Céline Dion
From Exampleproblems
Signed to Sony Records in the late 1980s, Dion, with the help of manager and husband, René Angélil, rose from humble beginnings to become one of the best-selling female artists of all time. [1] Her music has been influenced by a myriad of genres, ranging from pop, rock and roll, and soul, to gospel and classical, and she has often been noted by fans and industry critics alike for her vocal abilities, lyricism, and her ability to express the text of her songs.
Dion has become a prominent figure in both the English and French popular music world. During the 1990s, she released a string of number-one singles, including "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", and "My Heart Will Go On", the latter being the successful love theme from the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic. After taking a career break in 1999 for personal reasons, she returned in 2002 with the album A New Day Has Come and, as of 2003, performs nightly in her show A New Day...Live in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.
Contents |
Early life and career beginnings
Dion was the youngest of fourteen children, born to Adhemar and Therese Dion in a poverty stricken home in Charlemagne, a small town thirty miles east of Montréal, Québec, Canada. The family was always surrounded with music, and Dion honed her talents by singing with her siblings from the age of five in the small pianobar belonging to her parents. On weekends, the entire family performed and entertained the local population.
At the age of twelve, together with her mother and one of her brothers, Dion composed her first song, "Ce n'etait qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream"), which her brother Michael sent to René Angélil, a manager whose name he had found on the back of an album by popular Francophone singer, Ginette Reno. Angélil, who was brought to tears by Dion's voice, immediately decided to make her an international success. He mortgaged his home to help finance Dion's career and in 1981, they released her first record in her native French language, "La Voix du bon Dieu" ("The Voice of God"), which became a local number-one single, making her an instant star in Québec.
Dion's recognition would soon spread worldwide, as in 1982, she competed in, and won the gold medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo. She also won the Musician's Award for Top Performer. This would help to give Dion the much needed exposure and establish her as a rising star, not only in her hometown, but in the rest of the world.
In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France.
At eighteen, Dion saw Michael Jackson performing on television and she told Angelil that she wanted to be a star like him. Dion then underwent a physical transformation to remake her image: she cut her hair, shaved her eyebrows, and had her teeth capped to cover up the incisors that had caused a Québec humor magazine to dub her "Canine Dion" [2]. She was also sent off to an English language school which would polish her language enable her to break into the anglophone North American market.
Commercial success
Career breakthrough: 1987 to the early 1990s
In 1987, Dion produced the album Incognito, which became a huge success in francophone Canada. She enjoyed superstar status, racking up multiple sales and receiving numerous Felix Awards. She was later approached by Swiss songwriters Atilla Şereftuğ and Nella Martinetti, who asked her to represent Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. By singing "Ne partez pas sans moi", Dion won the contest in Dublin on April 30 1988, receiving a large boost to her career not only in Europe, but also in the USSR, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia. Her recognition in the US, however, was still limited.
Dion's first English album, Unison, released in 1990, was declared as "a fine, sophisticated American debut" by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, of All Music Guide [3]. The album, largely influenced by rock music, initiated her recognition in America with the breakthrough top five single, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now". Other singles were not as successful in the American or World market. The album earned Dion her first certification from RIAA as it went platinum in the United States. The album's international success, however, was limited.
Dion's real international breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit film Beauty and the Beast with Peabo Bryson. The song topped the U.S. charts for five weeks and earned the duo the Academy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television, and the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In Canada, at an awards show, Dion won a Felix Awards for the "English Speaking Artist of the Year". Dion openly refused to accept the award on the grounds that she was a French and not an English artist [4].
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 played a young woman named Elisa who lived a very difficult, abused life. Dion enjoyed her role and has since expressed interest in acting in a film.
Dion's 1992 eponymous album also featured the single "Beauty and the Beast". The album incorporated music from a myriad of genres and sub-genres including rock, soul, and adult contemporary, and Erlewine believed that it was "even stronger and more accomplished [than her debut]". It produced four more hit singles; the gospel tinged "Love Can Move Mountains", "Water from the Moon", "If You Asked Me To", and "Did You Give Enough Love". The album was certified double platinum in America and six times platinum in Canada, winning her many Juno Awards and the World Music Award for being the "World’s Best selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year".
Apart from her rising success, there were also changes in Dion's personal life, as Angelil would make the transition from manager to lover. However, fearful that the public would find the twenty-six-year difference between their ages perturbing, the relationship was kept a secret. In late 1993, Dion 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 became engaged, and married in December 1994. The wedding was widely watched on television across Canada. The couple would soon have a son, René-Charles Angélil (born in January 2001).
