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Céline Marie Claudette Dion OC, OQ (born March 30 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada) is a Grammy, Juno and Oscar award-winning popular singer and songwriter. She became a teen star in Francophone Canada and France after her manager and future husband, René Angélil, mortgaged his home to finance her career. She also gained recognition in parts of Europe and Asia by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Her first English album, Unison (1990), released on Sony Records, enabled her breakthrough to the Anglophone music market.

Dion's music is influenced by various genres, ranging from Pop and Rock and Roll, to Gospel and Classical. During the late 1980s and 1990s, she released many chart-topping English and French records, her most successful being "My Heart Will Go On", the love theme to the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic. After announcing a temporary break from the spotlight in her 1999 album, All the Way... a Decade of Song, she returned to the music scene in 2002 with the album A New Day Has Come. She is currently performing nightly in her show, A New Day...Live in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, under a contract that extends to 2007.

Dion's musical variety and intensity is favored by many fans and industry critics, but some consider her songs to be uninspiring and mediocre. Moreover, while she is noted for her superior vocal skills, her songs are often overwrought with excessive vocal ornamentation. Her accent, modest demeanor, on-stage movements and music is sometimes ridiculed by the media. Nevertheless, Dion is one of the most popular and successful artists in the world; in 2004, she received the Chopard Diamond award from the World Music Awards show for becoming the best-selling female artist of all time.^[1].

Childhood and career beginnings

Dion was the youngest of fourteen children born to Adhemar and Therese Dion in a poverty-stricken home in Charlemagne, a small town thirty miles east of Montréal, Québec, Canada. She honed her talents by singing with her siblings from the age of five in the small piano bar belonging to her parents. From this age, she gained an appreciation for music and decided that she wanted to become a singer. In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she said "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."^[2]

At the age of twelve, together with her mother and one of her brothers, Dion composed her first song, "Ce n'etait qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream"), which her brother sent to René Angélil, a manager, whose name he had found on the back of Ginette Reno's album. Angélil, who was brought to tears by Dion's voice, immediately decided to make her an international success. He mortgaged his home to help finance her career, and in 1981, they released her first record in her native French language, "La Voix du bon Dieu" ("The Voice of God"), which became a local number-one single, making her an instant star in Québec. Dion's recognition would soon spread to other parts of the world, as in 1982, she competed in, and won both the gold medal and the Musician's Award for "Top Performer" at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan. In 1987, she was approached by Swiss songwriters Atilla Şereftuğ and Nella Martinetti, who asked her to represent Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. By singing "Ne partez pas sans moi", Dion won the contest in Dublin, Ireland, receiving a large boost to her career not only in Europe, but also in the USSR, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia.

At eighteen, Dion saw Michael Jackson performing on television and she told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like him. Even though he had no doubt in her talents, he realized that in order for her to be marketed to the Anglophone music world, especially the U.S., her image needed to be changed. He had her long, curly hair cut, parted and shaved her eyebrows, and had her teeth capped to cover up the incisors that had caused a Québec humor magazine to dub her "Canine Dion". She was also sent off to an English language school to polish her English and interviewing skills.

Recording career

Career breakthrough— 1990 - 1992

Dion's attempt to break into the Anglophone market with Unison, (see 1990 in music) her first English album, proved successful. For her English debut, Dion worked with musician, producer, and composer, David Foster, Vito Luprano, and other noted musicians. The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock fit for the adult contemporary radio format, a style that would permeate throughout many of her future albums. Unison seemed to hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the album was a relief, and Dion never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her". Additionally, he noted that her vocals were "tastefully unadorned".^[3] Stephen Thomas Erlwine of All Music Guide declared it as "a fine, sophisticated American debut"^[4]. Singles from the album included "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad featuring an electric guitar, and "(If There Was) Any Other Way". The album established Dion as a rising artist in America and the U.K.

