The melody for the first live performance since 2020 by the singer, who has suffered with ill-health, was suitably tragic
It was a very public triumph, both for Paris and for Céline Dion. It received plaudits around the world as one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Yet the soundtrack was a tragic one.
The Canadian diva had chosen to celebrate the great French chansonnier Édith Piaf in a live, high-stakes comeback performance delivered from the iron shoulders of the Eiffel Tower amid showers of rain and fireworks.
However, Dion did not pick La Vie en Rose, Milord, or Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. Instead, she sang Piaf’s valedictory tribute to romantic passion Hymne à l’Amour.
Piaf wrote the lyrics to this soaring ballad in 1949 in the home she had bought with her lover, the French boxing champion Marcel Cerdan.
