Céline Dion, the Canadian singer behind “My Heart Will Go On,” was not quite done singing when her concert ended. Hours later, she was barefoot on the hood of a parked car outside her Paris hotel, leading a crowd of fans through one of her hits.
The impromptu performance, captured in multiple fan videos and by photo agency BACKGRID, came in the early morning hours after the third show of her 26-date residency at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, a suburb just outside Paris. Dressed in a casual jacket and baggy pants, Dion climbed onto the black BMW, removed her slippers and settled on the hood with her legs crossed as admirers gathered around her with phones raised.
Slippers Off, Hit Song On
The soundtrack came from the fans themselves. Someone in the crowd played “Pour Que Tu M’aimes Encore,” her 1995 hit whose title translates to “So That You’ll Love Me Again,” and Dion joined right in. She sang along, swayed to the beat, tapped her feet, clapped, played air guitar and turned toward the crowd to conduct them as they sang with her. The whole thing added up to a roughly two-minute rendition.
At one point she stretched out across the hood, lounging on her back before flipping over onto her stomach, then laughed and got back up to stand on the vehicle, still dancing and singing. When the song wound down, she said goodbye with a hand-heart gesture to the fans below.
The scene was a long way from the lighting rigs and production of an arena show. What happened outside the hotel was looser and closer than anything a ticket buys: a parked car, a song playing nearby and a singer who plainly did not want the night to end.
A Tearful Return to the Stage
The car-top singalong capped a stretch of weeks that has carried real weight for Dion and for the fans who waited on her. The Paris residency marks her first concerts in six years, and her opening night at the Plenitude Arena on September 12 turned emotional almost immediately.
“I had promised myself not to cry,” Dion said that night, breaking down in tears. “But I’m so happy to see you all. I missed you.” She told the audience she had always intended to return to performing, and that she had kept that promise.
She also turned the moment back toward the people in the seats. “Thank you so very much for your support, your patience and if I may say so, I am everything I am because you loved me,” Dion said at that first show.
The residency is not her only recent return to a stage. Dion made a comeback appearance at the Paris Olympics before launching the run of shows in Nanterre.
Living With Stiff Person Syndrome
Dion told the world about her stiff person syndrome diagnosis in 2022, canceling a string of performances at the time as she worked to manage the condition. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes the illness as a progressive neurological disorder that hardens muscles in the trunk as well as the upper and lower limbs. Patients can also become more sensitive to noise, touch and emotional distress, any of which can trigger muscle spasms.
She detailed her struggles with the disorder in her documentary “I Am: Celine Dion.” In the September cover story of Harper’s Bazaar, Dion said she had lived with symptoms of the condition for 17 years before she was diagnosed.
Her years away from full-length concerts owed as much to the pandemic as to those health challenges. The move back toward performing has come in stages, and the Paris run — 26 dates in one city — is the latest of them.
For the crowd outside the hotel, the payoff was a version of Dion few ticket holders ever see: no set list, no stage, no shoes. She sang, the fans sang along, and she sent them off with a heart made out of her hands.