Dion's real international breakthrough came when she teamed up with Peabo Bryson to record the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit film, Beauty and the Beast. The song captured a musical style that Dion would utilize in the future: sweeping, classically influenced ballads with soft instrumentation. The song was both a critical and commercial smash: apart from topping the U.S Billboard chart, it won the Academy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television, the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

While Dion was enjoying her rising success in America, her French fans at home often felt neglected, and many criticized her for turning her back on them. At the Felix Awards show, she won an award for the "English Speaking Artist of the Year", and, in an attempt to reconnect with her French fans, Dion openly refused to accept the award on the grounds that she was, and will always be, a French and not an English artist. ^[5]

Dion's 1992 eponymous album, Céline Dion (see 1992 in music) incorporated music from a myriad of genres and sub-genres including rock, and soul. It had a strong classical ambience. Dion collaborated with many famed musicians, including Diane Warren and Rick Wake, making an album that was as well received as her first. Apart from "Beauty and the Beast" other singles included the gospel-tinged "Love Can Move Mountains", "Water from the Moon", "If You Asked Me To", and "Did You Give Enough Love". As with Dion's earlier releases, the theme of this album had an overtone of love.

By 1992, Unison and Céline Dion had propelled Dion to superstardom. She had achieved one of her main objectives: cracking the Anglophone market and establishing herself as a famous artist. However, she had her eye set on another goal: marring the man that was responsible for her success. Her earlier albums had themes and lyrics that were secretly aimed at her manager, René Angélil. Her next album would explicitly acknowledge her feelings for him.

Popularity established—1993 - 1996

Apart from her rising success, there were also changes in Dion's personal life, as Angélil would make the transition from manager to lover. However, fearful that the public would find the twenty-six-year difference between their ages perturbing, the relationship was kept a secret. In 1993, however, Dion indicated to the public that she was in love with her manager by declaring him "the colour of her love" in the dedication section of her third English-language album, The Colour of My Love. Eventually, they became engaged, and had an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994. As it was dedicated to her manager, the album's motif centered on love and romance, most exponent in tracks such as "The Colour of My Love", "The Power of Love" (a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1982 hit) which topped the U.S. charts for four weeks, and "When I Fall In Love", a duet with Clive Griffin. "Think Twice", though not a major hit in North America, became a chart topper in the United Kingdom. Both the song and album stayed at the summit of their respective charts. "Think Twice" has surpassed the million mark to become the fourth million-selling single by a female artist in the U.K. Singles Chart history.^[6]

Dion also had made sure to keep to her French roots: she continued to release French recordings between each English record. These included Dion chante Plamondon and Céline Dion à l'Olympia , (1994), and D'eux (known as The French Album in the United States) (1995). As these albums were French, the worldwide commercial success was limited, but Dion's Francophone fans embraced each release, and generally, they achieved more credibility than her Anglophone works.

During this time, there was a transitional period for Dion's musical offerings: she was slowly moving away from the rock music on releases such as Unison and transitioning into a more pop and soul territory: her songs began with more delicate melodies using soft instrumentations, and were built to powerful epic climaxes, displaying Dion's vocals. This new sound raised critics' eyebrows, who accused her of preferring vocal acrobatics over dynamics, and going on a trend of uninspiring, crowd-pleasing ballads. Resultantly, she earned frequent comparisons to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Additionally, signs that critics were finding her albums clichéd were beginning to show: critcally, The Colour of My Love was not very consistent with earlier works. However, while critical praise slowly declined, this was not the case for sales and popularity: Dion's releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and by the mid-1990s, she had established herself one of the best-selling and most popular artists in the world.

Worldwide success—1996 - 1999

Dion's Falling into You (see 1997 in music) presented Dion at the height of her popularity and success. Working with Foster and Warren, this album showed Dion's music evolving even further: instruments such as Spanish guitars, Trombones, the Cavaquinho, and saxophone, combined with ornate orchestral frills and even African chanting created a myriad of moods and emotions, reaching the widest possible audiences. Singles crossed over from fast-tempo gospel-tinged styles to soft-rock, dance-pop and sappy love ballads. Singles such as the title track and "River Deep, Mountain High" (a Tina Turner remake) can be best remembered for the prominent use of percussion instruments. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (a remake of Jim Steinman's hit), and a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself" kept their soft-rock ambience, but were influenced by classical sounds of the piano, and the chart-topper, "Because You Loved Me", was a mid-tempo ballad written by Diane Warren, serving as the theme to the movie Up Close & Personal.

