Celine Dion Emotional at First Concert in Six Years: Clinging to a Sliver of Light

Canadian star Celine Dion returned to the stage after more than six years away due to a rare neurological disorder, telling a global audience that gathered near Paris for the first of her 16 concerts in France that she had held on to “a tiny ray of light.”

The singer, who has sold more than 260 million albums, opened her comeback concert with “On ne change pas,” a song written and composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman and released in 1998.

The crowd of around 30,000 fans cheered Dion’s name at the end of her first song, and the artist was visibly moved as she reunited with her audience, stopping her singing several times as she fought back tears. The 58-year-old singer addressed her fans, saying, “These are tears of joy, of course. I am overjoyed to see you.”

She continued, “I must confess to you that the path was rougher than I expected, and the journey longer than I thought, with unplanned stops along the way. But I held on to a tiny ray of light far away, deep in the mountains. I believed in it, I believed in it.” She added, “And now the sun is here, the sun is before me. So tonight, I want to sing for you, to sing for myself, to sing for life,” before continuing her concert at the Bercy Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris.