Celine Dion

• 1. Introduction

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  Celine Dion spent her earliest months sleeping in a dresser drawer, because her family could not afford a crib. She was the youngest of 14 children, born on the 30th of March 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec. Nothing about that crowded, careful household suggested a global career. Yet the girl from the drawer would grow into one of the best-selling singers the world has known. How did the youngest of so many children get noticed at all? Why did a star who conquered English-language pop insist she was a French artist? And what happens to a voice famous for sheer power when illness begins to take it away?

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• 2. Charlemagne Childhood

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  Adhémar Dion worked as a butcher, and his wife Thérèse kept the household running. They were a French Canadian family living in Charlemagne, roughly 15 miles northeast of Montreal. Their youngest daughter wore hand-me-downs and shared a bed with several sisters. By her own account the home was poor but happy, and the family was Roman Catholic.

  The nickname "Vampire" followed her through school, where classmates teased her about her teeth and skinny frame. Years later, local tabloids called her "Canine Dion" while she was a teenage performer. In her autobiography she wrote, "I detested school." She explained that she had always lived among adults and much older children, and that "I learned everything I needed to know from them." She often ran home to play music in the basement with her brothers and sisters.

  The age gap in the family was striking. Dion's eldest sister was already in her twenties, married and expecting her first child at the very time Thérèse was pregnant with Dion. Music filled the house. French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded a song called "Céline" two years before she was born, and her parents gave her that name.

  On the 13th of August 1973 she sang in public for the first time, at her brother Michel's wedding. Her song was Christine Charbonneau's "Du fil, des aiguilles et du coton". She went on to perform with her siblings at Le Vieux Baril, "The Old Barrel", her parents' small piano bar. At five she was struck by a car while her father and her brother Clément looked on, and she spent a short time in hospital with a concussion. She also took part in Girl Guide programs as a member of Girl Guides of Canada. In a 1994 interview with People she said, "I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."

  At age 12 she worked with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song. They called it "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", which translates as "It Was Only a Dream". Michel had a plan for the recording.

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• 3. Making a Star

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  Michel noticed the name of a music manager on the back of a Ginette Reno album. That manager was René Angélil, and Michel sent him the recording of his sister's song. Angélil was moved to tears by her voice and resolved to make her a star.

  In 1981 he mortgaged his own home to pay for her first record, La voix du bon Dieu. It became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. In 1982 she competed at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo. There she won the musician's award for "Top Performer" and a gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi". By 1983 she was the first Canadian artist to earn a gold record in France, for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié", meaning "Of Love or of Friendship". She also collected several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year". In 1988 she represented Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won by a close margin.

  At age 18 she watched Michael Jackson perform and told Angélil she wanted to be a star like him. Jackson became a lasting motivation for her to learn English. Angélil felt her image needed to change before she could be marketed worldwide. She stepped out of the spotlight for several months and had dental surgery to improve her appearance. In 1989 she was sent to the École Berlitz to study English.

  That same year, during a concert on the Incognito tournée, she injured her voice. The otorhinolaryngologist William Gould gave her a choice. She could have immediate surgery on her vocal cords, or she could avoid using them for three weeks. She chose rest, then trained her voice with William Riley. Her first English-language album was only a year away.

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• 4. Crossing Into English

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  Unison, released in 1990, introduced Dion to English-language audiences. Its title song had been recorded in 1983 by Junior and later by Laura Branigan. Producers including Vito Luprano and David Foster shaped an album of 1980s soft rock that found a home on adult contemporary radio. Its single "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" reached number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, her first top-ten hit there.

  In 1991 Dion sang the title song of Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast as a duet with Peabo Bryson. It gave her a first top-ten hit in the UK and a second in the US. Its songwriters won an Academy Award, and Dion received her first Grammy Award. The song led off her 1992 self-titled album, which went diamond in Canada and double platinum in the U.S. Its second single, "If You Asked Me To", became her first number-one single in Canada.

  The Colour of My Love, from 1993, sold more than six million copies in the US and two million in Canada. It produced "The Power of Love", her first No. 1 single in the US, Canada and Australia. In Britain, "Think Twice" spent seven weeks at No. 1. For five consecutive weeks the album and that single sat together at the top of the British charts, a feat no artist had managed since the Beatles in 1965.

