Kelly Clarkson was fighting back tears following Celine Dion‘s magical performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During the games’ opening ceremony on Friday (July 26), the iconic chanteuse, 56, delivered an emotional rendition of Édith Piaf’s “Hymne A L’Amour” from the Eiffel Tower.
Dion’s jaw-dropping performance of the 1950s track, which translates to “The Hymn of Love,” marked her first live appearance since canceling North American concerts before revealing her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes severe muscle spasms.
The moving delivery was emotionally overwhelming for Clarkson, who was covering the event as part of an NBC broadcasting team consisting of Mike Tirico and Peyton Manning.
“I’ve been inspired, I’ve been dancing, I was not ready for that ending,” Clarkson said, beginning to get choked up. “If you know anything about Celine right now, she feels this is her purpose … and if you know anything about what she’s going through right now — I’m so sorry, I’m trying to hold it together right now. But then she got through that. That was incredible. In my field, she is the gold winner for vocal athletes.”
Dion previously seeded hope for her return to the stage in her recent Prime Video doc I Am: Celine Dion, in which she said of her determination to perform again: “If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl… I won’t stop.” She was also spotted earlier this week greeting fans in Paris outside Royal Monceau hotel near the Champs-Élysées.
Elsewhere in Friday’s ceremony, the Olympic cauldron was lit following a months-long torch relay, in which Snoop Dogg, BTS’ Jin and Pharrell Williams participated. Earlier in the day, Lady Gaga took the stage to perform a cabaret-style rendition of the French-language “Mon Truc en Plume” (“My Thing With Feathers”) in a minutes-long, highly choreographed routine.
Watch Clarkson’s emotional reaction to Dion’s Olympics performance via TMZ here.