Reviews were generally favorable. On the one hand, Dan Leroy wrote that the album was not very different from her previous work, and Stephen Holden (Los Angeles Times) and Natalie Nichols (New York Times) wrote that the album was formulaic, and no real connections to the lyrics were shown. However, others such as Chuck Eddy, Erlewine and Daniel Durchholz lavished upon Falling into You, such plaudits as "compelling", "passionate", "stylish", "elegant" and "remarkably well-crafted".^[7]^[8] Falling Into You became Dion's most successful album: it topped the charts in eleven countries and sold thirty-two million copies, becoming one of the best-selling of all time.^[9] It also won the Grammy awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the thirty-ninth annual Grammy Awards ceremony.

Dion followed Falling into You with Let's Talk About Love (1997), publicized as the its sequel. Recorded in London, New York and Los Angeles, it featured a host of special guests, including some of music's most-celebrated vocalists; Barbra Streisand ("Tell Him"), the Bee Gees ("Immortality"), and world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti ("I Hate You Then I Love You"). Musicians included Carole King and Sir George Martin. As the name suggests, the album had a theme that had been found on all of Dion's album up to this point—"love"— but with a slight difference: emphasis was placed on "brotherly love", with tracks such as "Where is the Love" and the title track. The most successful single from this album was "My Heart Will Go On", the slow, dramatic ballad composed by James Horner and produced by James Horner and Walter Afanasieff as the love theme for the movie Titanic. This song, about perseverance through lost love, became one of the decade's biggest hits. Dion embarked on a world tour between 1998 and 1999 for Falling into You. Comments were good, but many critics focused on her on-stage movements, which often consisted of backward bending, chest-pounding and other flashy movements.

Dion released These Are Special Times in 1998. Orchestral arrangements could be found on all of the tracks, and for one of the first times, Dion participated in the writing some of the material. The single "I'm Your Angel", a duet with R. Kelly, became a number-one single in the United States and Canada. She also released "The Prayer", a duet with Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, which was recorded for the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot. All the Way... a Decade of Song released in 1999, was a compilation of her most successful hits. It contained a collection of Dion's previous hit singles, such as "Beauty and the Beast", "The Power of Love", "Because You Loved Me", "I'm Your Angel", and "My Heart Will Go On". Also included were seven new songs: the leadoff single "That's the Way It Is", a remake of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "All the Way", a duet with Frank Sinatra.

By the end of the 1990s, Dion had sold over 100 million albums worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards. Solidifying her status as one of the biggest divas of contemporary music, she was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special in 1998 with such superstars as Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain. She has also received many awards and accolades for her achievements: she received two of the highest honors from her home country —"Officer of the Order of Canada for outstanding contribution to the world of contemporary music" and "Officer of the National Order of Quebec". In 1999, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, and won two Grammy awards for "My Heart Will Go On"—Best Pop Vocals, Female, and the most coveted Record of the Year.

However, while she had sold many records, and had immense popularity, many critics and fans were still unappreciative of her music: they felt that she was "the height of cookie-cutter banality." Her albums received mixed reviews at best: some reviewers felt that they were simply unsatisfying. Rob O'Connor, on reviewing Let's Talk about Love wrote "What never ceases to amaze me is how the trite-est, most cliche-ridden music often takes an assembly-line of lauded music industry professionals to perfect. Sinking ships are what I imagine as this tune ["My Heart Will Go On"] plows onward of four-plus minutes and this album feels as if were never to end. Is it no wonder why I have such fears of going to the dentist?" Still, others complained that even with the mix of genres and sounds, the resulting qualities were no different from her previous albums. Dion was also criticized for some of her remakes and duets: the Roberta Flack remake and "All the Way" a Frank Sinatra duet from All the Way... a Decade of Song, were described as disastrous by Erlwine of A.M.G, and creepy by Allison Stewart of the Chicago Tribune. Additionally, while some critics applauded her efforts and praised her singing voice, calling it a technical marvel, the much favored vocal restraint heard on her early releases had waned, causing Steve Dollar to call Dion a "vocal Olympian".

