Celine Dion delivers emotional speech during opening night of Paris residency as she says she's decided to make her devastating health battle 'my reason for living'

Celine Dion delivered an emotional speech during the opening night of her Paris residency as she said she’s decided to make her devastating health battle ‘my reason for living’.

The singer, 58, revealed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, or SPS, which causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms.

At its worst, the debilitating condition left her unable to walk properly or use her singing voice as she once had.

On Saturday, she was overcome with emotion as she made her stage comeback after she was forced to cancel the remainder of her Courage world tour in 2023.

After delivering her first song of the show, ‘On ne change pas’ (‘We don’t change’), she said: ‘I had promised myself not to cry. Here we are… I’m standing on stage in this city that I love so much, thanks to your support and your love.

‘I have to admit, though, that the road was rocky. The journey was longer than expected, with unplanned stops along the way.

Celine Dion delivered an emotional speech during the opening night of her Paris residency as she said she’s decided to make her devastating health battle ‘my reason for living’

The singer, 58, revealed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, or SPS, which causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms

‘But I hung in there. A faint ray of light in the distance, deep in the mountains. I believed in it. And here it is. The sun — the sun is here. The sun, right in front of me,’

She continued: ‘I made a promise to be back on stage. So here I am, singing for you and singing for me, singing live! Thank you so very much for your support, your patience and if I may say so, I am everything I am because you loved me,’ she then said in English.

Speaking of the uphill battle she waged with her health, she said: ‘By living with it day in and day out, I’ve come to terms with it. And I’ve decided to make it my reason for living.’

She continued, ‘But look around here — all around you, right here in this room — we don’t know what the person next to us is going through.

‘There are people going through hardships, grief and sorrow. There are people radiating energy and joy. So let’s take that energy and share it. That’s what music is for. Tonight, we’ll sing, we’ll dance and we’ll celebrate.’

Celine’s intense rehabilitation programme has seen her try out new medication, physical therapy, vocal therapy and immunotherapy.

In order to ensure she’s physically able to perform, Celine has been working on her strength with 90-minute Pilates sessions three times a week as well as twice-weekly ballet and barre classes.

Her home gym is also decked out with weights, a treadmill and a reformer machine, with Celine revealing her flexibility has increased since she started her new exercise regime.

On Saturday, she was overcome with emotion as she made her stage comeback after she was forced to cancel the remainder of her Courage world tour in 2023

What is stiff-person syndrome?

Stiff person syndrome is an extremely rare disorder that makes the muscles in the torso and limbs alternate between spasming and being rigid.

Estimates suggest it affects around 70 people in the UK and 330 in the US and remains little understood. Around twice as many women as men are hit with it.

The progressive disease sees patients’ stiffness increase over time and can lead to them needing to use a wheelchair.

There tend to be three types of the syndrome:

Classical person man syndrome: When rigidity and spasms are around the back and stomach, and occasionally thighs and neck. It can cause back curvature over time.
Stiff limb syndrome: Spasms especially affect the legs and feet, occasionally causing them to become fixed in place. Hands can also be affected.
Jerking stiff person syndrome: The rarest, most aggressive form, which includes symptoms from both the others, and also affects the head and eyes.

Experts do not know exactly what is behind the disease.

But they believe it may be caused by an autoimmune reaction, when the body attacks its own nerve cells that control muscle movement.

Around 40 per cent of sufferers also have type 1 diabetes, another autoimmune disease. Type 1 diabetes is particularly associated with classical person syndrome.

Other autoimmune conditions like vitiligo, which causes white patches of skin, and pernicious anemia are likewise associated with it.

It is also more common in people with breast, lung, kidney, thyroid or colon cancer, as well as lymphomas, but researchers do not yet know why.

In stiff person syndrome, the immune system attacks a protein that helps make gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which regulate motor neurons — the nerves that control movement.

Low levels of GABA cause the neurons to continuously fire when they are not supposed to, resulting in the spasms and rigidity.

What are its symptoms?

The main symptoms caused by stiff person syndrome are spasms and rigidity of the torso and limbs.

Spasms can be triggered by loud noises, with the condition also causing heightened sensitivity to sound.

Touch and emotional distress can also be felt more intensely as a result of the condition.

The spasms can be so severe they cause people to fall over or lead to difficulty walking and other disability.

Stress and anxiety are also usually higher in those with the condition, particularly because of the unpredictability of spasms.

The lack of GABA — which regulates anxiety — in their system also affects mental health.

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar about her new regime, she described it as falling and getting back up repeatedly, adding that she was proud of herself for achieving something that her body wasn’t ‘born to do’.

‘It is a progressive condition,’ she noted. ‘I don’t like to say “disease.” Disease makes you go like this,’ she said, scrunching her nose and saying, ‘”Kevin, you’re such a disease.”‘

Celine laid bare the brutality of the condition in her 2024 documentary, I Am: Celine Dion.

Yet in recent days she has looked in high spirits while out greeting fans in Paris ahead of her shows.

The residency will see her take to the stage for 16 shows in Autumn 2026 and 10 additional dates in May 2027.

She announced her comeback in March, with tickets instantly selling out.

Celine was diagnosed with SPS in 2022 after she faced a flare-up in 2020, at the same time as the start of the pandemic.

For three years she isolated from fans, partly motivated by fears her fans would presume she was living a happy, full life yet still cancelling shows. She also developed an appreciation for nature during this time.

‘I love trees so much, and I had this vision of myself trying to disappear through the leaves,’ she said.

The trees were barren as it was autumn, a visual Celine saw as a metaphor for her own struggles.

‘I was trying to tell them, I’m sorry, I don’t have any apples to give you anymore,’ she said, until a voice told her: ‘But we did not come for the apples; we came for the tree.’

The last time Celine performed on stage was in Riyadh. Earlier in the same year she sang at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

She is now ready to get back to work, even the more annoying bits of being a pop star.

‘Well, girl,’ Celine said, addressing herself but speaking to the reporter, ‘if you don’t want to sign autographs and you don’t want to get yourself pretty and you don’t want to be disturbed because your pasta is going to get cold, you can always stay home. But look at what you have.’