Far across the distance and spaces between us, Céline Dion has come to show she goes on: The five-time Grammy winner made a surprise appearance during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards to present the final award of the evening, Album of the Year. In 2022, Dion revealed she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological condition that causes muscular stiffness and spasms. Just one year later, Dion’s sister Claudette said the singer’s disorder had progressed to the point that Dion could no longer control her muscles.
“In our dreams and hers, the goal is to return to the stage,” Claudette said at the time. “In what state? I don’t know. The vocal cords are muscles, and the heart is also a muscle.”
Well, Claudette, dreams came true tonight. Dion walked out to “The Power of Love” and was able to stand on her own as she presented the Grammy to Taylor Swift — the very award she was presented with, she said, by Diana Ross and Sting over 27 years ago. Even the Grammys got this one right for once, teasing her appearance throughout the ceremony as “one of the greatest voices of all time.”
“I love you right back. You look beautiful,” Dion said as she addressed the crowd. “When I say that I’m happy to be here, I really mean it from my heart.”
In the middle of Sunday night’s show, Twitter caught wind of the surprise Céline appearance as a video of the singer talking to celebrity stylist Law Roach at the Crypto.com Arena made the rounds online. Roach had also teased something of a surprise comeback just before the ceremony began: “One nite only!!!!! ……” he wrote, tagging the Recording Academy and #Grammys2024. As he explained exclusively to the Cut in 2023, Roach abruptly left the world of celebrity styling after “suffering” from burnout for years.
Sunday night, then, gave us not one, but two surprise comebacks. Every night in my dreams, I see Céline, but even better to see her in pink chiffon thriving onstage once more. Thank you, Grammys!