Céline Dion waves to fans as she arrives at Hotel Le Royal Monceau in Paris on Aug. 28, ahead of her series of concerts in the French capital.SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP/Getty Images
Pauline Martin hasn’t been sleeping much lately.
The 39-year-old social worker has a tight schedule: work in the morning, then a cross-Paris trip on the Metro to the Royal Monceau, in the upscale 8th arrondissement of the capital. There, she stands for hours before catching a night bus home to the suburban town of Saint-Ouen. She is exhausted, she admits, but giddy.
She’s followed this routine all week for one purpose: to spend time with her idol, Celine Dion, who’s staying at the hotel during her Parisian residency. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, the singer appeared in front of the hotel in a black dress with feathered trim and sang her song Pour que tu m’aimes encore.
Céline Dion is back in Paris ahead of her comeback concerts
That night, Ms. Martin managed to tell the singer “on t’aime” (we love you). “She turned around and said thank you. I’m not sure it was to me specifically, but I felt like it was,” she says.
Then, as the days went by, more and more people started to show up. Hundreds of people now gather outside Ms. Dion’s hotel every night, hoping for a moment with the legendary singer.
Ms. Dion arrived in Paris on Aug. 28 and has since been in rehearsals for her long-awaited return to the stage. On Saturday, she will kick off a month-long residency at the Paris Plenitude Arena, Europe’s largest indoor venue.
But for now, she seems happy to entertain on a smaller, more informal scale.
On some days, Ms. Dion spends up to an hour with the crowd. She gives them life advice, duets with them, dances to her hits and occasionally sheds a tear. She has casual conversations about how much she likes pizza, the music she’s listening to at the moment, and her children. On some occasions, she takes selfies with fans, as she did with Ms. Martin.
A Céline Dion fan, holding her album Let’s Talk About Love, waits outside the Hotel Le Royal Monceau on Sept. 3.SIMON WOHLFAHRT/Getty Images
There are grey-haired people, children, guitarists, live-streamers, hardcore fans and passersby. The law office next door plays the singer’s hits on their speakers, and the doormen laugh when asked about her whereabouts. It’s joyous and respectful, like Celine.
“The atmosphere is great. Every time I’m there, I have a good time with the other fans. They’re really nice. There are several people that I’ve gotten to know. A woman who lives in the neighbourhood once brought me a bottle of water while I was waiting,” says Ms. Martin, who’s been to the hotel four times.
Ms. Dion is scheduled to perform 16 concerts starting this month, with another 10 dates in the spring.
The Canadian singer has a strong connection to Paris. “It’s my second home,” she told journalists upon arrival.
In 2022, Ms. Dion announced that she suffers from stiff-person syndrome (an autoimmune neurological disorder characterized by muscle rigidity and painful spasms), which caused her to cancel all future shows. Her last public performance was during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, when she sang Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour (Hymn to Love) at the Eiffel Tower.
For fans, that moment felt like a promise. “I’ve always known she’d be back. When I saw her at the Olympic Games, I knew that there would be more to come afterwards,” says Ms. Martin, who will be in the arena when the singer sets foot on stage Saturday.
Just a few days before her return to the stage, Dion poses with her fans outside her hotel in paris.IMAGO/L.Urman / Starface/The Canadian Press
The nearly 500,000 tickets available for the first leg of the residency sold out in under an hour, leaving many fans shut out. But missing a ticket doesn’t mean missing out on the Celine Dion effervescence. Across Paris, anticipation for the singer’s return has spilled beyond the arena, with fans finding other ways to party and congregate.
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The iconic Art Deco cinema Le Grand Rex welcomed 2,600 fans for a giant karaoke night in the singer’s honour on Sept. 9, and is planning a second one Thursday. On Friday, the night before the first show, the City of Paris is organizing two free open-air karaoke sessions for 10,000 fans to celebrate together. Even Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire has joined in, promoting the event with a video of himself singing along to Prière païenne, a 1995 hit from the Canadian vocalist.
Dion waves to fans as she exits her hotel on Sept. 3.SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP/Getty Images
You can also find fans milling around the official Celine Dion pop-up shop at the iconic Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann. Lindsay Foucart, a 25-year-old from the Paris area, stopped by for a T-shirt. She’ll have two nights to wear it, as she’s attending the show twice.
“If I had the budget for it, I would have gone to even more shows,” she said. “This tour marks something important in Celine’s life. We all have the feeling that it might be the last time we can see her on stage because of her disease and her age.”
The mania is spreading far beyond Paris. During the first week of the residency, train reservations toward the French capital have doubled, according to Trainline, a European train-booking platform. The most remarkable increases are coming from abroad: Zurich, Barcelona and London.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” says Clément Bretagnolle, general manager, France, at Trainline. “The European aspect of these increases in bookings is remarkable, and the proportion is quite unique.”