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The following biography
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Céline
Marie Claudette Dion OC (born March 30, 1968) is a
French-Canadian popular vocalist from Quebec,
Canada, who has sold more than 200 million records
worldwide.
*
* * *
Career beginnings
She was
born to a Roman Catholic family in the small town of
Charlemagne, Quebec, with a singing voice that her
mother encouraged. By the age of five, she was
performing for anyone who would listen.
In
1980, her mother brought her to agent/manager René
Angélil, who so believed in her voice that he
mortgaged his home to help finance her career. In
1981, they released her first record in her native
French language, "La Voix du bon Dieu" ("The Voice
of God"), which made her an instant star in Quebec.
The following year she competed and won the gold
medal at the Tokyo World Song Festival. Her career
continued to blossom, and in 1987, she produced the
album Incognito, which became a huge success.
Approached by Swiss song writers Atilla Şereftuğ and
Nella Martinetti, she was chosen to represent
Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest,
singing "Ne partez pas sans moi". By winning the
contest in Dublin, Ireland on April 30, 1988, she
received a large boost to her career in Europe. Her
first English-language album, Unison (1990),
expanded her international recognition with the
breakthrough single, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now".
Many of
the hit singles that followed over the next ten
years ("If You Asked Me To", "Water from the Moon",
and "Nothing Broken but My Heart") were written by
Diane Warren, a composer best known for power
ballads. However, Céline Dion finally showcased her
talents as a songwriter when she co-wrote "Don't
Save It All for Christmas Day" for the 1998
Christmas album, These Are Special Times, and "Treat
Her Like a Lady" on her Let's Talk About Love album,
1997. Also part of the Christmas album was It's All
Coming Back To Me, a hit which highlighted the
talents of sleigh bell percussionist Larry Edmundson.
In late
1993, she indicated to the public for the first time
that she was in love with her manager, René Angélil.
In the dedication section of her third
English-language album, The Colour of My Love, Dion
named Angélil "the colour of [her] love".
Eventually, they were engaged, and she married him
in 1994. The wedding was broadcast on television
across Canada and was very highly rated. The couple
also has a son, René-Charles Angélil (born January
2001).
Movie soundtracks
Dion's
work has featured heavily in the soundtracks of a
number of hit films. In North America, and working
in the United States, her song for Disney's Beauty
and the Beast (written by Alan Menken and Howard
Ashman), "Because You Loved Me" (from 1995s Up Close
and Personal, another Diane Warren composition), and
a cover of Nat King Cole's "When I Fall in Love"
(from 1993's Sleepless in Seattle), added to her
growing stardom. By 1997, her records and her
rendition of James Horner and Will Jennings's song
"My Heart Will Go On", written for the motion
picture Titanic (but making its debut on her album
Let's Talk About Love), made her the top-grossing
star of the music world, with more than 50 million
records sold. One year later, she performed "The
Prayer," a duet with Italian opera singer Andrea
Bocelli, for the 1998 animated film Quest for
Camelot. Her last movie song before her short
two-year hiatus to have a child came in 1999 with
"Then You Look at Me" (from Bicentennial Man, also
written by Horner and Jennings). The song "I'm
Alive" from her A New Day Has Come album was
featured in the second Stuart Little motion picture.
In 2004, Dion recorded the title track for the
Anglo-French-Canadian movie Nouvelle-France, titled
"Ma Nouvelle-France", written by Luc Plamondon and
Patrick Doyle and produced by Christopher Neil.
Tribute recordings
Dion is
also no stranger to participating in tribute albums,
such as a 1995 collection of Carole King songs
called Tapestry Revisited, In My Life (a collection
of Beatles songs in tribute to producer George
Martin), and a 1997 double-CD set commemorating
Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1996 at the Atlanta
Olympics, she performed the theme song, "The Power
of the Dream" accompanied by composer David Foster
and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Cover songs
Dion
has covered several popular songs in her time,
including Jennifer Rush's hit "The Power of Love",
Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face", Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night" and Eric
Carmen's "All by Myself", John Lennon's "Beautiful
Boy", Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World",
Ray Charles' "If I Could". Dion also covered one of
Anggun's song "Tu nages" in her latest French album.
