Celine Dion is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She’s noted for her powerful and technically impressive vocals as well as for her record-breaking live performances. Throughout her four-decade-spanning career, she’s incorporated numerous genres into her music, including pop, R&B, rock, gospel, and even classical music.
Sadly, however, we’ve just received some very bad news in regards to Celine’s health that calls into question whether or not she will ever be able to perform live again. In recent years, Dion’s health and weight has clearly been going through drastic changes, but up until this point, she hasn’t been very open about what’s she been going through. And to be fair, that’s well within her rights. She doesn’t have to tell the world anything if she doesn’t want to.
But it appears that the 64-year-old artist is no longer able to keep her health-difficulties private because, with recent developments, she may not be able to keep touring. Dion’s been canceling and postponing tour dates left and right, leaving many of her fans to question whether she will ever tour again.
Join us as we take a moment to check in with Celine Dion to see what she’s been diagnosed with and how this latest development will impact her professional career.
Facts Verse Presents: Celine Dion Might Be Done Singing for Good After Her Diagnosis
A Pattern Of Excellence
The Canadian-born singer got her start as a teen star with the release of a series of French-language pop albums during the early 80s. She first gained international attention after winning the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the ’88 Eurovision Song Contest.
After she learned English, Celine signed a multi-album deal with Epic Records in the US. She went on to put out her first English-language album, Unison, in 1990, thus establishing herself as a major pop star in North America and other English-speaking regions of the world.
Throughout the 90s, Dion achieved worldwide fame after putting out several of the bestselling albums of all time, including 1996s Falling into You and 1997s Let’s Talk About Love. Both of these albums were certified diamond in the US and sold more than 30 million sales worldwide. With those releases, she scored a number of international number-one hits, including “Think Twice”, “My Heart Will Go On”, “The Power of Love”, and “I’m Your Angel”.
From there, Dion continued to release albums both in English and French. During the 2000s, she garnered a reputation for being a very successful live performer with her Las Vegas residency show that ran from 2003 to 2007. To this day, that show remains the highest-grossing concert residency in music al history, and up until her recent health revelation, Dion was planning on making a return to Vegas with a brand new residency show – but we’ll touch on that a bit more in just a moment.
Dion followed that leg of her career up with her Taking Chances World Tour in 2008 and 2008, which once again ended up being one of the highest-grossing musical tours of all time.
While her albums have often received somewhat mixed reception from critics, Dion is one of the best-selling singers of all time. Her record sales have exceeded 200 million worldwide, and she’s won a total of five Grammy Awards, including those for Record of the Year and Album of the Year.
Past Health Concerns
Although Celine Dion has always been blessed with a slim figure, ever since her hussband’s death in 2016, her fans have grown concerned over her increasingly narrow frame.
On January 14, 2016, Dion’s husband of 22 years, Canadian musical producer, talent manager, and singer Rene Angelli died of throat cancer at the age of 73. If that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, three days after his death, Dion’s brother, Daniel, also died of cancer at age 59.
Since these back-to-back deaths, the “Think Twice” singer hasn’t revealed just how much weight she has lost. However, she said at one point that she was feeling ‘strong and feminine’ after making several significant lifestyle changes.
Dion has insisted in the past that genetics have played a large role in her physical appearance. In 2019, she acknowledged that her fans were concerned about her health, but she continued to insist that everything was fine. She later suggested that the reason for her weight loss had to do with her newfound love for ballet. In fact, she claimed to do ballet at least four times a week as part of her routine.
Dion has repeatedly denied that she has any issues with eating. Still, some of her fans have been less than convinced.
While we may never know definitively why Dion has lost so much weight in recent years, we do know that she has been dealing with several life-changing health issues that have forced her to make changes to her touring and recording schedule. And as you’ll soon see, she hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about what she’s been dealing with healthwise.
In 2000, Celine had two small operations at a fertility clinic after she was having trouble conceiving. She went on to have three children, including a set of fraternal twin boys that were born in 2010.
