Celine Dion is one of the world’s most celebrated musical artists. Her career has spanned several decades, and her genre-busting work has been featured in countless films and TV shows, while her live shows have attained legendary status, particularly her Las Vegas residencies.
However, the world was shocked when news broke late last year that the iconic Canadian singer was suffering from a serious health condition, one that threatened to affect her singing ability. In true fighting spirit, Celine Dion has recently released new music despite her health concerns. What exactly is wrong with Celine Dion and what will this mean for her career? Let’s find out.
What Happened to Celine Dion?
In December 2022, Celine Dion went public to share that she had been diagnosed with a serious medical condition. In a video posted to her Instagram account, the singer detailed that she was living with stiff-person syndrome, much to the shock of her fans and the media.
Stiff-person syndrome (SPS) is an extremely rare neurological condition that is thought to affect one out of every 1-2 million people. The most common symptoms of SPS are muscle spasms and stiffness, but the condition can also lead to issues with mobility, vision, and speech.
SPS isn’t very well understood and much more research needs to be done on the condition. However, scientists believe it could stem from an autoimmune malfunction, where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells and tissues. People suffering from SPS have antibodies in their blood that affect how nerve signals are transmitted, which leads to the symptoms associated with the disease.
There is currently no cure for SPS but there are medications and treatments available to help alleviate and manage the symptoms.
In the wake of Celine Dion’s diagnosis, she unsurprisingly opted to cancel her upcoming tour dates to focus on her health and mental well-being.
How Will Her Condition Affect Her Singing?
SPS can affect muscles all over the body, and Celine Dion was very open in her social media post, informing her fans that she had begun experiencing difficulties with her vocal cords.
For a singer with so many iconic songs, this was devastating news for her millions of fans across the world. Celine Dion’s SPS is likely affecting the muscles in her neck. As these stiffen and spasm, she will have difficulty singing normally.
The Canadian singer’s work has been highly influential, she sang the theme for Titanic and her music has inspired a vast amount of royalty free music. She has had an enormous cultural impact across the world, with huge fan bases in countries like Nigeria and Jamaica in particular. In 1999, the singer was inducted into the Canada Walk of Home and then onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
Fans feared her SPS diagnosis could spell the end of her career. However, last month they were delighted when the singer announced via Instagram that she had released a brand-new song.
What is the New Musical Announcement?
Celine Dion’s new song ‘Love Again’ is the theme song for the upcoming film of the same name. The film is directed by James C. Strouse and stars Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra, and the full soundtrack album features five brand-new Celine Dion tracks and six of her previous hits.
This was welcome news for the Canadian singer’s fans, who had feared that they may never hear a new Celine Dion track again after her SPS diagnosis. Her new track is an emotional ballad with moving lyrics that perfectly reflect the singer’s struggles with her health.
Fans will be overjoyed and will be hopeful that this could mean a new period of activity for Celine Dion as she uses her SPS diagnosis as inspiration to create more of her classic music.
Will She Be Touring?
Celine Dion has been dealing with health issues for a number of years, and previous tours in Europe and her Las Vegas residency were disrupted and postponed. When she announced the news of her SPS diagnosis, this also meant further delays to her planned European Courage tour.
Originally planned for February and April 2023, the European Courage tour has now been postponed until the spring of 2024. A number of concerts planned for this summer have been cancelled, while events penned in for August, September, and October of this year are still set to go ahead.
While fans will no doubt be upset if they are set to miss out, they’ll be understanding and wish nothing but the best for their favourite singer. Given how unpredictable SPS can be and how quickly it can come on, fans are unfortunately going to have to get used to last-minute cancellations and postponements.
Conclusion
The announcement that Celine Dion had been diagnosed with a serious condition like SPS shocked the world and the news that the symptoms were affecting her ability to sing left fans reeling. However, the singer has shown incredible strength and resilience, releasing a new soundtrack album and planning to commence touring later this year.