PARIS, Fra. – Céline Dion teared up as she took to the stage for her comeback concert in Paris and so did most of the 30,000 fans in the audience.
The Quebec superstar was emotional as she opened with her song “On Ne Change Pas,” that translates to “we don’t change” and is one of her early hits. Fans say she showed her voice had not lost a beat during her renditions of “The Power of Love’ and “My Heart Will Go On” as she dipped into both her French and English repertoires.
Between songs, Dion told the crowd of 30,000 people that she had made a promise to be back on stage, and that she was fulfilling that vow. She also thanked her fans for her support and their patience while she had stepped away.
“And if I may say so,” she told the crowd. “I am everything I am because you loved me.”
Fans described her performance as “operatic” and “majestic.”
“She was emotional, but also very strong, very passionate and very confident, like Céline we knew,” said a fan club member, Luciano Consentino as he left Paris’ Plenitude Arena.
Toronto’s Laura Webb and Berta Machado say they had vowed to see a Dion comeback concert since watching the documentary I Am Céline, in which she detailed her journey after a diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome that can induce painful spasms. When they learned it would be in Paris they hesitated.
“Then you know what happened?” asked Barta Machado after the show. “We went to the casino and won $18,000.”
They banked that jackpot on Dion delivering a performance they would not soon forget.
“I don’t cry at concerts, but it was amazing,” said Webb. “It was a once in a lifetime chance.”
The concert started more than 45 minutes late after tens of thousands of fans streamed into Paris’ Plenitude Arena wearing Céline Dion t-shirts, glitter and wide smiles.
Noemie Tournex was born in Montreal but has lived in France for years. She draped herself in the Quebec flag to honour her roots and her idol’s home province.
“It’s a dream,” she says. “We stayed up all night trying to get tickets when they came out, we were working on six computers, and we weren’t sure if they could be fake. But here we are!”
Management of the Plenitude Arena warned it had taken legal action to stop some fraudulent online ticket sellers, and that it set up a booth outside the concert venue to guide and assist some fans who may have been victims if they opt to file a complaint.
Fans from around the world converged on Paris turning the City of Love into the City of Céline. Her songs play in restaurants on the Champs-Élysées, billboard ads for her show went up near the Arc de Triomphe and across the city and a limited-edition gift box of macarons have been on sale at the Galeries Lafayette.
“It’s an impressive marketing machine that got into gear,” said Quebecer Nathalie Cloutier who was vacationing in Paris.
But her popularity is also linked to the powerful connection many fans feel with the superstar.
“She is authentic,” says Stella Duval who travelled from Joliette, Que. for the concert. “She loves her audience, and it shows. Her songs have been with me through the good times and the tough times in my life.”
Before showtime, Dion had but in one more appearance on her Paris hotel doorstep. Fans have been gathering day and night to cheer her on for her return to centre stage since she landed. She took several minutes to wave and thank them. Several members of her official fan club, called “The Redheads” had gathered and set up a display of hundreds of candied apples, called “pommes d’amour” in French.
“It is a reference to her documentary,” said fan club member Stephanie Lesaffre. “In it, she says she feels like she is an apple tree that once had a lot of apples, of songs, to give to people, and that she had no more apples to give.”
Lesaffre gifted an apple to Dion, who held it up as she was whisked away to the concert venue with a police escort.
“She took time to talk to us, she understood the message of love we wanted to pass on to her,” said Lesaffre.
There are 15 more concerts planned, and all are sold-out. Fans expect that Dion will deliver her brand of emotion with a powerful voice in coming shows too, but many fans said that her first time back at centre stage was a once in a lifetime performance.
