Celine Dion on Saturday kicked off her first full concert in six years in Paris, as she returned to the stage after battling a rare neurological disorder.
Wearing a strapless black gown, the 58-year-old French-Canadian singer was visibly moved as she sang her 1990s French-language ballad “On ne change pas” (“One doesn’t change”) to a crowd of some 30,000 fans.
She paused briefly and was overcome with emotion as she made her much-awaited comeback, after Stiff Person Syndrome forced her to cancel shows and left her struggling to perform.
Enthralled fans chanted her name at the end of the first song.
“I have to admit, the path was rockier than expected, the journey longer than expected, with unplanned stopovers, but I held on to a faint ray of light in the distance, deep in the mountains,” she told the audience.
“And now, the sun is here, the sun is in front of me. So tonight, I want to sing for you, sing for myself, sing for life,” she said.
Fans from around the world had flocked to the Plenitude Arena on the western edge of the French capital for the opening night of her 26-show run.
Saturday’s performance is the first of 16 sold-out shows in September and October, before Dion returns to Paris for another 10 next May.
The series, produced by event promoter AEG Presents, is expected to generate hundreds of millions of euros in economic benefits for the French capital.
AFP
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