| Celine
Dion, rising from humble beginnings
in the small town of Charlemagne,
Quebec, has become one of the biggest
international stars in pop music
history, selling more than 100 million
albums worldwide. The youngest in
Adhemar and Therese Dion's family of 14
children, Dion grew up in an environment
full of the inherent chaos and material
austerity that comes with such a large
working-class family. However, the Dion
household was also one filled with love
for children and music, and her parents
and siblings were important figures in
the early development of her singing
career. Celine Dion began singing in her
parents' piano bar when she was just
five years old. By the age of 12 she had
written one of her first songs, "Ce
N'etait Qu'un Rêve" ("It Was Only a
Dream"), which she recorded with the
help of her mother and brother and
shipped off to a manager named Rene
Angelil, whose name they found on the
back of an album by Ginette Reno, a
popular Francophone singer. After weeks
with no response from Angelil, Celine's
brother Michel phoned him and said, "I
know you haven't listened to the tape,
because if you had, you would've called
right away." Angelil dug up the tape and
called the family back the same day to
set up a meeting with Celine. When the
12-year-old performed in his office in
Montreal, Angelil cried and set in
motion the process of making her a
Quebecois, and later international star.
He mortgaged his house to pay for her
first two albums, producing a local
number one single. In 1983 she became
the first Canadian to have a gold record
in France and she won a gold medal at
the Yamaha songwriting competition in
Japan. Her worldwide reputation was in
the making, but success in the United
States was not yet forthcoming.
When she was 18, Dion saw Michael
Jackson performing on television and
told Angelil that she wanted to be a
star like him. Angelil's response was to
order her to take 18 months off to
remake her image. Dion underwent a
physical transformation, cutting her
hair, plucking her eyebrows, and having
her teeth capped to cover up the
incisors that had caused a Quebec humor
magazine to dub her "Canine Dion." She
was also sent off to English school to
polish the language that would help her
to break into the American market. When
she emerged from this process, she had
made an amazing transformation from teen
star to adult chanteuse.
The payoff came almost immediately.
Her 1990 breakthrough album, Unison, was
released in the U.S. by Epic Records and
produced several hit songs, but it was
her duet with Peabo Bryson on the theme
song of Disney's Beauty and the Beast
that was her true breakthrough. The song
reached number one on the pop charts and
won both a Grammy and an Academy award.
"Beauty and the Beast" was also featured
on her second English album, 1992's
Celine Dion, which launched another Top
Ten American hit with "If You Asked Me
To," while spawning two additional Top
40 singles, "Nothing Broken But My
Heart" and "Love Can Move Mountains."
During this time there were also
important developments in Dion's
personal life. In 1988 Angelil crossed
the line from manager to romantic
partner when he kissed Dion one night
after a show in Dublin. Fearful that
fans would find the 26-year difference
in their ages unsettling, the couple
kept their relationship a secret for
several years. But their 1994 wedding in
Montreal's Notre Dame Basilica was
celebrated not only by the 250 invited
guests, but by millions of fans
worldwide.
One of the hardest working stars in
show business, Dion continued to record
and perform on a schedule that would
kill most people. She recorded six
albums between 1992 and 1996, when her
album Falling Into You took her to a new
level of stardom. The recording was a
runaway hit, winning Grammys for both
Album of the Year and Best Pop Album.
1996 also brought her another honor; she
was asked to perform at the opening
ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympics.
Dion's longest tenure on the pop charts
would come the following year, however,
when she recorded "My Heart Will Go On,"
the theme song for James Cameron's
blockbuster movie Titanic. "My Heart
Will Go On" became omnipresent on the
radio as Titanic fever swept the world
and when it was featured on her album
Let's Talk About Love it helped propel
that recording to the top of the charts.
By then, Dion had the power to gather a
supporting cast of stars and the album
contained an amazing collection of
artists, including Barbra Streisand,
Luciano Pavarotti, and the Bee Gees. The
album would win a host of awards and
bring Dion a whole new world of fans.
Her appearance on VH1's Divas Live
special with Aretha Franklin, Gloria
Estefan, Mariah Carey, and Shania Twain
proved popular as well and helped
solidify Dion's position amongst not
only current female pop singers but
historical greats like Franklin. The
continuing popularity of her recordings
and live performances made her 1999
sabbatical seem like a tragedy to her
fans, but Dion needed a break after more
than a decade and a half of breakneck
pace. In 1999, her husband Angelil was
diagnosed with throat cancer. While the
disease responded well to treatment and
went into remission, the illness was a
wake-up call for Dion, who 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 in January2001. The Collector's
Series…Volume One was released during
Dion's hiatus; it featured many of her
best-loved songs, as well as a
Spanish-language version of "All By
Myself".
Dion returned to the public eye in a
big way in March 2002 with A New Day Has
Come. The album debuted at number one in
over 17 countries, and was accompanied
by a full-scale media blitz. But Dion's
greatest challenge was yet to come.
Despite millions of albums sold, the
adoration of fans worldwide, and the
validation of her peers, Dion's success
was still hampered by image problems
that had dogged her since the days of
"Canine Dion." While many Americans
adored her, just as many snickered at
her Quebecois heritage and the relative
the unorthodoxy of her marriage. There
was also the issue of her relevancy to
lucrative audiences existing outside of
her pop vocal constituency. To combat
these issues, Dion and her management
made a series of bold moves that
attempted to solidify her career, and
ensure its continuity as the singer
entered her middle 30s.
In early 2002, Dion announced a
three-year, 600-show contract to appear
five nights a week in an entertainment
extravaganza at Caesars Palace, Las
Vegas called A New Day. The production
would take place in a custom-built,
4000-seat theatre and would feature Dion
as the centerpiece of a multimedia
program designed and orchestrated by
Franco Dragone, the Belgian theatre
impresario behind the modern circus
phenomenon Cirque Du Soleil. The project
united Dion, her label Sony Music,
Drangone's production company Creations
du Dragon, Caesars parent Park Place
Entertainment, and promoter Concerts
West in a landmark, multi-million dollar
alliance that hinged on Dion's ability
to put fans in seats five nights a week
for three years. In conjunction with the
rollout of A New Day was an endorsement
deal with German automaker
DaimlerChrysler AG worth additional
millions. The campaign placed Dion in a
series of stylish, black-and-white
advertisements promoting the stylish
allure of Chrysler's line of upscale
automobiles. The performer also recorded
a brand-new song to accompany the spots.
Debuting in early 2003, the campaign
dovetailed into the March release of One
Heart, Dion's first album since 2001's A
New Day Has Come, which in turn heralded
the opening of A New Day on March 25,
2003. That live Las Vegas show was
documented on the summer 2004 release
New Day: Live in Las Vegas, which was
followed a few months later by Miracle,
a collection of family songs designed as
a tandem book/CD project between Dion
and photographer Anne Geddes. |
