As Céline Dion once again postponed a long-delayed tour at the end of 2022, she shared that she had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome. At the time, the legendary singer said the condition made performing difficult but that she planned to sing again. Dion hasn’t taken the stage since, and now, as her documentary I Am: Céline Dion premieres, questions about the future of her career are once again in the air. Out June 25 on Prime Video, I Am follows how the condition has affected Dion’s life — causing muscle spasms that have sometimes given her broken ribs and even hindering her ability to sing. But the documentary also shows Dion’s fight to return to the stage, including five days of vocal and physical therapy per week.
Stiff-person syndrome has certainly changed Dion’s voice, as she demonstrated last week on an NBC special. “It’s like somebody is strangling you,” she told Hoda Kotb. “It’s like somebody is pushing your larynx/pharynx this way.” She sang in a high, hollow pitch for a moment and noted that she wouldn’t be able to go higher or lower at risk of going into a spasm. Dion also told Vogue that she first noticed symptoms on tour in 2008, when she had “difficulty controlling my voice” while trying to sing a high note. But in press leading up to I Am, and in the documentary, Dion insisted she would perform again. “I hope to see you all again very soon,” she told the audience after I Am’s New York premiere.
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