Legendary singer Celine Dion announced on Thursday that she has Stiff Person Syndrome, an incredibly rare neurological condition that affects between one to two people in a million.
Dion announced the sad news on Thursday in emotional videos posted on her social media accounts. She said that the rare disorder causes her muscles to stiffen, making it difficult for her to sing.
In the videos, released in English and French, Dion said that although she and her medical team were still learning about the condition, they established that it was the cause of the spasms she had been having.
The visibly emotional singer continued to say that the spasms had affected all aspects of her daily life and made it difficult for her body to perform some basic functions. She said she had difficulty walking, and the condition did not allow her to sing the way she was used to.
The singer, known for her huge vocal range and ballads such as My Heart Will Go On and That’s the Way It Is, tearfully shared her experience on Instagram and announced that she would not be ready to start her upcoming Europe tour.
The 54-year-old Grammy winner, who has sold millions of albums worldwide, said it hurt her to announce that she needed to push the tour and cancel other upcoming shows.
Dion postponed 17 concerts scheduled to start in February and run to April next year. She also canceled eight performances planned for the summer of 2023. Dion was supposed to perform in concerts all over Europe, including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, as a part of her Courage World Tour. She postponed the tour until 2024.
Dion’s Courage Tour was organized in support of her latest album, Courage, released in 2019. The tour began in Quebec, Canada, shortly after she released the album, but she did not get to finish the tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In October 2021, Dion canceled her Vegas performance because she started to get persistent muscle spasms.
Dion announced Thursday that she was working with a fantastic team of doctors, and her children were supportive throughout the ordeal. She lost her husband/manager in 2016 after his long battle with cancer.
She also said she was working with her sports medicine therapist, helping her build her strength to perform again.
Dion expressed her frustrations with the condition saying that it was incredibly challenging because all she knows is singing, which is what she loves to do.
The US National Institute of Neurological Disorders says that people with stiff person syndrome often experience rigidity in their muscles, and their sensitivity to touch and noise is significantly heightened, which then causes muscle spasms.
The institute says that people with the disorder can be incapacitated and unable to move or walk. Often, they are afraid of leaving the house because noises trigger spasms.
According to an Assistant Neurology Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Richard Nowak, a mild form of the disease is easily managed with drugs, but a severe case can leave a patient incapacitated.