From Billboard · Ulysse Hennessy,Léa Menanteau · · 1m 30s
Céline Dion is back, and she brought a disco ball
Six years after her last concert, Dion opened a 26-date Paris residency with tears, snow, a gospel choir and a dance floor turn nobody predicted.
In brief
Six years after her last concert, Dion opened a 26-date Paris residency with tears, snow, a gospel choir and a dance floor turn nobody predicted. Dion didn't return as a fragile balladeer being handled with care. She returned playful, loose and in control of a two-and-a-half hour room. Originally reported by Billboard.
Six years, then 30,000 people
Dion opened her 26-date Paris residency at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre on Sept. 12, her first headline show since going public with stiff-person syndrome.
Nine million wanted in
The access lottery drew more than nine million entries and every ticket sold within hours. Her first 16 autumn dates will put over 480,000 people in the room.
She sang France back to itself
The set leaned hard on D'eux, the Jean-Jacques Goldman album that is still the best-selling French-language record ever made. The English hits showed up too.
No pyro, on purpose
A big set, zero fireworks. The staging was stripped back so nothing competed with the voice, and the show ran close to two and a half hours after starting 47 minutes late.
Tears, snow and a choir
She opened crying on "On Ne Change Pas," sang the aria "La Wally" under falling snow, took "All by Myself" a cappella, and pulled a gospel choir in for the big sing-along.
The gamble was the dance floor
A mirror-ball stretch with "I Feel Love," "Sweet Dreams" and a reworked "I'm Alive" gave the crowd a looser Dion than the balladeer they came expecting.
The short version
Dion didn't return as a fragile balladeer being handled with care. She returned playful, loose and in control of a two-and-a-half hour room.
