Céline Dion will not perform at Eurovision in Basel

Canadian Singer Céline Dion will not be performing at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel. Dion announced her absence in a video message, which was shown at the main rehearsal in the St Jakobshalle stadium. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox It had been unclear for a long time whether Dion would be able to take part in the event due to her health. At the beginning of March, the organisers of the music competition said that Dion "simply belonged" to Switzerland and the ESC. Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland in the Irish capital Dublin in 1988 at the age of 20. She did so with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" (Don't leave without me) – just one point ahead of the English pop singer Scott Fitzgerald. This was her international breakthrough. A year later, she was back on the Eurovision stage in Lausanne as the previous year's winner. In December 2022 Dion publicly declared that she was suffering from the incurable disease Stiff Person ...