This is his first television interview since the announcement of his illness. On the night of Tuesday, June 11 to Wednesday, June 12, the American channel NBC broadcast an interview from the event with Céline Dion. The first time since the singer announced that she suffered from stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disease, in December 2022.
Before star journalist Hoda Kotb, the 56-year-old singer dispelled the mystery surrounding her new daily life. Two years after the cancellation of the last dates of her Courage World Tour, and while her documentary I am: Celine Dion will premiere on June 25 on Prime Video, the one who retired from the front of the stage trusted her new daily life away from the spotlight.
“It’s like someone is strangling you.”
Céline Dion returned for the first time when the first symptoms of her illness appeared. It was during a concert in Germany as part of her “Taking Chances” world tour in 2008 that she realized she was having trouble singing.
“I was fine and then my voice started to go higher and higher and I felt like I couldn’t control it anymore. (…) I was scared and just before going on stage, I told my sound engineer: ‘I don’t know if I can doing the program, I don’t know what’s happening,'” he confesses.
“At first I thought it was just a cold or that I had overexerted myself, but it was different,” continues the Quebec singer.
But Celine Dion ended her world tour and continued with a 7-year residency in Las Vegas as well as several additional tours. But little by little the crises began to intensify. “It’s like someone is strangling you, like someone is pushing your larynx. “It’s a spasm,” says the singer.
“The cramps were so strong that I couldn’t get rid of them. I had them in my abdomen, in my spine, in my ribs… I already broke my ribs because they were very strong,” he adds.
“I should have stopped.”
Celine Dion reveals that she hid these pains from her fans for a long time. Thus, at her concerts, the singer found alternatives to try to preserve her voice and, for example, she pretended that her microphone was not working or she let her audience sing with her.
“I was trying to survive,” he says. “We didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t take the time to rest. I should have stopped, taken the time to understand.”
The star explains that she kept these pains to herself when the health of her husband René Angélil, who died of throat cancer in 2016, began to deteriorate. “I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero. I became a nurse. I had to protect my children, practice my passion,” explains Céline Dion.
“Lethal” dose of Valium
Before her diagnosis, Celine Dion also confessed to taking diazepam, a drug commonly known as Valium, in a “lethal dose” to try to control the symptoms she was experiencing so she could continue performing on stage.
“Honestly, I didn’t know it could kill me. I took, for example, before a show, 20 milligrams of Valium, and right on the way from my dressing room to backstage, I had already run out,” he specifies. .
Celine Dion, however, indicates that her body little by little became accustomed to the drug and that she began to increase her dose until she reached 90 milligrams a day, an amount that can “kill you.” It was during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that the artist managed to stop these medications: “I stopped everything because it no longer worked.”
“The burden was so heavy.”
During the pandemic, the singer Why do you still love me? investigated his health problem. After extensive examinations, the diagnosis was made: she suffered from stiff person syndrome.
After this announcement, Céline Dion explains that she wanted to take some time to “understand this disorder” and know what impact it would have on her career. Then, in 2022, the singer decides to share her diagnosis with her fans.
“I didn’t want to live in that bunker anymore because the burden was too heavy. And I said to myself: ‘Okay, I have to do what I have to do, but I also have to tell the world what is happening.'” says Céline Dion .
Despite the illness, Céline Dion assures that her passion for music “will never disappear” and that she will return to the stage. “Even if I have to crawl, if I have to talk with my hands, I will do it,” she says.
“I am Celine Dion because today my voice will be heard for the first time, not only because I have to or because I need it, but because I want to and I miss it,” concludes the Canadian singer.
Source: BFM TV
