Céline Marie Claudette Dion CC OQ (/seɪˌliːn diˈɒn/,[2] also UK: /- ˈdiːɒn/,[3] French: [selin maʁi klodɛt djɔ̃], Quebec French: [- d͡zjɔ̃]; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, she emerged as a teen star in her homeland with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland. After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
During the 1990s, she achieved worldwide fame after releasing several best-selling English albums, such as Falling into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997), which were both certified diamond in the US. She also scored a series of international number-one hits, including "The Power of Love", "Think Twice", "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", "My Heart Will Go On", and "I'm Your Angel". Dion continued releasing French albums between each English record; D'eux (1995) became the best-selling French-language album of all time, while S'il suffisait d'aimer (1998), Sans attendre (2012), and Encore un soir (2016), were all certified diamond in France. During the 2000s, she built her reputation as a highly successful live performer with A New Day... in Las Vegas Strip (2003–07), which remains the highest-grossing concert residency of all time, as well as the Taking Chances World Tour (2008–09), one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.
Dion's music has been influenced by genres ranging from rock and R&B to gospel and classical. Her recordings are mainly in French and English, although she also sings in Spanish, Italian, German, Latin, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. While her releases have often received mixed critical reception, she is regarded as one of pop music's most influential voices. She has won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Billboard named her the "Queen of Adult Contemporary" for having the most number ones on the radio format for a female artist.[4] She is the second best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era. In 2003, she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for selling over 50 million albums in Europe. She remains the best-selling Canadian artist and one of the best-selling artists of all time with record sales of 200 million copies worldwide.
1968–1989: Early life and career beginnings
Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Montreal, the youngest of 14 children of Thérèse (née Tanguay)(b.1927), a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion (1923–2003), a butcher, both of French-Canadian descent.[8][9] She was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor, but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne.[10][11] Music had always been a major part of the Dion family, and she was named after the song "Céline", which French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded two years before her own birth.[12] On 13 August 1973, at the age of five, the young Céline made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song "Du fil des aiguilles et du coton".[13] She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril, "The Old Barrel". From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer.[14] In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she recalled, "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.
At age 12, she collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream".[11] Her brother Michel sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album.[16] Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star.[11] In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu, which later became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi".[16]
By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year".[16][17] Further success came when she represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won the contest by a close margin in Dublin, Ireland.[18]
At age eighteen, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Dion told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like Jackson.[19] Though confident in her talent, Angélil realized that her image needed to be changed for her to be marketed worldwide.[11] She receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the École Berlitz in 1989 to polish her English.[20]
In 1989, during a concert on the Incognito tournée, she injured her voice. She consulted the otorhinolaryngologist William Gould,[21][22] who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her vocal cords or do not utilize them at all for three weeks.[21] Dion chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.[21][22]
1990–1992: Unison, Dion chante Plamondon and Celine Dion
Two years after she learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with Unison (1990), the lead single having originally been recorded by Laura Branigan.[16] She incorporated the help of many established musicians, including Vito Luprano and Canadian producer David Foster.[14] The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music that quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. Unison also hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that her vocals were "tastefully unadorned", and that she never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her".[23] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared it "a fine, sophisticated American debut".[24] Singles from the album included "(If There Was) Any Other Way", "The Last to Know", "Unison", and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad that made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. In 1991, Dion was a featured soloist on "Voices That Care", a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.[citation needed]
