Muscle spasms delay Dion's new show

MONTREAL • Canadian singer Celine Dion has postponed a new Las Vegas residency, saying she has been suffering from "severe and persistent muscle spasms" that have prevented her from rehearsing for the show.

The Grammy Award winner was scheduled to perform at the newly constructed Resorts World Theatre next month as well as in January and February next year.

"I'm heartbroken by this," the singer - famous for hits such as My Heart Will Go On (1997) and Because You Loved Me (1996) - said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

"My team and I have been working on our new show for the past eight months, and to not be able to open this November saddens me beyond words."

"Now, I have to focus on getting better... I want to get through this as soon as I can," she added.

In a statement, Dion, 53, said she has been "experiencing severe and persistent muscle spasms which are preventing me from performing".

Doctors are evaluating and treating her, she said, but in the meantime, her symptoms "are prohibiting her from participating in the ongoing rehearsals for the new show".

Her Courage World Tour - in support of her English-language studio album Courage (2019) - is still expected to resume in March.

After kicking off in Canada's Quebec City in September 2019, the concert tour was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is her first world tour without husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died at age 73 in 2016 from cancer.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE