# Celine Dion's long crawl back to the stage

> Six years, one incurable disorder, and a Paris arena waiting: how Celine Dion trained her way back to singing live.
- Title: Celine Dion's long crawl back to the stage · Malay Mail
- Summary: Six years, one incurable disorder, and a Paris arena waiting: how Celine Dion trained her way back to singing live. Dion spent years rebuilding her body and…
- Keywords: celine dion, stiff person syndrome, music, paris, comeback, news, world, Celine, Dion's, long, crawl, back
- Source: Malay Mail — https://malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2026/09/11/even-if-i-have-to-crawl-celine-dions-long-and-painful-road-back-to-the-stage/234843
- Published: 2026-09-11T21:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: celine dion, stiff person syndrome, music, paris, comeback, news, world
## Six years, then Paris
Dion has not played a concert since 2019. She steps out at the Plenitude Arena in Paris after years of physical and voice therapy.
## Twenty six nights booked
Sixteen shows land in September and October, with another ten next May. It is a full tour, not a one off appearance.
## A disorder with no cure
Stiff Person Syndrome is an incurable autoimmune condition that hits one or two people per million. It brings full body seizures and severe muscle spasms.
## Spasms that broke ribs
Dion, 58, revealed her diagnosis in December 2022. She has said it feels like being strangled, and the cramps have cracked her ribs.
## Even if I have to crawl
In a 2024 NBC interview she refused to accept that the stage was gone, offering fans a promise rather than a farewell.

> I'm going to go back onstage, even if I have to crawl. Even if I have to talk with my hands.
## The Eiffel Tower surprise
No sign language was needed. She appeared up the Eiffel Tower at the rain soaked Paris Olympics opening in 2024 and sang Edith Piaf's Hymn to Love.
## Doubters cried lip sync
Some observers claimed the Olympics performance was mimed. Dion herself still did not trust her voice or her body for a full concert.
## Training like an athlete
Ballet and pilates several times a week, plus voice therapy, over years. Only now does she feel ready to face 30,000 ticket holders.

> She is utterly determined
## Her children pulled her through
She credits her kids as the main reason to get better: twin 15 year old boys and an older son in his twenties, from her marriage to Rene Angelil.
## Two decades of hiding it
She now realises she lived with the condition for nearly 20 years, masking symptoms until cancellations in 2021 and 2022 made the rumours impossible to contain.
## The Valium she risked
To keep performing she took higher and higher doses of the tranquiliser, not grasping how close that came to killing her.

> I did not understand that I could have gone to bed and stopped breathing.
## Can she still hit them
Fans want to know if the octave busting voice that won Eurovision in 1988 survived. Dion says it did.

> I'm going to come onstage because I'm ready. And my vocal cords will not scare me.
## Key takeaway

Dion spent years rebuilding her body and voice against an incurable disorder, and she is walking onstage in Paris on her own terms.