Career break — 2000 - 2002

Things took a turn for the worse in Dion's personal life: her husband, René Angélil, was diagnosed with throat cancer. Dion, who has always been very family oriented, decided to put a new emphasis on her family life, and announced a temporary retirement so that she could spend more time at home and have a child. After undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son, René-Charles Angélil, in January 2001.

In late 2002, Dion was thrust into the spotlight when a February issue of the National Enquirer published a false story about the singer. Brandishing a picture of Dion and her husband, the magazine misquoted Dion, printing the headline: "Celine—'I'm Pregnant with Twins!'" ^[10] Dion later sued the magazine for over twenty million dollars, and the editors for the Enquirer later printed an apology and a full retraction to Dion in the next issue, and donated money to the American Cancer Society in honor of Dion and René Angélil, who has battled cancer.

Return: critical and commercial decline —2002 - 2003

Dion's aptly titled A New Day Has Come, released in March 2002, ended her two-year break from the music world. The theme of the album was one of "new beginnings", and, even though it did not incorporate many genres,a few dance-pop tunes ("I'm alive" and "Sorry for Love") could be heard among a throng of adult contemporary tracks. It showed a more mature side of Dion— the result of her new-found maternal responsibilities. The album resumed her commercial success— accompanied by media appearances and interviews, it topped the charts in seventeen countries—, however critical comments suggested that the the album was forgettable, and the lyrics, as usual, were lifeless. For example, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote that Dion's music had not changed. Calling her music "schlock pop", he opined that "Dion's voice is still just furniture polish"^[11]. The album featured the title track, "A New Day Has Come", which encapsulated her attitude to the changes in her life, and a cover of Etta James' "At Last", for which Sheffield believes Dion does not have the voice^[12]. Dion had a special concert to promote her album, where she performed with Destiny's Child and Brian McKnight.

Dion's career had taken her many palces, and, after deciding that she needed to try new things and have fun with her success, she released One Heart, (2003). This album, which was largely comprised of dance music was a slight deviation from the soaring, melodramatic ballads that she was known, and sometimes criticized for. One Heart achieved moderate success, but it suggested that Dion was unable to surpass the creative wall that she had hit, and words such as "predictable" or "banal" turned up even the most lenient reviews. A remake of Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night" was released to launch her new advertising campaign with Chrysler. The single incorporated a bit of dance-pop and rock and roll (a critic joked that this was Dion's version of "Believe" by Cher), but it was dismissed as Dion trying to please her corporate sponsors.

Though her albums were relatively successful, signs of slowing down had begin to appear in the poorer critical and commercial reception of The Collector's Series —Volume 1 (2000), A New Day Has Come (2002), and One Heart (2003). Along with the poor critical reception, the commerical performance of these albums had been exiguous: they became her lowest sellers up to this point—except, of course, for her French releases. The media ridicule had not ended, and she was presented as a diva, and parodied repeatedly on "Mad TV", "Saturday Night Live" and many late-night Talk Shows. Dion, however, seems unabashed by all the negative comments from the media.

Dion had always been a family oriented individual and had enjoyed motherhood. In this light, she decided to make her first concept album entitled Miracle, (2004). A part of a multimedia project conceived by both Dion and photographer Anne Geddes, the theme centered on babies, and the work was a combination of images and music celebrating motherhood. The music of the album was not meant for a wide audience, so the dance-pop and adult contemporary tracks (which had saturated Dion's albums since her return) were excised. Found on the album were lullabies and other songs of maternal love and inspiration, the most popular being a cover of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and "Beautiful Boy". The reviews were generally weak: while Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that "Beautiful Boy" was "an unexpected gem", and called Dion "a timeless, enormously versatile artist", Nancy Miller of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "the whole earth-mama act is just opportunism".^[14]

A New Day...Live in Las Vegas —2003 - present

In early 2002, Dion had announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day, at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. This move was seen as "one of the smartest business decisions in years by any major recording artist."[15] given the poor performance of her releases since her return to the music industry. She conceived the idea for the show after seeing O by Dragone early in her break from recording, and began on March 25, 2003, in a 4000-seat arena designed for her show. The show is put together by Franco Dragone and promoted by Josh Somerhalder. A New Day... Live in Las Vegas is a combination of dance, music, and visual effects. It includes Dion performing not only her biggest hits, but those of other artists against an array of dancers and special effects.