The album achieved critical and commercial success worldwide, being certified six times platinum in America. Erlewine of All Music Guide noted that "while the songs aren't quite as consistent [as her eponymous album] ... the record is nevertheless quite successful, thanks to the careful production, [and] professional songwriting" [5]. It spawned "The Power of Love", a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1982 hit, which topped the US charts for four weeks, and "When I Fall In Love", a duet with Clive Griffin. The record was well received worldwide. "Think Twice", though not a major hit in North America, became a massive hit in the United Kingdom. Both the song and album stayed at the summint of their respective charts for five consecutive weeks, with "Think Twice" spending two more weeks at the top. It surpassed the million mark to become the fourth million-selling single by a female artist in the U.K. Singles Chart history. [6].
In keeping with her French roots, Dion continued to release successful French albums between her English language recordings. These include the albums Dion chante Plamondon and Céline Dion à l'Olympia, 1994, and D'eux (known as The French Album in the United States) in 1995.
Career summit—1996 to 1999
In March 1996, Falling into You was released, and met with widespread critical and commercial success. A trend with Dion's previous albums, Falling into You contained numerous pop, rock, gospel, and adult contemporary tracks. Erlewine of All Music Guide wrote that while the album was formulaic: "Falling into You is a remarkably well-crafted set of adult contemporary pop and Dion's best album." [7] It spawned hits such as the title track, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself", and the chart-topper "Because You Loved Me". The album topped the charts in eleven countries, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the thirty-ninthth annual Grammy Awards ceremony. It became her biggest-selling and most critically acclaimed LP; it has been certified eleven times platinum in America, and has sold approximately thirty-two million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best selling albums of all time. [8]
That year, Dion was also asked to perform at the opening ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympics. She performed the theme song, "The Power of the Dream" accompanied by composer David Foster and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Dion followed Falling into You with her 1997 release Let's Talk About Love. Though it was a tough act to follow, Let's Talk About Love actually matched the critical and commercial success of its predecessor. The album was recorded in London, New York and Los Angeles and featured a host of special guests, including some of music's greatest vocalists; Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees, and world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti, as well as many noted songwriters and producers.
Let's Talk About Love was released on the same day as the soundtrack of the 1997 film Titanic. Both albums featured the theme song, "My Heart Will Go On", written by James Horner and produced by James Horner and Walter Afanasieff. At first Dion was reluctant to record "My Heart Will Go On"; her husband and James Horner had to convince her. Titanic became the all-time best-selling orchestral soundtrack in recording history. The album went on to receive diamond certification in the United States, and has sold approximately thirty million copies worldwide.
Dion won many Juno Awards, and two Grammys (the song itself won four, while two were awarded to the songwriters) in 1999, and three World Music Awards for being the "World’s Best-Selling Canadian Recording Artist of the Year", the "World's Best-Selling Pop Artist of the Year", and the "World's Overall Best-Selling Recording Artist of the Year". She also received many awards for her achievements in Europe and Asia. In 1998, she received one of the highest honours from her home country; she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for outstanding contribution to the world of contemporary music and Officer of the National Order of Quebec. A year later, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.
At the peak of her career Dion was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special with such superstars as Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain, solidifying her status as one of the biggest divas of contemporary music.
Following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Dion, known for her tribute recordings, participated on a double-CD set in commemoration.
Keeping busy in the studios, Dion released the holiday album These Are Special Times in 1998 and it went on to become one of the biggest-selling of its kind. The single "I'm Your Angel", a duet with R. Kelly, became a number-one single in the United States and Canada. She also released "The Prayer", a duet with Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, which was recorded for the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot.
All the Way... a Decade of Song, was released in 1999. It contained a collection of her previous hit singles, such as "Beauty and the Beast", "The Power of Love", "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", "I'm Your Angel", and "My Heart Will Go On". Also included were seven new songs including "That's the Way It Is", a remake of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "All the Way", her remake with Frank Sinatra (which she dedicated to her husband), and "Then You Look at Me" (from Bicentennial Man, also written by Horner and Jennings). An accompanying DVD with videos and live performances was also released. On this album, she also told the public that she was taking a break from the music industry to enjoy her family.