Her real international breakthrough came when she duetted with Peabo Bryson on the title track to Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991).[25] It became her first top-ten hit in the UK and her second top-ten hit in the US. The song earned its songwriters an Academy Award for Best Song and gave Dion her first Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[14] "Beauty and the Beast" served as the lead single from her 1992 self-titled album, which, like her debut, had a strong pop rock influence combined with elements of soul and classical music. Owing to the success of the lead-off single and her collaborations with David Foster and Diane Warren, the album was even more well-received commercially than Unison; it was certified diamond in Canada and double platinum in the US. The album's second single "If You Asked Me To" (a cover of Patti LaBelle's song from the 1989 movie Licence to Kill) became her first number-one single in Canada and peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Also during this time, Dion released the Francophone album Dion chante Plamondon. The album consisted mostly of covers, but featured four new songs: "Des mots qui sonnent", "Je danse dans ma tête", "Quelqu'un que j'aime, quelqu'un qui m'aime" and "L'amour existe encore". It was originally released in Canada and France during the 1991–1992 period, then later received an international release in 1994, the first French Celine Dion album to do so. "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" became a smash hit in France, reaching No. 2 and being certified gold. In Quebec, the album was certified Gold the day it was released.[citation needed]
By 1992, Unison, Céline Dion, and numerous high-profile media appearances had propelled Dion to superstardom in North America. She had achieved one of her main objectives: wedging her way into the Anglophone market and achieving fame.[26] However, while she was experiencing rising success in the US, her French fans in Canada criticized her for neglecting them.[14][27] She would later rebuff these criticisms at the 1991 Félix Awards show, where, after winning "English Artist of the Year", she openly refused to accept the award. She asserted that she was—and would always be—a French, not an English, artist.[20][28] Apart from her commercial success, there were also changes in her personal life, as Angélil, who was twenty-six years her senior, transitioned from manager to lover. However, the relationship was kept a secret as they both feared that the public would find their relations inappropriate.[29]
1993–1995: The Colour of My Love and D'eux
In 1993, Dion announced her feelings for 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. However, instead of criticizing their relationship as she had feared, fans embraced the couple.[14] Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.[citation needed]
As with most of her catalogue, The Colour of My Love had over-riding themes of love and romance.[30] It became her most successful record up to that point, selling more than six million copies in the US, two million in Canada, and peaking at No. 1 in many countries. The album also spawned Dion's first US, Canadian, and Australian No. 1 single "The Power of Love" (a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1985 hit), which would become her signature hit until she reached new career heights in the late 1990s.[26]
The single "When I Fall in Love", a duet with Clive Griffin, achieved moderate success on the US and Canadian charts and was nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning one. The Colour of My Love also became Dion's first major hit in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom. Both the album and the single "Think Twice" simultaneously occupied the top of the British charts for five consecutive weeks. "Think Twice", which remained at No. 1 for seven weeks, eventually became the fourth single by a female artist to sell in excess of one million copies in the UK[31] while the album was eventually certified five-times platinum for two million copies sold.[32]
Dion kept to her French roots and continued to release many Francophone recordings between each English record.[33] Generally, they achieved more credibility than her English-language works.[27] She released À l'Olympia, a live album that was recorded during one of her concerts at the Paris Olympia in 1994. It had one promotional single, a live version of "Calling You", which peaked at seventy-five on the French Singles Chart. She also recorded a bilingual version of "Petit Papa Noël" with Alvin and the Chipmunks for the 1994 holiday album A Very Merry Chipmunk. D'eux (also known as The French Album in the United States), was released in 1995, and it would go on to become the best-selling French-language album of all time.[33] The album was mostly written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman, and amassed huge success with the singles "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" and "Je sais pas". "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" reached No. 1 in France and stayed at the top position for twelve weeks. It was later certified Platinum in France.[34] The single reached the top ten in the UK and Ireland, a rare accomplishment for a French song. The second single off the album, "Je sais pas", reached No. 1 on the French Singles Chart as well and was certified Silver there.[35] These songs later became "If That's What It Takes" and "I Don't Know" on her next English album, Falling into You.[citation needed]
