Born the youngest of fourteen children
Celine Dion grew up with the
dream of one day becoming a performer. At the early age of twelve,
she worked with her mother and one of 13 siblings to write her first
song "It was Only a Dream". They sent the demo to music mogul, Rene' Angelil. They had found his name on the back of a record that was at
their home. He was so moved by Celine's voice that he made it his
personal quest to see that she became a star.
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By 1983, things were starting to come together for Dion. She became
the first person of Canadian decent to achieve a gold record in
France. After seeing a performance by Michael Jackson,
Celine Dion knew
that she wanted to become a star with the kind of worldwide appeal
he had at the time.
Her manager, Angelil, knew that in order for her to be a superstar
there would have to be many changes to her image. Celine had to
undergo grueling dental surgery to perfect a smile and give her
beautiful teeth, and she had to quickly learn English. In fact, an
interesting note is that her first song in English she learned
through phonetics. At the time the recording was done, she sang the
song by imitating the sounds of the words and did not have a clue
what most of the words meant.
She made her debut on American airways with her song, “Unison”. In a
review by Jim Faber from Entertainment Weekly Celine's voice was
described as being "tastefully unadorned” and that she never tried
to "bring off styles that are beyond her".
By 1992 Celine Dion had found her way to stardom in North America,
although her French fans were feeling somewhat neglected. She
continued to release several Francophone recordings in between each
English song that she released. In December of 1994, Celine married
her manager Renee' Angelil, during a grand wedding ceremony that was
broadcast live to Canadian residents. The wedding had some
controversy attached as her manager had been married when he began
to groom Celine for success. Rene actually had divorced his wife
during the time he was busy working with Celine. When they were
married her there was more than a 20 year age difference between
this manager and his very young bride. Celine was actually the one
that proposed and she happily tells fans this story often.
After her marriage, her fans saw a transition in musical style. It
was less rock and now there were softer melodies and ballads that
would frequently build to a climax to showcase her amazing vocal
ability.
After releasing 13 albums during the 1990's, Dion decided she needed
to take a break from the spotlight and spend time with her husband
who had recently been diagnosed with throat cancer. The surgery and
treatment on her husband were great successes and the happy couple
decided to spend more quality time together. While on hiatus, Celine
and Rene decided to start a family. After several fertility
treatments, Rene-Charles Dion Angelil was born on January 25, 2001.
A benefit concert after the September 11th attacks saw Celine return
to music to sing "God Bless America".
In spring of 2002, the singer signed a deal with Caesars Palace, Las
Vegas to perform five nights a week at the Coliseum. Tickets for the
show were priced as high as 320 dollars. Celine was able to sell out
315 of the 384 shows. By the end of 2005, she had grossed more than
76 million dollars. This year, at the end of October 2008, Celine
released her latest album. A comprehensive collection of English
greatest hits titled "My Love; Essential Collection"
