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Celine Dion shed tears as she kicked off her eagerly anticipated 16-date residency tonight at Plenitude Arena on the outskirts of Paris, marking her first major series of live shows since stepping away from the spotlight
in 2022.
“I had promised myself not to cry,” Dion told thousands of adoring fans in the opening moments of her show. “I don’t keep my promises. But I’m so happy to see you all. I missed you. I’m going to sing like you without crying.”
She later added, “Thank you so very much for coming. If it’s your first time in Paris, I hope you fall in love with it just like I did. Finally, it’s amazing we are all together. I made a promise to come back, to be back on stage. So here I am, singing for you and singing for me, singing live! 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’s arrival in Paris two weeks ago has dominated headlines and sparked a frenzy on social media as well as in the streets of the French capital. The metro station near the concert venue has also been renamed Celine and has been decorated with some of her most famous lyrics. Fans from every corner of the world have been camping in front of the Royal Monceau hotel behind security barriers and have been singing her more popular songs every time she comes out. Clips of Dion engaging with fans, singing a cappella with them and making some dance moves in front of the Parisian palace have gone viral.
Not all of those hardcore fans will make it to the Paris concerts, however. Some may be turned away if they unknowingly bought fake tickets from the more than 200 fraudulent websites and social media accounts that popped up right when presale tickets went on sale in April, according to the Associated Press, which quoted Group-IB, a Singapore-based cybersecurity firm.
Her comeback isn’t just being eagerly anticipated by fans — it’s also being touted as a potential lifeline for France’s state coffers heading into 2027. French newspaper Liberation dedicated the cover of its weekend edition to Dion’s residency with a picture of the singer doing a prayerlike gesture, looking upward with a bright halo of light behind her and a headline that reads, “Celine Dion — is she going to save the 2027 budget?” Her Paris concerts could indeed generate €1 billion in economic impact for France, that’s four times more than what Beyoncé’s Paris concerts in June 2025 brought and roughly a fifth of what the entire Paris 2024 Olympics generated, according to French radio Europe 1.
More than 33,000 people are expected at the Plenitude Arena. As much as 60% of the set list is expected to be from her French repertoire, mainly songs penned and composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman, including “Pour que tu m’aimes encore” and “J’irai où tu iras.” She’s also teased that her first show will last over two hours in an informal chat with fans in front of her hotel and told them to wear comfortable shoes, as reported by France Info.
Rumors have been circulating about a potential surprise duo with Beyoncé who happens to be in the French capital with Jay-Z, who gave a concert in Paris two days ago.
An estimated nine million people signed up for advance tickets for the shows after Dion announced her concert comebackon her birthday, on March 30, during a glamorous bash (which she didn’t attend but delivered a message on video) in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was illuminated in tribute, with a choreographed light show set to Dion’s greatest hits.
Dion made her stage return singing Edith Piaf’s “Hymne A L’Amour”by the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
Dion’s Paris concerts were originally scheduled for 2020 at Paris La Defense Arena as part of her Courage World Tour, but were postponed due to the pandemic and then delayed again due to her health issues. In 2022, Dion was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological and autoimmune disorder that causes muscular stiffness, inhibiting the ability to walk and sing. Her fans lost hope she would ever come back after seeing Dion struggle against this illness in the 2024 documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” which was directed by Irene Taylor.
