Paris has turned into a waiting room for Céline Dion.
For weeks, crowds have gathered outside the Royal Monceau hotel near the Arc de Triomphe, waiting for a glimpse of the singer ahead of her return to the stage on Saturday for the first concert of her Paris residency.
“Céline, Céline, Céline!” the crowds have chanted as she appeared in various outfits, waving, signing autographs and sometimes singing.
“I have never, ever seen a comeback like Céline Dion’s comeback in Paris, never,” said Léna Lutaud, a culture reporter for Le Figaro. “Paris is really a Céline Dion city right now.”
The comeback follows years away from performing after Dion revealed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with stiff person syndrome.
“I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reach out to you,” Dion said in a video addressed to fans. “Recently, I’ve been diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome.”
The disorder can cause severe muscle spasms, including of the vocal cords, which Dion showed in an Amazon Prime documentary.
When Dion left a New Jersey stage in March 2020 during her Courage World Tour, few expected it would be years before she performed again. She returned at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony, performing on the Eiffel Tower, but a full return to concerts in front of audiences remained unclear until March.
“This year, I’m getting the best gift of my life. I’m getting the chance to see you, to perform for you once again, in Paris,” Dion wrote on social media when she announced the residency on her 58th birthday.
The initial run includes 16 concerts in September and October, followed by 10 more shows starting in May 2027 at Plenitude Arena, described as Europe’s biggest indoor concert venue.
Paris has been preparing for weeks. The city has hosted themed boat rides along the Seine, pre-parties ahead of the concert and large karaoke events.
“She’s the queen, obviously, and we’ve been waiting for her for such a long time,” said Natacha Campana, founder of L’Écran Pop, which hosted a karaoke night with more than 2,000 guests. “We love singing Céline in karaoke, for sure, because those songs can liberate us and it feels good.”
For fan Estevam Peric, the trip from Montreal to Paris will mark his 100th Dion concert.
“I’m very, very, nervous, very excited, very emotional,” Peric said. “It’s the soundtrack of my life. I’ve been following her since my teenage era, and each song, each album, there’s always something special that connects to my life each time.”
He said he has met Dion at least 10 times and described her as humble and kind.
“The voice, it’s like oxygen and the rest is just magic.”
Peric has tickets for seven Paris concerts. All performances quickly sold out. The arena has a capacity of up to 45,000 seats.
Lutaud said Dion’s long relationship with France helps explain the excitement. French songwriter Eddy Marnay was among the first to work with her when she was a teenager, and Dion has often partnered with French haute couture labels including Dior and Chanel.
“I understand she’s a huge star in Quebec, but here she’s also a very big star because she’s the only star at her level to have lots of great songs, both in English and in French,” Lutaud said.
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