It was news that was greeted with almost universal approval and not a little relief by her millions of fans.
Celine Dion, the French Canadian queen of the lung-busting power ballad, is set to make her return to the live stage this September and October for her first full concerts in over six years, when she performs ten shows over five weeks in the 40,000-capacity Paris La Défense Arena.
And, of course, for a pop star who has always believed that more is more, she announced her comeback in style. The Eiffel Tower, one of the most famous landmarks in the world, was lit up in purple, and in an intimate video on her 58th birthday, Dion unveiled her plans.
"Over these last few years, every day that's gone by, I felt your prayers and support, your kindness and love, even in my most difficult times, you were there for me," she said.
"You've helped me in ways that I can't even describe, and I'm truly so fortunate to have your support. I've missed you so much.
"And that brings me back to my birthday, actually. So this year, I'm getting the best gift of my life.
"I'm getting the chance to see you, to perform for you once again in Paris, beginning in September this year."
It comes after what has been an extremely challenging few years for the singer who has sold over 200 million albums. In 2022, she was diagnosed with Stiff Person's Syndrome, a debilitating neurological disorder that causes progressive muscular stiffness and spasms and affects her singing voice.
It forced the five-time Grammy winner to cancel her second Las Vegas residency and her Courage world tour, which included gigs in Dublin's 3Arena in 2023.
We have had fleeting glimpses of her since then - she performed at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in 2024 when she sang Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l'amour atop the Eiffel Tower - but these Paris shows are what fans have been hoping and praying for.
It's easy to see why Dion's return is a very good news story in a wicked, wicked world.
Rarely has a pop star been held in such a high degree of protective affection. In fact, throughout her career, she may be guilty of oversharing with her adoring public, from very publicly declaring her love for her late husband and manager René Angélil, who was 26 years her senior, to her struggle to have children, and mourning the death of her beloved father with her audience during her Las Vegas residency in 2003.
More recently, in the 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion, she chronicled her battle with her illness and the lengths she has gone to carry on performing with huge honesty.
It's that bond with her fans that has helped turn Dion into pop's Piaf and one of the most successful pop singers of all time. That and her powerhouse four-octave soprano voice. On belters like Think Twice, The Power of Love, Falling into You, and, of course, what she calls "the Titanic song", My Heart Will Go On, she sings like her life depends on it.
And you don’t have to be a fan to be fond of Dion. A large part of her appeal is her kookiness and wholesomeness. When she broke through in the mid-nineties, it was into a world of Madonnas and Mariahs, and her very ordinariness and gaucheness made her refreshing and relatable.
She was born in 1968, the youngest of 14 children, in the town of Charlemagne in Quebec, where her father, Adhémar, was a lumberjack, a youth counsellor, and a butcher. He also sang with his wife, Thérèse, at the weekends. When he settled on a career as a restaurateur, young Celine was to find her calling - aged five, she began belting out songs while standing on tables at the family eatery.
"I used to think that music would be my life even before I could sing," she recalled in an interview in the nineties. "They used to put me on the kitchen table, dress me up with high heels that were too big and put the microphone to me and I would sing for them."
Her mother already had big plans for her youngest child. In 1980, she sent an audition tape of her 12-year-old daughter to René Angélil, a local music impresario who already had ten acts on his books. When he heard it, the story goes that he burst into tears, dumped all his other charges, and remortgaged his house to pay for Celine to record her first album.
Speaking to RTÉ in 1995, he said, "I decided to manage Celine because she had everything it took. She had the voice, the talent and most of all the discipline - this is the most important thing to become an international star.
"You hear a voice like that every ten years, so when you hear it, if you're smart, you work hard to let the world hear your artist, and that's what I did when I met her."
She left school at 15 and released a series of successful albums in French and picked up a clutch of international singing awards on the way to becoming a star in her native Quebec.
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When she took part in Eurovision in 1988 in Dublin, representing Switzerland with the song Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, she was still an awkward ingénue with a huge Francophone fanbase, but as Angélil knew, she had the potential to become an international star.
However, matters of a far more personal nature were to change her life. She had developed feelings for Angélil at a very young age and later revealed that it was in Dublin after her Eurovision victory that she made those feelings clear. Given their age difference and professional relationship, Dion was terrified of the reaction from her family and her fans but went public with their romance in the liner notes of her 1993 album The Colour of My Love. The couple married the following year and even broadcast the ceremony on live television.
They went on to have three children via IVF treatment. Angélil passed away in 2016, aged 72.
After several years away from the stage, Dion now faces the next chapter in her career with those comeback concerts in Paris. It's ten shows spaced out over five weeks, and they will be a challenge for a singer with an indomitable spirit as she continues to deal with her illness.
Speaking to the BBC in 2024, Dion said she had first noticed that something was wrong when she had issues with her voice while on tour.
"It was just feeling a little strange, like a little spasm," she said. "My voice was struggling; I was starting to push a little bit.
"It's like somebody is strangling you. It's like somebody is pushing your larynx [or] pharynx."
However, she remains determined not to let the disorder stop her from performing and living her life. In a 2024 interview with French Vogue, she said, "The way I see it, I have two choices. Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it's over.
"I've chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team. Five days a week I undergo athletic, physical and vocal therapy. I work on my toes, my knees, my calves, my fingers, my singing, my voice."
It will be an emotional night when she finally takes to the stage again and proof, as always, that Celine Dion will go on.