Career break—1999 to 2002
Things took a turn for the worse in Dion's personal life: her husband, Rene Angelil, was diagnosed with throat cancer. Dion 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. On New Year's Eve 1999, in Montréal, Dion gave her last public performance before beginning this break. After undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son, René-Charles Angélil, in January 2001. Her son's baptism on 25 July was broadcast live throughout Canada. She has decided to raise her son to be multilingual as she plans to send him to a school where he will learn English, French, and Spanish.
During Dion's break, a compilation album, The Collector's Series... Volume One, was released in October 2000.
Return
A New Day Has Come, released in March 2002 ended her two-year break from the music world. The album debuted at number one across seventeen countries, and sold over 600,000 copies in the United States in its first week. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide writes: "it's more ambitious than it needs to be... it's a balancing act that nobody since Barbra Streisand has been able to pull off", but noted that the album is forgettable [9]. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stones was less enthusiastic about the record, saying that "Dion's voice is still just furniture polish." [10]
A New Day Has Come features the tracks "A New Day Has Come", "I'm Alive" (which is featured in the second Stuart Little film), "The Greatest Reward", which is an adaptation of "L'envie d'aimer", a song from the French stage musical Les dix Commandements (The Ten Commandments), and a cover of Etta James' hit, "At Last", for which Sheffield believes Dion does not have the voice. [11] The album resumed her success, and has since become three times platinum in the United States and six times platinum in Canada, with worldwide sales reaching over twelve million copies.
On March 25, her A New Day show opened in Las Vegas, and her album One Heart was released with singles including the title track, "Have You Ever Been in Love", which spent fourteen weeks at number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and a remake of Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night". The album has been certified as the tenth-best-selling album of the year, according to IFPI.
Dions French album 1 fille & 4 types was released in October 2003. The album which, like S'il suffisait d'aimer, took only five to six days to record, and was a collaboration between Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman. They were 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. 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 2004, Dion recorded the title track for the Franco-Québécois movie Nouvelle-France, titled "Ma Nouvelle-France", written by Luc Plamondon and Patrick Doyle, and produced by Christopher Neil. In July 2004, "You and I", the promo song for the new Air Canada advertising campaign, actually hit number one in the Canadian mainstream adult contemporary category, according to Nielsen BDS. The song, included as a "bonus track" on her A New Day... Live in Las Vegas album, was among the Top 100 most requested singles on Canadian radio stations for twenty-three weeks.
Continuing her success, Dion released her first concept album, Miracle, in October 2004. It was produced by David Foster, as part of a multimedia project conceived by both Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. The theme of the album is centred around babies, and available in three different versions: the CD with a 20-page booklet featuring photos by world-renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes. The album received generally positive reviews, and was also commercially successful. In January 2005, Miracle was certified platinum by RIAA in the U.S.
On October 3 2005, Dion released On ne change pas, a collection of her greatest French hits. It sold more than 108,000 copies in its opening week in France, and remained the best-selling compilation album for the next four weeks. The album also debuted at number two in Canada with sales of 35,000. The single "Je ne vous oublie pas" was released in France in late October, and debuted at number on the Single-Sales charts, selling more than 24,000 copies. By November 2005 the album had reportedly sold close to half a million copies worldwide.
Following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Dion appeared on Larry King Live, and tearfully criticised Bush regarding the Iraq War and slow response in aiding the hurricane victims. She claimed that the response was "unacceptable" [12]. She vowed to donate one million dollars for relief efforts.
A New Day... Live in Las Vegas: 2003 to present
In early 2002, Dion had announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day, at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. Dion first conceived the idea for the show after seeing O by Dragone early in her break from recording. She began on March 25 2003 in a 4000-seat arena designed for her show. The show is put together by Franco Dragone and promoted by Josh Somerhalder.
A New Day... Live in Las Vegas is 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. [13]
Dion sold 322,000 tickets and grossed $43.9 million in the first half of 2005, the trade paper Pollstar reported. Billboard placed her show second in the Mid-Year Concert Chart. By the week ending 17 July 2005 Dion had sold out 315 out of 384 Las Vegas shows.
Entrepreneurship
Apart from her success as a musician, Dion has also become a successful entrepreneur with the establishment of her franchise restaurant, "Nickles" in 1990. The franchise has thirty-two restaurants spread across many areas in the U.S and Canada, mainly in Quebec and Ontario markets, with plans for expansion in the coming years [14].
Voice
Celine Dion has often been praised for her lyricism and her ability to communicate the text of her songs expressively. In 2003, she ranked number nine in MTV's The 22 Greatest Voices in Music. In Cove Magazine's list of The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists, Dion finished fourth behind only Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.
