Celine Dion is rumoured to be performing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony. Photo / Getty Images
Celine Dion is rumoured to be performing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony. Photo / Getty Images
Popstar Celine Dion is rumoured to be making her grand return to the stage on Friday during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Variety has reported the star, who was diagnosed in December 2022 with Stiff Person Syndrome - an autoimmune neurological disorder which affects the muscles - is set to perform for the first time since cancelling her world tour last year.
While no details about her rumoured performance have been made public, the 56-year-old has been alluding to fans that she could be due for a comeback after she told Vogue France in April, “I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team. I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!”
She added, “For four years I’ve been saying to myself that I’m not going back, that I’m ready, that I’m not ready… As things stand, I can’t stand here and say to you: ‘Yes, in four months,’” she said. “I don’t know… My body will tell me.”
In an exclusive interview with TODAY, singer Celine Dion reveals why she decided to come forward with her diagnosis for stiff person syndrome. "I could not do this anymore," she says, adding, "Lying for me, the burden was too much." pic.twitter.com/LJvUrcFjpO
Sharing her reasoning for staying quiet about her condition for 17 years, the popstar said she was both trying to understand what was going on and waiting for an official diagnosis, “What did you want me to say? ‘I have …’ what?” Dion said. “We did not know what was going on.”
The mother of three continued to say in the exclusive interview that at the time she began experiencing symptoms, she “did not take the time” she needed to find out what was going on as she was in the middle of her Taking Chances World Tour, raising her children and supporting her late husband, Rene Angelil, who was battling throat cancer.
“My husband as well was fighting for his own life,” she exclaimed. “I had to raise my kids, I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero.”
Angelil died in 2016 at the age of 73. He and Dion were married for 22 years.
Dion said when the time came for her to share her diagnosis with the world, she was torn in two directions of “holding on to my own dreams” and struggling with the “burden” of lying.
Celine Dion opened up for the first time about her diagnosis in her documentary. Photo / Prime Video
If the singer does appear at the opening ceremony on Friday, it will be the second time she has performed at the top sporting event, as she also sang The Power of the Dream at the 1996 Atlanta games.
Dion has remained largely out of the spotlight as she navigates her new life. Speaking to the Mirror before the documentary’s release, she said: “This last couple of years has been such a challenge for me, the journey from discovering my condition to learning how to live with and manage it, but not to let it define me.
Stiff Person Syndrome is a rare, progressive neurological disorder that can cause stiff muscles in the torso, arms and legs and affects about one in a million people.
