“My voice was the conductor of my life.”
Celine Dion
Introduction
What happens when a renowned singer is unable to perform? It’s like cutting out the very veins of your talent and throwing them on the scrap heap. The internal and external tears never stop, and the light in the tunnel of belief seems to be extinguished. The Canadian singer Celine Dion comes from a musical family, one of 14 brothers and sisters. Her parents would risk everything to support their family, and sometimes, they only had the basics in the fridge to eat. Celine used to fantasise that the lamp on the table was her show light, and she would create an imaginary audience to sing before. Her life ethos was that the performance was more important than the singing.
The bilingual singer, who speaks English and French and has been dubbed the “Queen of Power Ballads”, was born in 1968 and is now 56. She is a survivor who lost the love of her life, René Angélil, from cancer in 2016. The couple met when Celine was 19 and he was 43. After six years of secretly dating, they revealed their relationship and married in 1994. His death left a massive chasm in her life, and she had to pick herself up and continue being a mother and raising her children.
The Bolt from the Blue
Celion Delion is known for songs like My Heart Will Go On, I’m Alive, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now and Immortality, having sung in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese and Chinese. Yet the lady who only knows singing was struck down with a mystery illness just before she was about to begin a Las Vegas residency and tour. She was determined to perform but, in the end, had to cancel both. After numerous tests, Celion was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare medical condition that affects one in a million people. An illness that has temporarily silenced her three-octave, mezzo-soprano voice. The singer who has sold 250 million albums hasn’t sung for two years, and although she can still sing, her voice has lost some of its spark. It’s an effort now to sing continually. However, her main concern is her body. Her body is prone to seizures. These seizures are terrifying even though they only last for a few minutes but come on without warning. Ten minutes seems like hours. A crisis that causes her brain to spasm and make continual cries of pain.
The Fightback
Yet miraculously, despite this most significant battle of her life, Celion has decided to return to the drawing board and use all her inner mental and physical strength to try and perform again. It’s a big ask, but if anyone can do it, Celion can do it. With the aid of her medical team, several medications and breathing exercises, Dion has slowly been able to fight this awful illness. An embarrassment that you can’t control, an overstimulation that is a time bomb but one that Celion believes can be defused. Few people could escape a battering seizure and break out into song again.
Celion is a fighter with astounding inner belief. She still sees herself singing and dancing. If she can’t walk, she will crawl. This illness won’t get the better of her, a black cloud with a passing. The Maria Callas of the stage has had a fall but will rise again in whatever form. She recently went to a concert in Las Vegas at the Wynn, supported by her three sons. A Stjepan Hauser cello concert where she sat in the audience with her sons and went to meet the cellist backstage afterwards. A lady who is determined to fight back.
