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JACQUES BOISSINOT/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Singer Celine Dion performs during her first World Tour called Courage in Quebec City, Montreal, Canada, in September 2019. Dion announced today on social media that she was canceling the remainder of her Courage World Tour through April in order to focus on her recovery from a rare autoimmune and neurological disease.
Powerhouse pop superstar Celine Dion announced today on social media that she was canceling the remainder of her Courage World Tour through April in order to focus on her recovery from a rare autoimmune and neurological disease.
Dion, 55, first shared publicly that she was grappling with the medical condition — called stiff person syndrome, which causes progressive stiffness and severe muscle spasms — in an emotional Instagram video that she posted in December, as she canceled or postponed a number of tour dates.
“I am so sorry to disappoint all of you once again,” Dion said in her statement. “I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100 percent. It’s not fair to you to keep postponing the shows, and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything now until I’m really ready to be back onstage again. I want you all to know, I’m not giving up … And I can’t wait to see you again!”
The remaining 2023 tour dates had been scheduled to run from Aug. 26 in Amsterdam through Oct. 4 in Helsinki, Finland; then from March 6 in Prague through April 22 in London. Tickets purchased for the canceled dates can be refunded via the original point of sale, according to the statement.
Before the pandemic paused Dion’s tour in March 2020, she had completed the first 52 dates of the tour, in North America. “Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I am used to,” she said in the video posted last year.
Dion can be seen in her first feature movie role, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan, in the romantic comedy-drama “Love Again,” released this month.
After the announcement of her illness last year, Dion, known for her renditions of ballads such as “Because You Loved Me” and “My Heart Will Go On,” was met with a remarkable outpouring from fans, particularly in Quebec, the French-speaking Canadian province where Dion was born.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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