The show has received mixed reviews. Reviewer, Mike Weatherford felt that, at first, Dion was not as relaxed as she should be, the stage was not as creative and colorful, and sometimes it was hard to find the singer as the stage was overwrought with ornamentations and dancers. However, her stage presence has improved, her costumes are more befitting, and her simpler, softer hair and make-up provide for an enjoyable show.^[16] The show has also been well-received by the audiences. It has sold out almost every night since its 2003 opening. Dion sold 322,000 tickets and grossed $43.9 million in the first half of 2005, the trade paper Pollstar reported. Billboard placed her show second in the Mid-Year Concert Chart. By the week ending July 17, 2005, Dion had sold out 315 out of 384 Las Vegas shows. In September 2004 the contract was extended into 2007.^[17] Dion has compiled her performances into the album A New Day...Live in Las Vegas, which features thirteen live tracks from Céline's show at Caesars Palace, as well as two previously unreleased studio tracks; "You And I" and "Ain't Gonna Look The Other Way".

Image and celebrity status

Unlike many pop stars of the contemporary music industry, Dion's image has not played an immense role in garnering media attention or selling records. She dresses modestly in her videos, performances or other public appearances, and has vowed never to wear revealing outfits.

She has seldom been caught up in media attention and controversies. However, in 2005, following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Dion appeared on Larry King Live. In a move that shocked the public, Dion tearfully criticized Bush regarding the Iraq War and his slow response in aiding the hurricane victims: "How come it's so easy to send planes in another country, to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives" she said, when Americans need to serve their own country. She believed that the response was "unacceptable", ^[18] and vowed to donate one million dollars for relief efforts. Her actions were generally shocking as Dion was not known for being outspoken on taboo or controversial events. She claims that she doesn't like to give her opinion for fear of offending some of her fans: "when I do interviews with Larry King or the big TV shows like that, they put you on the spot, which is very difficult. I do have an opinion, but I'm a singer. I'm not a politician."

Other activities

Apart from her success as a musician, Dion has also become a entrepreneur with the establishment of her franchise restaurant, "Nickels", in 1990, (though she is no longer affiliated with Nickels as of 2006) her own magazine — The Céline Dion Magazine, which is printed in both English and French, and her own line of perfume.

Dion has been an active supporter of many charity organizations worldwide. Since 1982, she has began promoting the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) by participating in media interviews, public service campaigns, and in 1996, she helped the foundation to secure an important new sponsorship with Royal Airlines. In 1993 she became the foundation's National Celebrity Patron. She has an emotional attachment to the foundation, as her niece succumbed to the disease at the age sixteen. In 2003, Dion joined a number of other celebrities, athletes and politicians in support of World Childrens' Day, a global fundraising effort for children, which was sponsored by McDonald's. The effort which raised money from over 100 countries benefited many orphanages and children's health organizations. Dion has also been a major supporter of breast cancer research, education and awareness, and she also supports the T.J. Martell Foundation and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

In October 2004, Canada's national air carrier Air Canada hired Dion as part of the new promotional campaign as the airline unveiled new in-flight service products and new aircraft livery. You and I, the new theme song sung by Dion, was written by an advertising executive working for Air Canada. The endorsement is not without controversy, however. Union workers criticized that the airline could have spent money elsewhere to improve service and on employees. At the time of the new branding, the airline had just come out of bankruptcy protection just 18 months prior and thousands of workers were laid off in the restructuring. Management defended the celebrity endorsement as money well spent to boost corporate morale.

Discography

Selected discography —Anglophone releases

Selected discography —Francophone releases

Awards and accolades

Contents