"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" was released by
Pandora's Box in 1989.
Some of
Dion's own songs have been covered: "My Heart Will
Go On" by Claire Sweeney and Neil Diamond, among
others, "These Are Special Times" by Christina
Aguilera, and "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day"
by Clay Aiken.
Hiatus
In
2000, Dion began a two-year hiatus from the music
industry. In that time, she gave birth to her child,
and prepared plans for her biggest show to date, A
New Day... Live in Las Vegas.
Return
In 2002
after her two-year hiatus, she returned to the music
world with a new album A New Day Has Come. The album
debuted at number one across 17 countries all over
the world, and it sold over 600,000 copies in the
United States in its first week, being the highest
selling album of the year in the first week. She had
a contract to perform in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In
March 2003, Dion was everywhere: on 25 March her A
New Day show opened in Las Vegas, and her album One
Heart was released. The album has been certificated
as 10th-best selling album of the year, according to
IFPI.
She
also released her own perfume line, which was well
received and was advertised on commercial
television. It was one of the top-ten selling
perfumes of 2003.
In
2003, moviegoers once again heard Céline Dion's
voice in the song "Bewitched, Bothered and
Bewildered" on the soundtrack to Mona Lisa Smile.
In
October 2003, her French album 1 fille & 4 types was
released. The album is yet again a collaboration
between Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman (joined by
three of his friends, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi and
Jacques Veneruso), who had previously worked with
her on S'il suffisait d'aimer and D'eux (also known
as The French Album, which sold nine million copies
worldwide, making it the most sold French-language
album of all time). Critics have called it Dion's
best and most natural album. Dion herself has
referred to it as "the album of pleasure". The first
single from this album, "Tout l'or des hommes",
established the record for becoming the highest
charting Francophone single on the National
(English) CHR Audience chart in the BDS era. "Tout
l'or des hommes" reached number five on the English
CHR Audience Chart.
In July
2004, "You and I", the promo song for the new Air
Canada advertising campaign, actually hit No. 1 in
the Canadian mainstream adult contemporary category,
according to Nielsen BDS. Difficult though this may
be to credit, the song, included as a "bonus track"
on her A New Day... Live in Las Vegas album, cracked
the Top 100 most requested singles on Canadian radio
stations for 23 weeks.
In
October 2004, Dion released her first concept album,
Miracle, produced by David Foster, as part of a
multimedia franchise conceived by both Dion and
photographer Anne Geddes. The theme of the album is
centred around babies. The project was available in
three different versions: the CD with a 20-page
booklet featuring photos by world-renowned baby
photographer Anne Geddes; the Limited Edition CD/DVD
Box Set includes a 60-page version of the Miracle
book, the Miracle CD and a "making of the CD" DVD;
the 180-page book with the Miracle CD and the
"making of the book" DVD.
According to the Canadian Recording Industry
Association, Dion was the second highest selling
Canadian artist in 2004. Her album A New Day Has
Come went six times platinum (600,000 units).
In
January 2005, Miracle was certified Platinum by RIAA
in USA.
A
New Day...Live in Las Vegas
On
March 25, 2003, Dion began a three-year engagement
to play five nights a week at the Colosseum at
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show is
put together by Franco Dragone.
Dion
first conceived the idea for the show after seeing O
by Dragone early into her break from recording. The
show is described as a combination of dance, music
and visual effects. It includes Dion performing her
songs against an array of dancers and special
effects. Even though the show did not get the best
reviews from some critics it has been very well
received by audiences, selling out every night since
opening in March 2003.
In
September 2004 the contract was extended into 2007.
As of
the week ending 1 May 2005, Dion has sold out 290
out of 347 Las Vegas shows.
