Céline Dion On Her Return to the Stage: 'I Know That Nothing Will Stop Me'

Céline Dion is continuing her return to the spotlight with a rare media interview.

In a joint social media post, Vogue France and the Quebecois artist announced that she was making her "grand return" as she is the cover star of the May 2024 issue of the fashion magazine.

The question is on everyone's lips: how is Céline Dion doing? "And the answer can be as simple. It's going well, but it's a lot of work. It's one day at a time," she says in an interview with Clovis Goux for Vogue France.

The singer discusses the Stiff Person Syndrome she suffers from, which prevents her from resuming her Courage World Tour, initially interrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic. The artist, who has repeatedly topped the Billboard charts since "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" in 1990, also had to cancel her concerts scheduled until April 2024 for health reasons.

"I haven't fought the illness; it's still within me and will be forever. Hopefully, we'll find a miracle, a way to heal through scientific research, but I have to learn to live with it," she adds, before confiding that she follows athletic, physical and vocal therapy five times a week. "I work on everything, from my toes to my knees, calves, fingers, singing, voice... It's the condition I have to learn to live with now, by stopping questioning myself," says the native of Charlemagne, who wants to "be the best" version of herself.

"I know that nothing will stop me," warns Céline Dion.

While she cannot say whether she will ever be able to return to the stage and perform for her beloved audience, the singer shows her fighting spirit.

"Today, I can't tell you: 'Yes, in four months.' I don't know... My body will tell me. However, I don't just want to wait. [...] But there is one thing that will never stop, and that's the desire. It's the passion. It's the dream. It's the determination."

Dion also reminisces about her career, from her beginnings to her meteoric rise to the pinnacle of fame. When asked if she could fade into anonymity like one of her closest collaborators, the Frenchman Jean-Jacques Goldman, to whom she owes the album D'Eux, the singer is categorical. "He reached his peak as an artist, but above all, he wanted to be a family man. And his greatest passion now is being with his daughters, with his wife. I respect that choice immensely, but I'm not there yet."

Céline Dion doesn't know what tomorrow will bring, but she has "a very strong will to move forward." Although the future of her music career is on hold, she recently narrated Team Canada's campaign for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. As for Irene Taylor's documentary I AM: CÉLINE DION, available worldwide on Prime Video starting June 25, it will show the star's daily battle against this disease that has disrupted her life.

For everything else, it will be "one day at a time," she concludes in her interview with Vogue France.