Céline Marie Claudette Dion is a Canadian singer. She was born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Canada. Dion is one of 14 siblings who grew up together on his butcher father’s salary near Montreal. Her first public singing performance was at age 5 at her older brother’s wedding. She continued performing in small bars throughout her teenage years, with one goal in her mind: she wanted to become a professional singer.
At age 12, she and her siblings put together a demo tape that they sent out to a music manager whose name they randomly found on the back of a CD. That random manager was René Angélil, who was immediately stunned by the young Dion’s voice. He re-mortgaged his home to fund Dion’s debut album, the pop record “La voix du bon Dieu” (meaning “The Good Lord’s Voice”). It came out in November 1981, when Dion was still just 13. She became a local sensation in the French speaking part of Canada, Quebec. Dion later married her protégé, Angélil.
The next year, she competed in the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan. There, she won the top performer award, along with the best song which she got for her single "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi" (I Have So Much Love for You”). In 1988, she won the Eurovision song contest.
With all her standout success at such a young age, it was no wonder that large American record labels wanted to sign her. In April 1990, Columbia Records published her first English language studio album, “Unison”. It was the 9th album overall in her catalog, made only two years after she started learning English as her second language. It peaked at the #15 spot on the Canadian charts, and the #74 spot on the famous Billboard 200 list over in the US.
The next year, she provided her vocals for the title track of the 1991 animated Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast". Another movie soundtrack, however, made her star shine at its absolute peak.
In 1997, she sang the signature song on the soundtrack for the movie “Titanic”. That film broke the record for the highest grossing movie ever at the time. Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” became a classic, and won the Oscar in the Best Orginal Song category.
During her long and prolific career, Céline Dion has put out a total of 27 studio albums, 12 with English language songs, and 15 with French ones. The best selling among them is “Falling Into You” from March 1996, with 32 million copies sold worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Céline Dion album is titled “Courage”, which came out in November 2019. She went on an internaitonal tour to promote her new record. In Paris, all 200,000 tickets available for the 6 Céline Dion concerts there were sold in just 90 minutes.
Dion’s biggest hits to date are the aforementioned “My Heart Will Go On” (1997), “That’s the Way It Is” (1999), “I’m Alive” (2000), and “A New Day Has Come” (2002). You can check where the next Céline Dion concert is taking place on the page above - as you can tell by the Paris example, you have to be quick to book your ticket.
Let's Dance / Another One Bites the Dust / Kiss / River Deep, Mountain High / Lady Marmalade
Encore #1
My Heart Will Go On
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