Dion, Céline

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Céline Dion

Singer, songwriter

Céline Dion, with her five-octave range and passionate style, has sung her way to the top of the pop-music scene in Canada, Britain, France, and the United States. She first cultivated French-speaking fans in Canada with a series of albums, four of which went platinum there. In the early 1990s, Dion made the difficult transition from her native French to English, in which she repeated her success, making both gold and platinum albums.

The youngest of 14 children, Dion grew up in Charlemagne, Quebec, surrounded by music. Her mother played the violin, and her father, the accordion; the family spent much of its time together singing and playing various instruments. Dion’s parents owned a piano bar and restaurant, and the children took turns singing and waiting on tables. Céline got her start in the family enterprise quite early—she first stood atop a table to belt out the songs of Ginette Reno at age five. Soon local residents were calling ahead to be sure they would catch her performances.

La Petite Québecoise

When Dion was 12, her mother sent a demonstration tape to Rene Angelil, a well-known Montreal agent, with the note, “This is a 12-year-old with a fantastic voice. Please listen to her. We want her to be like Ginette Reno.” Angelil, who had steered Reno to fame, tossed the tape aside. He later explained in Macleans, “Every kid of 12 in Quebec wanted to be either Ginette or Rene.” When he finally listened to it weeks later at the urging of one of Dion’s brothers, Angelil wanted to see Dion immediately.

Angelil took complete control of Dion’s career, arranging the contracts and choosing the material for her early French albums. His belief in her was so strong that he mortgaged his house to finance her first album. He did not have to wait long for his opinion to be confirmed by the Canadian public. They flocked to her performances and affectionately dubbed her la petite Québecoise (the little Quebecker) as they watched her grow up. Dion quit school at the age of 14 to devote herself to her music. By the time she was 18, she had recorded a string of best-selling French-language albums. In 1983 her single “L’amour ou d’amite” went gold in France, the first from a Canadian artist to do so.

At 18, Dion was ready to conquer new territory: adulthood and the English pop market. Balking at her little-girl image, she followed Angelil’s recommendation that she disappear from the public eye for a year. She took that time to exchange her childish clothes for sexier and more sophisticated outfits and to begin to study English

For the Record…

Born c. 1970 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada; engaged to René Angelil, 1994.

Singer, c. 1984—. Released seven French-language albums in Canada by age 18; first English-language album, Unison, released by Epic, 1990.

Awards: Juno awards for female vocalist of the year, 1990,1991, and 1992, and for album of the year, 1990, for Unison; best dance recording, 1992, for “Love Can Move Mountains”; Juno awards for best-selling Francophone album for Dion chante Plamondon and for single of the year for “Beauty and the Beast,” both 1992; Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal, 1992, for “Beauty and the Beast”; Academy Award, 1992, for “Beauty and the Beast”; multi-platinum record for The Colour of My Love, 1994.

Addresses: Home —Quebec, Canada. Record company —550 Music/Epic, 550 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022.

Command of the English music scene would take only slightly longer than her image change.

From French to English

Dion’s first album in English, Unison, was recorded before her command of the language was firm, and she ended by singing much of it phonetically. As a result, although her sound was praised, the material was accused of being banal and overproduced. E. Kaye Fulton contended in Maclean’s that “in her native language, Dion is known for her passion, wit, and rollicking sense of humor. Her French material tends to be more substantial, with fewer songs about love and loss.” By her second English album, however, Dion had taken more control of the recording process. She told Maclean’s, “On the second album I said, ‘Well, I have the choice to afraid one more time and not be 100 percent happy, or not be afraid and be part of this album.’ This is my album.” However, Céline Dion, released by Epic in 1992, was still accused of lacking the emotional intensity Dion displays in French. These criticisms, however, belie the strong sales these albums generated; Unison went gold, and Céline Dion went platinum in the United States.

Dion’s fame in the United States grew when she won a Grammy in 1993 for singing the theme from the movie Beauty and the Beast, a duet with Peabo Bryson. Dion created another movie-theme hit with “When I Fall in Love,” a collaboration with Clive Griffin for Sleepless in Seattle. Around that time, her next English album, The Colour of My Love, was released as the flagship album of Epic’s new imprint, 550 Music. Several prominent American producers worked with Dion on the album, including Ric Wake, Walter Afanasieff, and David Foster. Foster’s contribution, the song “The Power of Love,” quickly reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Charles Alexander praised the hit in Time: “The power behind the song ... is her bring-the-house-down voice, which turns an old, schmaltzy ballad into a soaring pop aria. That voice glides effortlessly from deep whispers to dead-on high notes, a sweet siren that combines force with grace.”

Success in Both Languages

Dion feared her success in English would cost her her French-speaking fans. However, her French-language release, Dion chante Plamondon, became the best-selling French album in Canada in 1992. “The Power of Love” went to Number One in Canada, and her rising fame in the United States was a source of pride back home. The Montreal daily La Presse proclaimed: “It’s a first in the history of popular music in Quebec. All indications are that [The Colour of My Love ] will consecrate, once and for all, the chanteuse Montrealaise with our neighbors to the south.”

Not only did Dion manage to hold her Canadian fans, but the popularity of her English music has encouraged wider interest in her French albums. Her 1991 release, Des mots qui sonnent, became a best-seller in France in 1994 and a single from the album reached Number One there.

Dion was known in Canada for the passion and humor she displayed in her French concerts, but according to Fulton, her “English concerts, by comparison, are frequently stilted by a rehearsed patter.” After the release of The Colour of My Love, John Doelp, vice-president of marketing for Epic, told Billboard, “This time around, we want to fully establish the fact that Céline is a strong live performer. It’s actually her strong suit.” Dion’s first U.S. tour as a headliner took her to ten cities, from San Francisco to New York, in early 1994. A review of her final performance of the tour in New York, by Elisabeth Vincentelli for New York Newsday indicated that Dion had grown more comfortable with English: “Ad-libbing between songs, Dion managed to seem down-to-earth and accessible. Whether this was consummate manipulation or spontaneous joy, she pulled it off with gusto and humor.”

To achieve widespread fame, critics have suggested that Dion must expand her audience beyond the adult-contemporary market, which she has firmly conquered with her soft rock ballads and G-movie duets. Her Top-Ten singles give some evidence that she is doing so; because adults tend to buy albums, hot singles sales indicate teenagers are listening. Dion explained her goal, however, to Time in 1994: “I don’t want to sell 5 million records and be rich, and then that’s it. I’m afraid of that. I want a career. I want to sing all my life.”