Discography
English releases
- 2004 Miracle 5.000.000
- 2004 A New Day... Live in Las Vegas 1,500,000
- 2003 One Heart 8,000,000
- 2002 A New Day Has Come 13,000,000
- 2000 The Collector's Series — Volume 1 3,000,000
- 1999 All The Way... a Decade of Song 20,000,000
- 1998 These Are Special Times 15,000,000
- 1997 Let's Talk About Love 31,000,000±
- 1996 Falling into You 32,000,000±
- 1993 The Colour of My Love 20,000,000
- 1992 Celine Dion 5,500,000
- 1990 Unison 3,000,000
± two of the best selling albums of the 1990s
French releases
- 2003 1 fille & 4 types 2,000,000
- 1999 Au coeur du stade 1,000,000
- 1998 S'il suffisait d'aimer 6,000,000
- 1996 Live à Paris 4,000,000
- 1995 D'eux / The French Album 9,000,000 ±
- 1994 A l'Olympia 1,500,000
- 1991 Des mots qui sonnent/Dion chante Plamondon 2,000,000
± The Best-selling French album of all time
Awards and accolades
Career achievements
- Dion has sold over forty-seven million albums in the United States (according to RIAA), and forty million albums in Europe, (making her the best selling female artist in Europe) according to IFPI. With over 185 million albums and over 35 million singles sold across the globe, she ranks as one of the biggest-selling female musician in music history.
- Dion is the most successful artist in Canadian music history.
- On September 15 2004, Dion received a Diamond Award at the World Music Awards show, for selling over 175 million albums during her career. Only one other female artist, Mariah Carey, has ever received the award.[15]
- She has an estimated wealth of between $320 million and $400 million (Hello magazine, 2002).
- 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.
- Dion has 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.
- "My Heart Will Go On" has become the all-time best-selling orchestral soundtrack in recording history.
- The French Album has sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it the biggest selling French-language album of all time.
- In the U.S., Dion, Britney Spears, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Shania Twain, and the Dixie Chicks are the only female artists with multiple diamond (shipped over ten million copies) albums.
- On U.K. singles chart Dion has had two number ones, and thirteen top-ten and twenty-three top-forty singles. On the U.K. album chart she has had five number ones, and ten top-ten and fourteen top-forty albums.
- On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, Dion has had five number ones, and ten top-ten and twenty-four top 100 singles. On the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart she has had four number ones and nine top-ten albums.
- 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 thirty million copies each.
- In the United States, Céline Dion's song "I Drove All Night" from the One Heart album was used from 2003 to 2004 in an advertising campaign for DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group.
- Dion is the only woman in history to have had two million-selling singles in the U.K. The first one was her U.K. hit "Think Twice" in 1994, which sold more than two million copies. The second one was "My Heart Will Go On" in 1998, which sold about six million copies in the U.K. alone.
- In October 2005, with the release of On ne change pas, her French-language greatest hits package, Dion set a record for the sales of a compilation (in its opening week) in France. In a week, On ne change pas had sold more than 108,000 copies. The watermark for an album is Celine's own 1995 hit album Deux/The French Album, which sold more than 500,000 copies in its first week.
The Eurovision Song Contest
Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End box
See also
- Best selling music artists
- Biggest-selling female musician
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (US)
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
Notes and references
- Angelfire.com Celine Dion album sales
- BBC News"Dion extends long Las Vegas stint"
- Celinedion.com —Dion's official website.Celine Dion biography
- Celine Dion's biography [16]
- Cove Magazine "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalist"
- Esctoday "News- Celine Dion to be honoured at World Music Awards"
- Vh1.com Celine Dion provided by VH1.com
- Mp3.com Celine Dion album reviews
- Nickelrestaurants.com "Nickles", Dions restaurant
- Sheffield Rob. Celine Dion, A New Day Has Come Rolling Stones review
- World Music Awards Diamond Award
External links
- celinedion.com, official website Céline Dion, managed by Sony BMG Music Canada.
- Celine Dion at Music Cityaf:Céline Dion
cy:Céline Dion de:Céline Dion es:Céline Dion fr:Céline Dion it:Céline Dion he:סלין דיון nl:Céline Dion ja:セリーヌ・ディオン pl:Céline Dion pt:Céline Dion sk:Céline Dion sv:Celine Dion zh:席琳·狄翁
