I didn’t think I’d see this again: Céline Dion’s return to the stage

Hours after the first night of Céline’s Paris residency, the whole concert was already on YouTube.

I watched the opening number as she appeared on stage, joy on her face and tears in her eyes as she realised the moment had arrived, and it was real. Her fans went wild. Cheering, crying, screaming, emotions, sheer joy pouring out as they saw her walk onto that stage. I have no problem admitting I was a little teary myself.

It was something I honestly didn’t think I’d see happen again.

I’ve always been a massive Céline Dion fan; ever since I first heard “Because You Loved Me” back in the 90s, I’ve been obsessed with her singing. 

I first saw her perform in 1999 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. I remember, to this day, sitting miles back in the upper seats, captivated by it all.

I’ve been lucky enough to see her three more times since 2008, and her voice still wows me. The power, the overtones, the range of emotions she can convey. She is incredible to experience live.

Around 2017, I started seeing clips of her, and you could immediately tell something was wrong with her voice. The crystal-clear, soaring tone was gone; in its place were shaky, croaky, often flat notes and worry and frustration on her face. I think at first her team passed it off as her being ill, and then having surgery on her ear, but you could tell something fundamentally wasn’t right.

When I learned about her Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis, I was convinced she would probably never sing again. It just seemed to have destroyed her voice.

Watching her Amazon documentary, “I Am: Céline Dion”, as a fan and a singer was heartbreaking. She talked about her struggles over the years and how she had to hide them from her fans, trying not to disappoint them when her body couldn’t handle being on stage. She looked like a shell of herself, frail and tired, and when she sang, there was nothing there.

Listening to her talk about her voice and losing it struck me how devastating it must be. She followed her dreams from a young age, and her voice is part of her identity. 

The instrument she had stood on stage with and “played” thousands of times, moving people and lifting them with her songs, was gone.  

As a singer and a human, I immediately sympathised with her; how could you not? Not being able to sing, I can’t imagine how that must feel. I don’t know how she kept herself motivated to keep going. I would have sunk into depression at the loss of my voice.

But she kept going, treatment after treatment, working on it with such determination to succeed; it was inspirational and made me stop and think about how lucky I was. 

Whenever I saw her speak through tears about how much she missed singing, being on stage, and her fans, I rooted for her. I wanted her to get her voice back, to regain the thing she loves and missed so much.

When they announced she was doing a 10-night residency in Paris, I confess I was pretty sceptical. From the little I had been able to watch of her singing live, it didn’t seem like her voice was there, and let’s face it, she doesn’t have the easiest songs in the world to sing.

From watching most of her first night in Paris, I could tell her voice isn’t what it was before, and I don’t think it ever will be. She used quite a lot of pre-recorded tracks to hide this, but I didn’t care that much. Seeing the joy it brought her fans and seeing Céline’s joy build with every word and note she sang, I’m OK with a few lip-synced moments.

It struck me that she walked out knowing her voice wasn’t what it once was, but gave it everything she had, and her fans loved every minute of it.

The one thing I’ll take away from that moment is to be grateful for the voice I have and be a little kinder to it when it’s not doing what I want.

How do you treat your voice when you have an off day?