During the mid-1990s and onward, Dion's albums were generally constructed on the basis of melodramatic soft rock ballads, with sprinklings of up-tempo pop and rare forays into other genres.[36] She collaborated with many renowned writers and producers such as Jim Steinman and David Foster, who helped her to develop a signature sound.[14][37] While critical reviews fluctuated, her releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and in 1996, she won the World Music Award for "World's Best-selling Female Recording Artist of the Year" for the third time. By the mid-1990s, she had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world.[38]
1996–1999: Falling into You, Let's Talk About Love and S'il suffisait d'aimer
Falling into You (1996), Dion's fourth English-language album, presented the singer at the height of her popularity and showed a further progression of her music.[29] In an attempt to reach a wider audience, the album combined many elements, such as complex orchestral sounds, African chanting, and elaborate musical effects. Additionally, instruments like the violin, Spanish guitar, trombone, the cavaquinho, and saxophone created a new sound.[39] The singles encompassed a variety of musical styles. The title track "Falling into You" and "River Deep – Mountain High" (a Tina Turner cover) made prominent use of percussion instruments; "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (produced by its writer Jim Steinman) and a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself" maintained a soft-rock atmosphere, combined with the classical sound of the piano; and the No. 1 single "Because You Loved Me", which was written by Diane Warren, was a pop ballad that served as the theme to the 1996 film Up Close and Personal.[38]
Falling into You garnered career-best reviews for Dion. While Dan Leroy wrote that it was not very different from her previous work,[40] and Stephen Holden of The New York Times and Natalie Nichols of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the album was formulaic,[41][42] other critics, such as Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, and Daniel Durchholz, lavished the album as "compelling", "passionate", "stylish", "elegant", and "remarkably well-crafted".[39][43] Falling into You became Dion's most critically and commercially successful album: it topped the charts in many countries and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.[44]
In 2013, CBC Music ranked Falling into You 33rd in their list of the 100 greatest Canadian albums ever.[45] In the United States, the album reached No. 1,[46] and was later certified 11× Platinum for over 11 million copies shipped.[47] In Canada, the album was certified diamond for over one million copies shipped.[48] The IFPI certified Falling into You 9× Platinum, an accolade that has been given to only two other albums in history, with one of the two being Dion's own album, Let's Talk About Love.[49] The album also won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album and the academy's highest honour, Album of the Year.[50]
Dion was asked to perform "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.[51] In March 1996, she launched the Falling into You Tour in support of her new album, performing concerts around the world for over a year.
She followed Falling into You with Let's Talk About Love (1997), which was publicized as its sequel.[52] The recording process took place in London, New York City, and Los Angeles, and featured a host of special guests, such as Barbra Streisand on "Tell Him"; the Bee Gees on "Immortality"; and tenor Luciano Pavarotti on "I Hate You Then I Love You".[29][53] Other musicians included Carole King, Sir George Martin, Bryan Adams and Jamaican singer Diana King, who added a reggae tinge to "Treat Her Like a Lady".[54]
Let's Talk About Love was another major success, reaching No. 1 all over the world, attaining platinum status in twenty-four sales territories, and becoming the fastest selling album of her career.[55] In the United States, the album topped the chart in its seventh week of release,[56] and was later certified 10× Platinum in the US for over 10 million copies shipped.[57] In Canada, the album sold 230,212 copies in its first week of release, which remains a record.[58] It was eventually certified diamond in Canada for over one million copies shipped.[59][60] The most successful single from the album was the classically influenced ballad "My Heart Will Go On", which was written and composed by James Horner and Will Jennings, and produced by Horner and Walter Afanasieff.[50]
Serving as the love theme for the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic, the song topped the charts across the world and became Dion's signature song.[61] Horner and Jennings won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song,[62] while Dion herself garnered two Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and the most coveted, Record of the Year, (the song itself won four awards, but two were presented to the songwriters).[63] "My Heart Will Go On" and "Think Twice" made her the only female artist in the UK to have two singles to sell more than a million copies.[64] In support of her album, she embarked on the Let's Talk About Love Tour between 1998 and 1999.[65]
