The Miracle of Céline Dion
– 3 min read
Céline Dion will soon return to the stage – she’s playing 16 shows in Paris through September and October and those tickets sold out so fast she added ten more dates next May. Which is why she’s doing some promotion right now, covering the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar, in preparation for her miraculous comeback.
And it is a miracle on top of a miracle. As we all know now, especially after the documentary a couple of a years ago, Céline is living with Stiff Person Syndrome, which has sidelined her for years. She’d been experiencing symptoms for 17 years before getting diagnosed properly in 2022. Now, four years later, after a lot of hard work, hope, and belief, she’ll be singing again, a proper residency. That’s one miracle. And the other miracle is just… her. She’s always been a miracle: a miracle to music and sound, a miracle to celebrity and gossip. A pop culture miracle.
As Céline tells Harper’s Bazaar, we love her because she’s an “open book”, and for that reason, there’s not necessarily anything new in this profile; she’s already told us what there is to tell. And obviously the big story over the last few years has been about her health. Getting her body back to the point where she’s at now – doing Pilates and ballet and training for performance – has been the priority, in addition of course to her children and family.
What is great about this profile is how it’s written and reported by Jazmine Hughes who beautifully captures who Céline is, how she approaches her fame, what it is about her that has made her so embraced – it’s not just the artistry but also her personality. Respectfully and affectionately, the woman is batsh-t bananas absurd and silly and it’s not just entertaining, it’s not just endearing – to many people, it is freeing. As Jazmine puts it, succinctly:
“But this is who she’s always been, earnest and strange, in a way that allows people to access their emotions. She is so deeply herself that it’s contagious.”
God that is such a wonderful description of Céline and her impact on people. Earnest, yes. Strange, definitely. She does and says the weirdest sh-t sometimes. But it’s never artificial and that’s why it’s never repellent in the way strangeness can sometimes be. In fact, it draws us closer, opens us up. And Jazmine articulated it perfectly.
Same goes for her description of Céline’s often bizarre and hilarious expressiveness that happens so randomly but also regularly that we can picture it without seeing it. Here’s an example from a moment in Jazmine’s conversation with her that made me scream with delight, the words organising themselves into a 3D image coming out of the screen, so vivid I felt like I was there:
“While in the middle of telling me about her love for climbing trees—“I’m a monkey”—[Céline] scampers four feet up the scaffolding on the wall, extending her arm out to me, like God did to Adam.”
Of course she did. Of course she was a monkey and decided to just start scaling the furniture … but make it opera. “Like God did to Adam”, only Céline Dion will pose for Michelangelo in the 1500s during a magazine interview in 2026.
Speaking of posing though… Mother is serving!
I love this shot of her (one of three covers) lounging in the backseat in a dress that is so essentially her – fitted, shimmering, slinky, and extra. There is no doubt that at one point during this shoot, in this setting, she laid her body flat on the seat and pretended to fall asleep. But glamorous in repose.
She can also cosplay louche rockstar – in high fashion lace, lording over Las Vegas, the pompous king of a town she helped revive for the artists who came after.
All the versions of Céline have triumphantly returned – the person who moves through life with her heart on the outside; the kook who turns an anecdote into an aria; the queen of couture who never met an outfit she couldn’t dramatise; and the world class vocalist who is reclaiming her place on stage. Céline, on est content de te revoir!
Click here for more of Celine in Harper's Bazaar.
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