Her biggest hits, a full house every evening and a lot of emotion: Celine Dion closes the first part of her series of Parisian concerts on Saturday evening, marking a successful return, almost without a hitch and with maximum media exposure.
Facing her fans in front of the luxury Parisian hotel where she settled with her sons and her toy poodle, as well as in front of the 35,000 spectators at the Plenitude Arena in the west of the capital, Céline Dion kept up the pace of her musical marathon for more than a month.
With, in the public, a parade of celebrities: Rihanna, Michelle Obama, Zinédine Zidane, Lewis Hamilton… And even Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte for his penultimate show Friday evening.
With that of Saturday, the star will have given 16 precise concerts, which however left room for spontaneity with his audience.
“When will she return home?”, the 58-year-old Quebec diva joked one evening in the middle of a concert, during an interlude to the tunes of a one woman show.
The winner of Eurovision (1988) is in her garden in Paris, where her career took off with the songs of lyricist Eddy Marnay, television by Michel Drucker, the first concerts at the Olympia, then the key meeting with Jean-Jacques Goldman.
Accustomed to concerts in the form of residencies in Las Vegas, Céline Dion left almost no room for improvisation in Paris, barely modifying her setlist and her speeches.
Surrounded by musicians and a choir, the star gives a performance of approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, punctuated by around thirty songs drawn from the Goldman period of the 1990s-2000s and from his English repertoire, including “My heart will go on”.
She also takes a few side steps, covering “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics and an operatic aria made famous by Callas. After each title, emotion overcomes her and travels through the largest indoor hall in Europe.
Emotions
Between tears, a bright smile and a raised fist, Céline Dion went through all the stages: during the premiere on September 12, emotion overwhelmed her from the start and forced her to interrupt “We don’t change”. Six years away from the stage have just been erased by a few notes.
Rather rigid at first, the interpreter of “Prière païenne” gained in ease over the three concerts given each week and took possession of this immense dark stage where an imposing rotating rock sits.
Less immersive and spectacular than some current concerts mixing music and visuals, this scenography has the effect of focusing attention on the diva.
In haute couture outfits and wearing a ballerina bun, Céline Dion chose elegance. Bet successful. One evening, however, she tripped while stepping on the bottom of her pants and had a minor fall, which immediately went viral on the web.
Spectators interviewed by AFP expressed their emotion at having seen the French-speaking singer with more than 260 million albums sold, which many compare to a phoenix.
“I’m fine,” Celine Dion repeated to them, two years after her reappearance at the Paris Olympics ceremony.
“I learned to live with this fragility,” explained the star, who revealed in 2022 that she suffered from stiff person syndrome, an extremely rare neurological disease causing violent paralysis. “I tamed it and decided to make it the strength to live on.”
The other question concerned his voice: necessarily less twirling than at the beginning, it held up, despite some falsehoods heard on certain pieces. But, as for his oversights in the lyrics, the fans seem to forgive everything about their idol with a four-decade career.
Some Internet users and music industry professionals interviewed by AFP also considered it likely that the singer had resorted to playback on “All by myself”, which is technically difficult.
New album in 2027
Admirers or detractors, it’s difficult to escape this return, which occupied the artistic and media space, without the singer giving an official interview.
Available in multiple derivative products, it has made its lucrative residency a global event.
Scheduled for May, ten new concerts have been sold out for a long time, despite prices reaching several hundred euros, considered prohibitive by some.
At the same time, Céline Dion is working on an album also expected next year: it should contain numerous collaborations, including Grand Corps Malade and Mosimann.
