Celine Dion has canceled all of her European tour dates for 2023 and 2024 as she continues to focus on her recovery from stiff-person syndrome.
“I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again,” Dion said. “I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100%. It’s not fair to you to keep postponing the shows, and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything now until I’m really ready to be back on stage again. I want you all to know, I’m not giving up… and I can’t wait to see you again!”
The dates were part of Dion’s “Courage World Tour,” which launched in Sept. 2019. Dion was able to play 52 shows in North America before the pandemic forced her to postpone the run. While she was supposed to return to the road in spring 2022, she canceled her final stretch of North American shows and then postponed the start of her European run, citing unspecified health issues both times.
Then in Dec. 2022, she postponed the concerts again and revealed that she’d been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome. The rare neurological condition is “characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs,” as well as a “heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms” (per the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes).
Explaining it further to Rolling Stone, Dr. Scott Newsome, the director of the Stiff-Person Syndrome Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said, “If you’ve ever had a charley horse, our patients can have those anywhere there’s a muscle, including the abdominal region and back. And they can be continuous for minutes to hours. If you amplify it by 1000 or more, that’s what our patients are experiencing.”
While fans won’t be able to see Dion on stage, they can go see her on the screen in the new romcom, Love Again, in which she plays a fictionalized version of herself. The movie was filmed back in 2021 and also stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan. Dion recorded a new ballad for the movie as well, “Love Again.”