From kitsch to cool: How singer Céline Dion survived the critics to retake her spot in the limelight

With her over-the-top ballads and garish outfits, music artist Céline Dion has been ridiculed for decades as being too naff. Now, ahead of a new documentary about her recent health struggles, we explore how she has suddenly become an icon

Cèline Dion’s best fashion moments

Meadhbh McGrath

At this year’s Grammys ceremony, it wasn’t Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish who stole the show, but Céline Dion. Taking the main stage to present the final award of the night, it marked the French-Canadian singer’s first public appearance since being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome — a rare neurological disease that causes muscle spasms in the lower back, legs and abdomen — in 2022.

Artists of all genres unanimously took to their feet in rapturous applause — an outpouring of support that might have once seemed unlikely to anyone who remembers the widespread Céline-bashing that accompanied her launch into the mainstream, belting out My Heart Will Go On for the Titanic soundtrack. Of course, much of it comes down to sympathy over her recent illness, which forced her to cancel a world tour and which she will open up about in the forthcoming documentary I Am: Céline Dion, streaming on Amazon Prime Video from June 25.