Céline Dion is putting herself through a grueling fitness regime as she prepares for a spectacular return to music – training with 90-minute Pilates sessions three times a week and taking ballet classes ahead of her long-awaited Paris comeback.
Radaronline.com can reveal Dion, 58, is preparing for a residency at the 40,000-capacity La Défense Arena in Paris, running from September 12, 2026, through May 29, 2027.
The shows will mark her first live performances since 2022 after stiff-person syndrome forced her away from the stage and, at its worst, left her unable to walk because of intense pain.
A source familiar with her preparations exclusively told Radar Dion’s approach to returning was painstaking rather than rushed.
They said: “Céline knows the physical demands of performing better than anyone, so she isn’t taking shortcuts. The Pilates and ballet are the secrets of her rebuilding her strength, movement and confidence so she can give audiences the kind of performance she expects from herself.”
Dion told Harper’s Bazaar UK October ICONS 2026 issue about her outlook on holding onto positivity and getting back out in the world: “If you don’t want to sign autographs and you don’t want to get yourself pretty and you don’t want to be disturbed because your pasta is going to get cold, you can always stay home. But look at what you have.”
Her training represents another milestone in an extraordinary comeback from stiff-person syndrome, the rare autoimmune neurological condition she publicly revealed in 2022.
Quoting Kevin from Home Alone, Dion said: “It is a progressive condition. I don’t like to say ‘disease.’ Disease makes you go like this, ‘Kevin, you’re such a disease.'”
A source added Dion’s comeback preparations were built around understanding what her body can handle rather than simply returning to her old routine.
The insider said: “This isn’t Céline deciding one morning that she’s ready to perform again. It’s an enormous undertaking. Every part of getting physically performance-ready has required work and discipline, and she’s determined to do everything possible to prepare properly.”
For Dion, returning to her fans after years away is deeply emotional.
She said: “It’s been so long, I would like to offer them something to show how I’ve missed them.”
The singer has also documented her health struggles in I Am: Céline Dion, choosing to give fans an unusually intimate view of the condition that changed her life.
She said: “(My fans) paid for tickets. They bought my records. They gave me that luxury. So the least I can do is tell them that I’m alive.”
During her absence, Dion said she found solace in nature.
She said: “I love trees so much, and I had this vision of myself trying to disappear through the leaves.”
Dion also recalled performing in her family’s piano bar as a child.
She said: “Ten years old and I’m in a bar. I could’ve been arrested. But you know what? The police officers joined and sang with us. There was not a lot of crime then.”
Discussing her enduring connection with audiences, Dion said: “It’s got to be because I’m an open book. I’m honest, and it’s not always pretty. Sometimes it’s happy things, sometimes it’s sad, but it’s called life.”
Dion rose from humble beginnings in Quebec as the youngest of 14 children to become one of music’s biggest-selling stars.
Her powerhouse voice brought global hits including My Heart Will Go On and The Power of Love, while decades of albums, tours and Las Vegas residencies cemented her international superstardom.