A week after her first public appearance in three and a half years, it was announced that Canadian superstar Céline Dion (55) also sang there. Chantal Machabée, vice president of hockey communications for the Canadiens, told People magazine. She is quoted as saying she looked “so happy” when she showed up to a hockey game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens.
“She’s been through a lot, and to see her so smiling and happy… that was nice,” the official said of the singer, who announced her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome last year. “I know she has good days and not so good days, but that day was a very good day and that was very reassuring.” During the outing, the music legend chatted, laughed and even sang “a few notes,” Machabée continued: “It was an incredible moment. She is an amazing woman.”
On October 30, Dion entered the locker room at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to greet her adopted hometown team. There she shook hands with team members and posed for photos with her sons René-Charles (22) and twins Eddy and Nelson (13). After Dion visited the team, Machabeée shared photos with the “I’m Alive” singer on Instagram in which the singer had her arm around her.
“We had a wonderful visit to the game in Vegas yesterday. Thank you Céline Dion for your generosity. The whole team is so happy to have met you and your family,” she wrote in French alongside the pictures.
The singer, known for songs like “My Heart Will Go On” and “Because You Loved Me,” suffers from a chronic autoimmune disease called “stiff person syndrome.” In stressful situations, the rare and incurable neurological disease can lead to muscle spasms. Dion is therefore currently unable to perform. She made the diagnosis public at the end of last year.
“Patients may be disabled, confined to a wheelchair or bedridden, unable to work or care for themselves,” according to the Stiff Person Syndrome Foundation. Possible symptoms include: “hyperrigidity, debilitating pain, chronic anxiety” and muscle spasms “so severe that they can dislocate joints and even break bones.”
Dion is therefore currently unable to perform. Her sister Claudette only stated in September that the singer was doing everything she could to get well again. She was “a strong woman”, but unfortunately the family “couldn’t find any medication that worked”, as Claudette Dion revealed in an interview published around a month earlier. However, Dion is working with “the best researchers in the field.” “I honestly think that what she needs most is rest,” Claudette Dion explained at the time.
