It was weird on so many levels when Taylor Swift seemingly blanked on Celine Dion at the Grammys this year. For one thing, it’s rude to just snatch your trophy without acknowledging the human handing it to you, let alone when that person is a titan in your industry. But the most disrespectful side to the snafu was the timing. Celine presenting the final award of the night was a surprise, a triumphant return after she’s been out of the spotlight for over a year while battling Stiff Person Syndrome. All I can say is, Taylor should be glad that Celine is not the kind of artist to write a thinly-veiled song about bad manners in retaliation. And lucky for us, Celine’s reemergence seems not to have been a one-off. At 55 she’s covering the May issue of Vogue France for the first time, and gives an interview that is full to the brim with optimism. A few highlights:
How did you get through this difficult period during which you fought your illness?
I haven’t beaten the disease, as it’s still within me and always will be. I hope that we’ll find a miracle, a way to cure it with scientific research, but for now I have to learn to live with it. So that’s me, now with Stiff Person Syndrome. Five days a week I undergo athletic, physical and vocal therapy. I work on my toes, my knees, my calves, my fingers, my singing, my voice… I have to learn to live with it now and stop questioning myself. At the beginning I would ask myself: why me? How did this happen? What have I done? Is this my fault? Life doesn’t give you any answers. You just have to live it! I have this illness for some unknown reason. The way I see it, I have two choices. Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it’s over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself. I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team. I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!Once you reached the top, was there any disillusion?
It’s been quite the opposite, if I may say so. I started at the top, with my head in the clouds. Life was just a dream and that was all I wanted. I was very satisfied because I was dreaming. Nobody could stop me, my brothers and sisters could be in the basement and I would be soaring above the clouds. And slowly, with success, I had people who put up with me, my family and my manager, Rene, at the time, a whole little team who brought me back down to earth song after song, success after success, slowly but surely. In the end, the ascension brings you back down to earth to achieve stability.What are your dreams today?
My dream is to live in the present. One day at a time. I am truly very lucky. And I am honored to be doing a photo shoot for Vogue France because although I had better health and beauty at 30, I didn’t get asked to do one then. I am very proud that at 55, I am being asked to reveal my beauty. But what is beauty? Beauty is you, it’s me, it’s what’s on the inside, it’s our dreams, it’s today. Beauty is what surrounds us, it is there. There are people that see it, and there are people that observe it. Today, I am a woman, who feels strong and positive about the future. One day at a time.
My grandmother always had an abundance of energy (a trait not exhibited in her daughter or granddaughter), so it came as a shock when she failed a stress test and immediately had to have open heart quadruple bypass surgery. At one point in the hospital my grandmother, like Celine, said, “Why me?” And the nurse clapped right back saying, “Why not you?” That blew her mind. The rabbinical tactic of answering a question with another question can be both profound and disarming! And I love how Dr. Professor of Philosophy Dion breaks down nearly every keyword of her thoughts by asking, “but what is this?” I mean, it would annoy the hell out of me in real life conversation. But in a magazine interview, set against high fashion photography, it all works together as a show of Celine’s EXTRAness. And if an icon like Celine Dion can’t be extra, what hope is there for the rest of us… But what is extra? (See what I did there?!)
