Celine Dion is singing once more—exactly as she promised fans she would. Closing the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony with a performance of Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour,” Dion climbed the Eiffel Tower to mark her first live performance since 2019, and her first since she revealed her diagnosis with stiff person syndrome.
Standing beneath the glow of the Olympic rings, Dion appeared outright angelic in a full-length, long-sleeved silver Christian Dior gown, covered in crystals and paired with its own cape and train. The singer appeared visibly emotional as she gazed out over the Parisian skyline, where rain continued to pour as it had for much of the day’s ceremony. But she did not miss a single note before concluding the ballad with a triumphant raise of her fist.
“I actually can’t talk,” a tearful Kelly Clarkson—serving as a ceremony co-host for NBC—said moments after the performance’s conclusion.
In June, Dion released her Prime Video documentary I Am: Celine Dion, which chronicles the singer’s experiences with the rare neurological disease as she attempts to retain her singing abilities. In the documentary, she revealed that she first started noticing symptoms nearly two decades ago, but that in recent years, she needed to take 80 to 90 milligrams of Valium per day to perform. If her voice would crack during a live show, she’d sometimes point her microphone to the audience to prevent fans from hearing her. After she publicly shared her diagnosis in 2022, Dion temporarily stepped away from the spotlight. But after her surprise Grammys appearance this February, she has slowly reclaimed her visibility—and her pedestal as one of the music industry’s most beloved legends.
Dion told audiences during a premiere screening of I Am: Celine Dion in New York, “Your presence in my journey has been a gift beyond measure. Your never-ending love and support over all these years have delivered me to this moment tonight.”
Dion first performed at the Olympics opening ceremony in 1996, in Atlanta. Nearly three decades—and a great deal of personal pain and victory—later, the “My Heart Will Go On” singer (or “gold-winner vocal athlete,” as Clarkson proclaimed her) appeared as powerful and unforgettable as ever.
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a staff culture writer at ELLE, where she primarily covers film, television and books. She was previously an associate editor at ELLE.