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12-08 Celine Dion battles rare syndr
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Rising from humble beginnings to become an international pop star selling more than 100 million albums worldwide, Celine Dion's career
spanned years of superstardom in the 1990s as well as more diverse output and touring in the 2000s and 2010s.
Born in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion was the youngest in Adhemar and Therese Dion's family of 14 children. She was raised in a
household filled with love for children and music, and her parents and siblings were important figures in the early development of her
singing career. Celine began singing in her parents' piano bar when she was just five y ...read more
Rising from humble beginnings to become an international pop star selling more than 100 million albums worldwide, Celine Dion's career
spanned years of superstardom in the 1990s as well as more diverse output and touring in the 2000s and 2010s.
Born in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion was the youngest in Adhemar and Therese Dion's family of 14 children. She was raised in a
household filled with love for children and music, and her parents and siblings were important figures in the early development of her
singing career. Celine began singing in her parents' piano bar when she was just five years old. By age 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 to
a manager named René Angélil, whose name they found on the back of an album by Ginette Reno, a popular Francophone singer. When
the 12-year-old eventually performed for Angélil, he cried and set in motion the process of making her a Québécois, and later, an
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 Angélil that she wanted to be a star like him. Angélil'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 & the Beast that was her true breakthrough.
"Beauty & the Beast" reached number one on the pop charts and won both a Grammy and Academy award. The song 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, Angélil 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. Another honor arrived in 1996; 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. « hide |
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