PARIS (AP) — Celine Dion made a triumphant return Friday with a very public efficiency: closing out the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony from the Eiffel Tower.Nearly two years after revealing her stiff person syndrome diagnosis, Dion belted Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” (“Hymn to Love”) because the finale of the roughly four-hour spectacle. Her look had been teased for weeks, however organizers and Dion’s representatives had refused to substantiate whether she was performing.On a web page devoted to Dior’s contributions to the opening ceremony, the media guide referred to “a world star, for a purely grandiose, superbly scintillating finale.”
This photograph launched by the Olympic Broadcasting Services exhibits Canadian Singer Celine Dion performing at the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Olympic Broadcasting Services through AP)
Dion had been absent from the stage since 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic compelled the postponement of her tour to 2022. That tour was ultimately suspended within the wake of her prognosis. The uncommon neurological dysfunction causes inflexible muscle groups and painful muscle spasms, which have been affecting Dion’s capability to stroll and sing. In June, at the premiere of the documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” she told The Associated Press that returning required remedy, “physically, mentally, emotionally, vocally.”
“So that’s why it takes a while. But absolutely why we’re doing this because I’m already a little bit back,” she stated then.Even earlier than the documentary’s release, Dion had taken steps towards a comeback. In February, she made one other shock look, at the Grammy Awards, the place she introduced the ultimate award of the night time to a standing ovation.
For Friday’s performance, Dion’s pearl outfit was certainly designed by Dior. Speaking on French tv, the Paris organizing committee’s director of design and costume for ceremonies, Daphné Bürki, recalled Dion’s enthusiasm for the chance.“When we called Celine Dion one year ago she said yes straight away,” Bürki stated.Dion isn’t really French — the French Canadian is from Quebec — however she has a robust connection to the nation and the Olympics. Dion’s first language is French, and she or he has dominated the charts in France and different French-speaking nations. (She additionally won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with a French-language tune … representing Switzerland.) And early in her English-language profession — even earlier than “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” — she was tapped to carry out “The Power of The Dream,” the theme tune for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Dion’s tune selection additionally evoked a sports connection: Piaf wrote it about her lover, boxer Marcel Cerdan. Cerdan died quickly after she wrote the tune, in a aircraft crash.___Associated Press reporters Sylvie Corbet, Jerome Pugmire and Samuel Petrequin contributed.___For more protection of the Paris Olympics, go to https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.