  Falling into You, released in 1996, mixed orchestral sound, African chanting, violin, Spanish guitar, trombone and saxophone. It included "Because You Loved Me", written by Diane Warren for the film Up Close and Personal. The album won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album and Album of the Year. It was certified 12 times platinum in the United States and diamond in Canada. In July 1996 Dion sang "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.

  Let's Talk About Love, from 1997, brought in guests such as Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees and the tenor Luciano Pavarotti. In Canada it sold 230,212 copies in its first week, a record. Its biggest single was "My Heart Will Go On", written by James Horner and Will Jennings as the love theme for the film Titanic. Dion won two Grammy Awards for it, including Record of the Year. The song became her signature and the second best-selling female single, with global sales above 18 million. By the end of the decade she had sold more than 130 million records worldwide.

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• 5. Two Languages

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  At the 1991 Félix Awards, Dion won English Artist of the Year and openly turned the trophy down. French fans in Canada had complained that she was neglecting them while she chased success in the US. She answered that she was, and always would be, a French artist. To this day she speaks English with a noticeable Quebec French accent.

  Dion chante Plamondon, released in Canada and France between 1991 and 1992, was mostly covers but offered four new songs. One single, "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)", reached No. 2 in France and went gold. In Quebec the album was certified Gold on the day it came out. It reached the wider world only in 1994.

  D'eux arrived in 1995, written and produced largely by Jean-Jacques Goldman. Its single "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" held the top spot in France for twelve weeks. It also reached the top ten in the UK and Ireland, which is rare for a song in French. The album spent an all-time record of 44 weeks atop the French Albums chart and became the best-selling French-language album.

  S'il suffisait d'aimer topped the charts in every major French-speaking country and sold 1.5 million copies in France. In October 2003 came 1 fille & 4 types, which Dion called "the album of pleasure". Its cover showed her relaxed, far from her usual choreographed poses. D'elles, released on the 21st of May 2007, sold 72,200 copies in its first week in Canada. Sans attendre in 2012 went diamond in France, and Encore un soir in 2016 passed 1.5 million copies worldwide.

  RFI Musique judged that French music "would probably never have got beyond Francophone borders without her". The lyricist Luc Plamondon, who worked closely with her, said she draws on three singing personas: the Québécois, the French and the American.

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• 6. Las Vegas and the Road

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  In early 2002 Dion announced a three-year contract for 600 shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, five nights a week. The idea came after she saw O by Franco Dragone during her break from recording. The production, A New Day..., opened on the 25th of March 2003 in a 4,000-seat arena modelled on the Roman Colosseum. Dragone directed it and Mia Michaels choreographed it. Justin Timberlake hosted the television special from opening night.

  The critic Mike Weatherford first found Dion stiff and hard to spot among the dancers and ornaments. He later judged the show better, thanks to her improved stage presence and simpler costumes. Ticket prices averaged US $135.33. By July 2005 she had sold out 315 of 384 shows. In 2005 she grossed more than US $76 million and placed sixth on Billboard's Money Makers list. The run ended on the 15th of December 2007 after 717 shows and nearly three million visitors. Billboard counts it as the most successful residency, with more than US$385 million in ticket sales.

  Touring was equally lucrative. The Let's Talk About Love World Tour of 1998-99 earned over US$133 million, the highest total for a female act in the 1990s. The Taking Chances Tour began in South Africa on the 14th of February 2008 and played 132 dates across five continents. On the 22nd of August 2008 she gave a free, mostly French concert on the Plains of Abraham for the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. About 490,000 people attended.

  The Los Angeles Times named her the top earner of the 2000s, with US$747.9 million in revenue from 2000 to 2009. Ticket sales made up US$522.2 million of that. Forbes ranked her the highest-paid female musician of 1997, 1998-2004 and 2006. Pollstar put her career concert revenue above US$1.35 billion, making her the second woman to reach US$1 billion.

  She returned to Caesars Palace on the 15th of March 2011 for Celine, a three-year residency of seventy shows a year. Billboard later ranked it the second most successful residency. Its final date was set for the 8th of June 2019.

