Dion, Celine

Dion, Celine, Canadian pop-balladeer who has scored Titanic-sized hits; b. Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada, March 16, 1968. The youngest of 14 French Canadian children, some of Celine Dion’s earliest memories were of performing. Her parents owned a small bar and, on the weekends, the family provided the entertainment. When Celine was 12, she made a demo tape of a song written by her mother and an older brother. Manager Rene Angelil heard the tape and, recognizing the star quality in the girl’s voice, signed her, mortgaging his home to pay for her first recording.

Dion’s French recording career immediately took off among French- speaking people around the world. Her albums regularly went platinum in Canada. In 1983, she became the first Canadian singer to score a gold record in France. She also won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988.

With these worlds conquered, Dion set about the Herculean task of conquering the English-speaking world in the early 1990s. Both she and Angelil recognized that this could not be done on her terms (i.e., in French), so Dion took a crash course in English, discovering a facility for language. Within a year she was ready to record her first English album, Unison. The album spun off the #35 hit “(If There Was) Any Other Way” and the #4 “Where Does My Heart Beat Now/’ The album hit #74 and would eventually go platinum, but it took seven years.

Her voice impressed the Disney people, and they chose Dion to duet with Peabo Bryson on the closing track of their 1991 animated feature Beauty and the Beast. The song went platinum, won a Best Pop Vocal by a Duo or Group Grammy, Song of the Year Oscar, rose to #9, and established Dion as a vocalist to be reckoned with. She kept the momentum going with her eponymous 1992 album. The album produced three more big hits, the adult contemporary chart-toppers “If You Asked Me” (#4 pop) and “Nothing Broken but My Heart” (#29 pop), as well as “Love Can Move Mountains” which hit #36. The album peaked at #34 and eventually went double platinum.

Dion’s 1993 album Color of My Love proved to be a major commercial breakout, powered by the platinum single “The Power of Love,” which spent four weeks atop the pop charts. The album also included her version of “When I Fall in Love” from the soundtrack to the hit film Sleepless in Seattle, which hit #27, and “Misled” which rose to #23. The album hit #4 and sold quadruple platinum.

In 1994, Dion went back to her roots and recorded an album in French. She also released a live album. Neither of these sold spectacularly well in the U.S. That year, Dion married her manager, despite a 26-year age difference.

While her 1994 albums didn’t sell exceptionally well or make many waves on the pop scene, Dion’s next major release, falling into You did. Her first charttopping album, it contained the theme from the film Up Close and Personal, “Because You Loved Me,” a massive platinum #1 hit and one of the most popular adult contemporary hits of all time. Its uplifting sentiments, powered by Dion’s heartfelt, lung-stretching vocals, set the pattern for her following hits. The album also produced the #2 single “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” and the Eric Carmen-penned #4 hit “All by Myself/7 The album won Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year at the Grammys, and became one of the first Diamond Award-winning albums, signifying sales of over 10 million copies in the U.S. It topped the charts in 11 countries and sold in excess of 25 million copies worldwide.

People wondered how Dion could top that, but she managed with Let’s Talk about Love. Dion found herself at the core of a phenomenon, singing the main theme from one of the most popular movies of all time, Titanic. This song, “My Heart Will Go On,” topped the charts and went gold, winning best female Pop Performance and Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album sold nine times platinum. Dion’s performance on the Grammy award show raised eyebrows due to an unintentionally revealing gown, made more translucent by the use of dramatic back-lighting.

Even putting out a holiday album, as Dion did in 1998, she could do no wrong. These Are Special Times hit #2 on the pop charts, going triple platinum. It produced the chart-topping duet with R. Kelly, “I’m Your Angel.” The following spring, she got her due sharing a stage with Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey for the first VH-1 Divas Live concert. The album of the show topped the charts.

Dion sums up her life simply by saying, “I have a perfect life and a perfect career.”

Discography

Unison (1990); Celine Dion (1992); The Colour of My Love (1993); Dion Chante Plamondon (1994); Premieres Annees (1993); The French Album (1995); Power of Love (1995); Des Mots Qui Sonnent (1995); Falling into You (1996); Live in Paris (1996); Let’s Talk about Love (1997); A VOlympia (live; 1998); Chansons en Or (1998); Ne Partez Pas Sans (1998); Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi (1998); D’Eux (1998); Celine Dion, Vol. 2 (1998); STl Suffisait d’Aimer (If Only Love Was Enough; 1998); These Are Special Times (1998); Celine Au Coeur Du Stade (1999); All The Way. A Decade of Song (1999); Celine Dion/Unison (1999); Let’s Talk About Love (Australian Bonus CD) (1999); Amour (1999); Let Talk About Love (Canada Bonus Tracks) (1999); “Treat Her Like a Lady”(1999); “To Love You More” (1999); “That’s the Way It Is” (Germany CD single; 1999); These Are Special Times (2000); “That’s the Way It Is Pt. 1” (import CD single; 1999); “First Time Ever I Saw, Pt. 1” (2000); “First Time Ever I Saw, Pt. 2” (2000); “That’s The Way It Is” (2000); “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” (2000); “If You Asked Me To” (2000).

—Hank Bordowitz