In 2018, Dion’s Management team announced that the singer had been dealing with hearing problems for the previous year and a half caused by a disorder called patulous Eustachian tube. She went on to have a minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct this issue after medication appeared to no longer be working.
Celine Dion’s Latest Health Revelation
In October 2021, Celine Dion dropped out of the spotlight after revealing that she was suffering from a debilitating health condition. She ended up canceling her Las Vegas residency and postponed her North American and European tour dates due to this undisclosed condition.
At the time, Dion revealed that she was suffering from persistent and severe muscle spasms, which had forced her to put her professional career on the back burner. Frankly, it’s pretty difficult to keep performing when you’re no longer in control of your body and it’s movements.
Several weeks after revealing that she was suffering from this condition, Celine’s sister Claudette spoke to the French entertainment magazine, Voici, and said that while what her sister was going through was sad, it wasn’t serious. She went on to insist that her sister always confides in her and seeks her advice when something is wrong.
Though Claudette did her best to downplay what Celine was going through, a year later, Dion came out and revealed the full extent of what she was dealing with and how it was affecting her life and singing career.
After postponing and canceling several dates of her Courage World Tour once again, Dion revealed in early December 2022 that she was diagnosed with a rare progressive neurological condition known as Stiff Person Syndrome.
Dion made this announcement in a video that she posted on Instagram. In that video, she said that while she’s always tried to be an open book, she wasn’t quite ready previously to reveal the full scope of what she was going through. Now that she’s had a year to let things sink in, she’s finally prepared to open up about her diagnosis.
After stating that she had been diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome, Dion noted that it’s something that only affects roughly one in a million people. She went o to say that while she’s still learning about this rare condition, she and her doctors now know for sure that this is what’s been causing her spasms. And while she didn’t say so explicitly, it could be reasonably inferred that this condition may have been contributing to Dion’s dramatic weight loss in recent years as well.
Dion further revealed that she’s been dealing with problems with her health for a long time and that it’s been very difficult for her to face these issues and the effects of the condition. She then said that, unfortunately, the spasms have affected every aspect of her daily life. At times, the condition has made it difficult for her to walk and use her vocal cords to sing. Because of this, she initially said taht she wouldn’t be ready to restart her tour in Europe until at least 2023. But really, even though we’re sure that Celine is dedicated to getting back up on stage, that might still be a bit overambitious because Stiff-Person Syndrome tends to be a progressive ailment with no known cure.
Still, Celine insists that she and her team of doctors and sports medicine therapists are working hard to get her strength built back up and help her regain her ability to perform. Dion also says that her children have been nothing but supportive of her as she’s been going through these difficult times.
Dion’s Courage World Tour was initially announced in April 2019, but as mentioned earlier, her muscle spasms forced her to cancel many of the tour’s early dates. She then had to cancel more dates apparently, after coming down with a cold. When the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm, she was forced to postpone the remainder of the dates. At the time, Dion had managed to complete 52 dates of her North American tour, and she was really looking forward to finishing up, but since then, she has delayed her Vegas residency and canceled the remainder of the North American leg of her world tour.
We here at Facts Verse want to wish Celine Dion the best during these challenging times. Clearly, all she knows is a life on stage. She’s been performing literally since she was a child, so for something like this to come along and disrupt her life so dramatically, she obviously must be feeling very discouraged. While there is no known cure for Stiff-Person Syndrome, there are a few promising treatments that might be able to manage her symptoms. Even so, it’s unclear whether she will ever perform again. If that ends up being the case, we hope that she can find comfort in the loving support of her family, fans, and friends.
With that, we’ll go ahead and wrap this video up, but before you go, hop into the comments and share your thoughts on this latest revelation regarding Celine Dion’s health.
Did you know that Celine Dion was diagnosed with a rare, debilitating neurological condition and that she’s been forced to cancel and postpone her Courage World Tour? Let us know, and feel free to share any insights that you might have about this devastating condition.
As always, thanks for watching! We’ll see you soon with more content covering some of your favorite stars, films, and television shows.
