster appearance, but added that the iconic Canadian singer’s presence in Paris was “not a coincidence.”
The speculation bore out and the dizzy anticipation was rewarded when Ms. Dion emotively performed Hymne à l’amour (Hymn to Love) under a well-lit Eiffel Tower emblazoned with the Olympic rings logo to close a classy ceremony. Suffering from stiff-person syndrome (a rare neurological disorder characterized by progressive muscle rigidity), Ms. Dion had not performed publicly since 2020.
Nearly four hours into the slow-burning ceremony, with the Olympic cauldron majestically rising, the French Canadian superstar performed the heartbreaking song in a glittery white gown accompanied by a pianist whose instrument was topped with rain beads. Ms. Dion’s vocals were strong and flawless.
Hymne à l’amour is a popular French song originally performed by the French singer Edith Piaf, who wrote the lyrics in 1949 about the love of her life, world champion boxer Marcel Cerdan. Ms. Piaf first performed the tune one month before her beau was killed in a plane crash.
The Paris performance was a welcome return to form for Ms. Dion, who revealed her diagnosis in 2022. With her vocal cords affected by the condition, the five-time Grammy winner cancelled all her scheduled concerts for 2023 and this year.
Celine Dion outside her hotel ahead of the Paris Olympics on July 26.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Now 56 years old, Ms. Dion re-entered the entertainment world this June with the release of I Am: Celine Dion, an emotionally raw and defiant documentary in which the singer candidly revealed her physical struggles. She is shown on screen enduring an apparent prolonged seizure, from which she emerged to croon along to Wyn Starks’ power ballad, Who I Am.
“I will sing again, that’s for sure,” Ms. Dion vowed at the film’s premiere in New York. Indeed, the melodramatic documentary seemed to suggest a comeback that has now occurred in Paris.
This isn’t the first time Ms. Dion has prevailed over physical issues at the Summer Olympics. In Atlanta in 1996, she memorably sang The Power of the Dream with a choir and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Years later she revealed in her autobiography, My Story, My Dream, that she felt chest pains on stage and even mistakenly thought she was experiencing a heart attack.
Ms. Dion reportedly donated the money earned for the Atlanta performance to Canadian athletes. Though she was rumoured to pocket US$2-million for her Paris appearance, an entertainment website confirmed on Wednesday the story was bogus. “Contrary to some media reports, the performers at the Paris 2024 Games ceremonies will not receive a fee for their performance,” a spokesperson for the Olympics told Page Six.
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Ms. Dion has a history with Hymne à l’amour, movingly singing it at the American Music Awards in 2015 in honour of the 130 people who died in Paris terrorist attacks 10 days earlier.
Lady Gaga, rumoured to be singing a duet with Ms. Dion, kicked off the thematic ceremony with a feather-laden version of Zizi Jeanmaire’s Mon truc en plumes on a golden set of stairs on the bank of the Seine. “Bonsoir, bienvenue à Paris,” she greeted, as a flotilla of athletes slowly motored past. She also played an interlude of La Vie en Rose, the Piaf classic she performed in the 2019 film A Star Is Born.
Putting the “open” in opening ceremony, Friday’s spectacle was the first in the history of the Olympic Summer Games to not take place in a stadium.
Earlier in the week, Ms. Dion posted a series of photos from the Louvre. “Every time I return to Paris, I remember there’s so much beauty and joy still to experience in the world,” she wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. “I love Paris, and I’m so happy to be back!”
Judging by the reaction of the audience and by the excitable commentators on social media, the feelings were mutual.