Band
Élise
Duguay - backing singer
Julie
LeBlanc - backing singer (ex)
Mary-Lou Gauthier - backing singer
Terry
Bradford - backing singer (ex)
Barnev
Valsaint - backing singer
Claude
"Mégo" Lemay - piano, music director
André
Coutu - guitar
Paul
Picard - percussion
Yves
Frulla - keyboard
Marc
Langis - bass guitar
Vocal Profile
Celine
Dion has often been praised for her lyricism and her
ability to effectively communicate the text of her
songs expressively. In 2003, she ranked #9 in MTV's
The 22 Greatest Voices in Music. Mariah Carey placed
#1 while Whitney Houston (#3), Christina Aguilera
(#5), Alanis Morissette (#6), and Bjork (#8) all
placed ahead of her. However, in Cove Magazine's
list of The 100 Oustanding Pop Vocalists, Dion
finished #4 ahead of Houston (#6) and Morissette
(#17) with a score of +49.52/50. Only Aguilera (#1),
Carey (#2), and Michael Jackson (#3) finished ahead
of her.
Voice
type: Lyric Soprano
Highest
note: C6 (live Fly)
Lowest
note: F3
Vocal
range: 2.5 octaves
Longest
note: 20 seconds
Highest
note in chest voice: G5 (Sorry for love)
Career achievements
-
Has an estimated wealth of $320
million to $400 million.
-
In the US, Dion, Britney Spears,
Madonna, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Shania
Twain, and the Dixie Chicks are the only female
artists with multiple Diamond (shipped over 10
million copies) albums
-
On UK singles top Céline has: 2
No. 1s, 13 "Top 10" and 23 "Top 40" singles. On
UK albums top: 5 No. 1, 10 "Top 10" and 14 "Top
40" albums.
-
On US The Billboard Hot 100
singles top Céline has: 5 No. 1s, 10 "Top 10"
and 24 "Top 100" singles. On US The Billboard
200 albums top Céline has: 4 No. 1s and 9 "Top
10" albums.
-
Céline Dion performed the hit
single of the film Titanic, the second
best-selling CD of the 1990s, and her albums
Falling into You and Let's Talk About Love are
both in the third position, having sold more
than 30 million copies each.
*
* * *
Trivia
-
On September 15, 2004, Dion
received a Diamond Award at the World Music
Awards show .;
-
"The Greatest Reward", featured
on A New Day Has Come, is an adaptation of "L'envie
d'aimer", a song from the French stage musical
Les dix commandements (The Ten Commandments). "L'envie
d'aimer" was originally interpreted by Daniel
Lévi who portrays Moses in the musical. The song
is co-written by Pascal Obispo, a popular French
singer and composer, who composed the musical
score to Les dix commandements.
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Shortly after her Unison album
was released, Dion acted in a television
mini-series called Des fleurs sur la neige
(Flowers on the Snow). She portrayed a young
woman named Elisa who lived a very difficult,
abused life. Dion loved the challenge, and hopes
to act in a movie one day.
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Dion's last two French-language
albums, 1 fille & 4 types and S'il suffisait
d'aimer took only five to six days to record
while her album A New Day Has Come took about a
month to record.
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Is distantly related to Madonna.
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Is rumoured to have over 1000
pairs of shoes. Dion denies this but has said
that her shoe collection is in the hundreds.
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Recorded songs together with
famed producer Phil Spector (The Beatles, Ike
and Tina Turner). They were never released
because of disagreements between Spector and
Dion's labels.
-
Has said that she regrets
dropping out of high school. She does not
believe that school is for everyone. Then why
does she regret it?
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Her son's baptism on 25 July
2001, was broadcast live throughout Canada.
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Is raising her son to be
multilingual. She plans to send him to a school
where he will learn English, French, and
Spanish.
-
She is three months younger than
her step-son, Patrick Angélil.
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She has her own magazine, Céline
Dion Magazine.
-
At first she did not want to
record her biggest hit "My Heart Will Go On".
Her husband/manager and the song writer James
Horner had to convince her.
-
In 1998 she was honoured by two
governments in two days: on 30 April, her home
province made her an officer of the National
Order of Quebec, and on 1 May she became an
officer of the Order of Canada.
-
She loves to play golf, even in
the Quebec winter.
-
She received a star on the
Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto on 25 June
2003, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
in 2004.
*
* * *
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Date Article Copied:
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