Celine Dion ONE DAY AT A TIME'

THE SINGER REVEALS THE LOWS OF BATTLING A RARE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER AND SHARES HER HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

- Jennie Noonan

In an Instagram video posted in December 2022, Celine Dion tearfully revealed to fans that after a decade of testing and mysterious symptoms, she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes progressive muscle stiffness and spasms. She's since kept a relatively low profile, but now she is stepping back into the spotlight, sharing more about her difficult journey.

Dion recalled that her symptoms, which she could previously dismiss as the start of a cold or overwork, came to a head while she was in Germany on her 2008 Taking Chances World Tour.

"I said to my assistants and to my people, 'I don't know if I can do the show," she recounted in an interview for NBC News ahead of releasing a documentary, I Am: Celine Dion (available on Prime Video from June 25). “I was very, very, very scared. And then you panic, and the more you panic, the more you spasm.

“I went onstage … and I started to sound more nasal.”

There was a decision made that the sound could be “compensated” for by “lower[ing] the songs a little bit with the keys and project[ing] more nasal – and hope.”