Celine Dion cancels 2023-2024 shows over health

Last year the 55-year-old Canadian singer revealed that she was suffering from the rare medical condition that was affecting her singing.

"I'm so sorry to disappoint all of you once again... and even though it breaks my heart, it's best that we cancel everything until I'm really ready to be back on stage," the My Heart Will Go On singer tweeted.

"I'm not giving up... and I can't wait to see you again!" she added.

A statement released by her tour said: "With a sense of tremendous disappointment, Celine Dion's Courage World Tour today announced the cancellation of all remaining dates currently on sale for 2023 and 2024."

"I'm working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you're 100%," Dion said in her statement, which was also posted on Instagram.

"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 on stage again."

"I want you all to know, I'm not giving up... and I can't wait to see you again!" she wrote.

Dion, one of the top women singers with an octave-busting voice, is the author of hits like "Because You Loved Me", "My Heart Will Go On" and "Think Twice".

In December 2022, she posted a tearful video on Instagram to say she had recently been diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome and would not be ready to start a European tour in February as planned.

She said the disorder was causing muscle spasms and was "not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I'm used to."

Tour interrupted

Her "Courage World Tour" began in 2019, and Dion completed 52 shows before the Covid-19 pandemic put the remainder on hold.

She later cancelled the North American section of the tour due to health problems.

The tour was to have been the Grammy-winning winner's first global concert tour in a decade and the first without her husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died from cancer in 2016.

The youngest of 14 children, Dion was born in Quebec, Canada and got her start at 12, when her mother sent a recording of her to Angelil, who mortgaged his own home to finance her first album.

She began singing in French, but started bellowing out hits in English after taking English lessons in the 1980s.

She gained worldwide fame in 1997 with "My Heart Will Go On", the theme to James Cameron's epic film "Titanic".

She parlayed that success into a regular gig at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, playing for audiences night after night for 16 years, with only a few breaks.

© 2023 AFP