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• 7. Voice and Verdicts

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  Kent Nagano, conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, once heard Dion audition with two solos from Carmen. His verdict was, "All you just sang was soprano." Dion had described herself as a mezzo-soprano in talks about opera projects. Other listeners have called her timbre "thin, slightly nasal", with a "raspy" lower register and "bell glass-like high notes".

  Praise for her technique is abundant. Jeff Miers of The Buffalo News wrote that she hits notes in full voice, with controlled vibrato and a sense of pitch like she is "shucking an ear of corn". Jim Santella, also of The Buffalo News, compared her power to an iron fist in a velvet glove. Goldman told Libération that she has "no problem of accuracy or tempo". Her 1992 album was sold with the slogan, "Remember the name because you'll never forget the voice."

  Critics were less kind about her taste. Keith Harris of Rolling Stone wrote that her sentimentality is "bombastic and defiant rather than demure and retiring". Others said she took too little part in production, leaving her records overproduced and impersonal. Dion gave her own account of her second English album: "On the second album I said, 'Well, I have the choice to be afraid one more time and not be 100% happy, or not be afraid and be part of this album.' This is my album."

  Shows such as Saturday Night Live, South Park and MADtv have parodied her accent and stage gestures. Dion said she was flattered, and she invited Ana Gasteyer, who played her on SNL, to appear onstage during a New York performance. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, she tearfully told Larry King that the slow response was not acceptable. Afterward she added, "I do have an opinion, but I'm a singer. I'm not a politician."

  Honours piled up all the same. She has won five Grammy Awards, twenty Juno Awards and fifty Félix Awards. With 75 nominations she is the most nominated artist in Juno history. Nicolas Sarkozy presented her with the Legion of Honour in 2008, and David Johnston elevated her to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2013. Université Laval granted her an honorary doctorate in 2008 and the Berklee College of Music did so in 2021.

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• 8. Love, Loss and Return

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  In 1993 Dion thanked her manager in the dedication of The Colour of My Love, calling him "the colour of her love". Angélil was 26 years older, and the two had kept their romance secret, fearing the public would find it inappropriate. Fans embraced the couple instead. They married on the 17th of December 1994 in a ceremony broadcast live on Canadian television.

  After thirteen albums in the 1990s, Dion wanted to step back, and Angélil's diagnosis of esophageal cancer reinforced that choice. In 2000 the National Enquirer ran a false story headlined "Celine - 'I'm Pregnant With Twins!'" She sued for more than $20 million and won an apology and a retraction. Her son René-Charles was born on the 25th of January 2001 in Florida. Her comeback album, A New Day Has Come, followed in March 2002. It sold 527,000 copies in its first week in the US, the biggest week of her career there. Of motherhood she said, "Becoming a mother makes you a grown-up."

  On the 13th of August 2014 she postponed all her work because her husband's health had worsened after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor the previous December. She returned to Caesars Palace in late August 2015. On the 14th of January 2016 she cancelled performances after the deaths of both her husband and her brother from cancer. She resumed on the 23rd of February to a sold-out house. Pink wrote her the song "Recovering", and her son presented her with the Billboard Icon Award in 2016.

  Courage debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 dated the 30th of November 2019. It was her first US number-one album in 17 years and gave her chart-topping albums in three decades.

  On the 8th of December 2022 Dion revealed she had stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disease. She said it affected every aspect of her life, made walking difficult and reached her vocal cords. Every tour date was cancelled. She starred as herself in the 2023 film Love Again, and the documentary I Am: Celine Dion arrived on the 25th of June 2024.

  On the 26th of July 2024 she sang "Hymne à l'amour" from the Eiffel Tower to close the Summer Olympics opening ceremony. It was her first public performance in four years. The Guardian called it an "undaunted, beatific return".

  On the 30th of March 2026 she announced Celine Dion Paris 2026, sixteen shows at the Paris La Défense Arena from the 12th of September to the 17th of October. More than nine million fans entered a lottery for early tickets, and every date sold out within hours. On the 17th of April she released "Dansons", written by Jean-Jacques Goldman. It was her first original French song in a decade and her first recording since her diagnosis.

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