‘She’ll outdo herself’: Céline Dion fans camp out for glimpse of star before sold-out Paris comeback

Noëlla Lamy, 52, who described herself as one of Céline Dion’s biggest fans, was preparing to spend all night on a Paris pavement without a tent but wearing a sweatshirt printed with the singer’s face for comfort.

“Céline Dion is a force of bravery and an inspiration,” she said.

Lamy, who works in catering for a private clinic, had travelled from her village near Amiens in northern France to wait for 36 hours behind a metal barrier outside the Canadian star’s Paris hotel to get a glimpse of her.

Hundreds of Dion fans have been gathering each day to catch sight of the singer, as she rehearses for a long-awaited return to the stage in a series of sold-out Paris shows that begin this weekend.

Dion, 58, announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with the rare and incurable autoimmune disorder, stiff-person syndrome. She took a break from performing, later describing how the condition meant she had suffered muscle spasms so strong that her ribs were broken as a result. In the 2024 documentary I Am: Céline Dion she provided insight into the severity of her pain from the condition, including having a seizure.

“She is resilient, humane and humble,” said Lamy, who had seen Dion perform several times in the US and France and has tickets for a Paris show. “I’m happy she’s back on stage and I hope it’s a gentle comeback for her. I know it won’t necessarily be the same type of shows she put on before, because of her health, but I know she’ll outdo herself and it will still be very grand.

“I feel like she’s been there for me for every challenge in my life. I lost my husband around the same time she lost her husband, and her songs really helped me through. I first watched her singing on a French TV chatshow when she was 14 years old and I was eight and I’ve been a fan since then.”

Dion, who grew up the youngest of 14 children in a small town near Montréal in French-speaking Quebec, has a massive fanbase in France. Although she is famous worldwide for her 1997 song My Heart Will Go On, which featured in the Oscar-winning film Titanic and became the second-bestselling single by a woman in music history, in France she is known for her many French-language songs. Her 1995 album D’eux became the biggest-selling Francophone album of all time. In 2024, she sang an Edith Piaf song from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

Dion has made a point of greeting fans outside her Paris hotel, often dancing for them and chatting to them as they wait for her to come and go from evening rehearsals. She told fans a few days after arriving at the hotel that she was not going out in Paris except to rehearse because: “I’m trying to conserve my energy to give the best of myself.”

The pavement outside Dion’s hotel has become a gathering place that often resembles a street party, with office workers in the next-door building putting speakers on their balcony to blast her hits while the crowd dances along.

Marina, 31, a chemist for a cosmetics company, who has tickets for one of Dion’s Paris shows, said: “I thought I just have to get down here to her hotel as the mood seemed so good outside. My mother had all her CDs when I was a child and I also watched Titanic when I was small. Even if you don’t specifically listen to Céline Dion, you’re constantly surrounded by her music in France. It’s really positive that she showed her health condition so honestly. Lots of stars clearly feel they mustn’t show any difficult moments, but they’re human like us. I think it made her more real and close to her fans.”

Sylvie Lugans, a retired cafe worker, had been a fan since Dion won Eurovision in 1988 representing Switzerland. “She’s a wonderful diva on stage, but in real life, she’s so down to earth,” Lugans said.

Augustin, 21, who worked in the last remaining wallpaper factory in France, had also travelled from northern France to stand outside the hotel and had seen Dion wave at the crowd as she left.

“She’s brave enough to speak about the hardest moments of her life, and that’s very moving,” he said.