First appearance in over three years Céline Dion sings in public again
As has only now been revealed, Céline Dion also sang at her first public appearance in a long time - for the ice hockey players in her home town of Las Vegas.
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- Céline Dion has not performed in public for over three years.
- The singer suffers from stiff person syndrome and is in unbearable pain as a result.
- Now the 55-year-old has taken to the stage in Las Vegas to support her ice hockey team.
A week after her first public appearance in three and a half years, it has now been revealed that Canadian superstar Céline Dion (55) also sang.
Chantal Machabée, Vice President of Hockey Communications for the Canadiens, told People magazine. She looked "so happy" when she appeared at a hockey game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens, she is quoted as saying.
"She's been through a lot, and to see her so smiling and happy ... it was beautiful," the official says of the singer, who announced her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome last year. "I know she has good days and not so good days, but this was a very good day and that was very reassuring." During the outing, the music legend chatted, laughed and even "sang a few notes", Machabée continued: "It was an incredible moment. She is an amazing woman."
Support for the team from her adopted hometown
On October 30, Dion entered the locker room at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to greet her adopted hometown team. There she shook hands with the team members and posed for photos with her sons René-Charles (22) and twins Eddy and Nelson (13). After Dion visited the team, Machabeée shared photos with the "I'm Alive" performer on Instagram, in which the singer puts her arm around her.
"We had a wonderful visit to the game in Vegas yesterday. Thank you Céline Dion for your generosity. The whole team is so happy to have met you and your family," she wrote in French to accompany the pictures.
Diagnosis of "stiff person syndrome"
The singer, who became famous with songs such as "My Heart Will Go On" and "Because You Loved Me", suffers from a chronic autoimmune disease called stiff person syndrome. In stressful situations, the rare and incurable neurological disease can lead to muscle spasms. Performances are therefore currently impossible for Dion. She made the diagnosis public at the end of last year.
"Patients can be disabled, confined to a wheelchair or bedridden, unable to work or care for themselves," says the Stiff Person Syndrome Foundation. Possible symptoms include: "hyperrigidity, debilitating pain, chronic anxiety" and muscle spasms "so severe that they can dislocate joints and even break bones".
Performances are therefore currently impossible for Dion. Her sister Claudette had only declared in September that the singer was doing everything she could to get well again. Although she is "a strong woman", the family unfortunately "can't find any medication that works", as Claudette Dion revealed in an interview published around a month earlier. However, Dion is working with "the best researchers in this field". "I honestly believe that what she needs above all is rest," Claudette Dion continued at the time.