Dion ended the 1990s with three more extremely successful albums: the Christmas album These Are Special Times (1998), the French-language album, S'il suffisait d'aimer, and the compilation album All the Way... A Decade of Song (1999).[66] On These Are Special Times, she co-wrote the song "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day" along with Ric Wake and Peter Zizzo.[67] The album was her most classically influenced yet, with orchestral arrangements found on virtually every track.[68] The album featured the single "I'm Your Angel" (a duet with R. Kelly), which became her fourth US No. 1 single, and a smash hit across the world. The album's second single "The Prayer" (a duet with Andrea Bocelli) served as the soundtrack of the 1998 film Quest for Camelot and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. All the Way... A Decade of Song drew together her most successful hits coupled with seven new songs, including the lead-off single "That's the Way It Is", a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "All the Way", a duet with Frank Sinatra.[66] All the Way became one of the best-selling compilation albums of all time, reaching No. 1 in the United States for three weeks.[46] The album was later certified 7x Platinum in the US for 7 million copies shipped.[69] It also topped the charts in the UK,[70] Canada,[71] and Australia.[72] Her last French-language studio album of the 1990s, S'il suffisait d'aimer, was very successful as well, topping the charts in every major French-speaking country, including France,[73] Switzerland,[74] the Wallonia region of Belgium,[75] and Canada.[71] In France, the album was certified diamond, selling 1.5 million copies.[76] By the end of the 1990s, Dion had sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards.[77] Her status as one of the music industry's biggest pop divas was further solidified when she was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special in 1998, with superstars Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey.[78] That year, she also received two of the highest Canadian honours: "Officer of the Order of Canada for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Contemporary Music"[79][80] and "Officer of the National Order of Quebec".[81] A year later, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, and was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.[82]
Starting from the mid-1990s, the pop rock influence that was more noticeable in her earlier releases was replaced by a more mature feel.[52] Additionally, the recurring theme of "love" dominated most of her releases, which led to some critics dismissing her music as banal.[83] Other critics, like Elysa Gardner and Jose F. Promis, praised her voice during this period, describing it as a "technical marvel".[84][85] Steve Dollar, in his review of These Are Special Times, opined that Dion was a "vocal Olympian for whom there ain't no mountain—or scale—high enough".[86]
2000–2003: Hiatus, A New Day Has Come, One Heart and 1 fille & 4 types
After releasing and promoting thirteen albums during the 1990s, Dion stated that she needed to settle down, and announced on her latest album All the Way... A Decade of Song, that she needed to take a step back from the spotlight and enjoy life.[10][87] Angélil's diagnosis with esophageal cancer also prompted her to hiatus.[88] While on break, she was unable to escape the spotlight. In 2000, the National Enquirer published a false story about the singer. Brandishing a picture of Dion and her husband, the magazine misquoted her, printing the headline, "Celine — 'I'm Pregnant With Twins!'"[89] She later sued the magazine for more than $20 million.[90] The editors of the Enquirer printed an apology and a full retraction to her in the next issue, and donated money to the American Cancer Society in honour of her and her husband. A year after the incident, after undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son, René-Charles Dion Angélil, on 25 January 2001, in Florida.[91][92]
Following the September 11 attacks, Dion returned to the music scene, and in a televised performance sang "God Bless America" at the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Chuck Taylor of Billboard wrote, "the performance ... brings to mind what has made her one of the celebrated vocalists of our time: the ability to render emotion that shakes the soul. Affecting, meaningful, and filled with grace, this is a musical reflection to share with all of us still searching for ways to cope."[93] She performed it again in 2003 during pregame festivities for Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego. In December 2001, she published her autobiography My Story, My Dream which chronicled her rags-to-riches story.[94]
Dion ended her three-year sabbatical from the music industry with the aptly titled album A New Day Has Come, released in March 2002. The album was her most personal yet, with songs focusing on her motherhood and maturation as a woman such as "A New Day Has Come", and "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)". She stated: "becoming a mother makes you a grown-up."[87] She stated, "A New Day Has Come, for Rene, for me, is the baby. It has everything to do with the baby ... That song "A New Day Has Come" represents very well the mood I'm feeling right now. It represents the whole album."[95] A New Day Has Come debuted at No. 1 in more than 17 countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada.[96][97][98] In the United States, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 527,000 copies; marking her first No. 1 debut on the chart, as well as the highest debut sales week of her career in the US.[99] It was eventually certified 3× Platinum in the United States,[100] and 6× Platinum in Canada.
