Celine Dion Biography

news-detailsBorn on March 30, 1968 in Canada as the youngest of 14 children, Celine Dion grew up in a close-knit musical family, with her parents forming a singing group and opening a piano bar. It was also at the bar that 5-year-old Celine started performing in front of audience and developed a dream of becoming a performer. With such supporting family, Celine started writing and composing her own song at the age of 12. Titled "Ce Neatait qu'un reve", the song moved music manager Rene Angelil to tears before he decided to make her a star.

By the age of 18, Dion had recorded nine French albums and won numerous Felix and Juno awards, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy Award. Further success came when she was invited to perform at the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest to represent Switzerland. However, it was not until she saw a Michael Jackson performance that she began looking to international stardom. In order to achieve this dream, she started polishing her English and recorded her first English language album, "Unison", in 1990.

"Unison" was a commercial success, selling more than one million copies worldwide while one of its singles, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot 100. Despite the success of the album and its tracks, her real international breakthrough came when she joined forces with Peabo Bryson on Disney's classic "Beauty and the Beast" in 1992. In addition to doing well in music charts, it gave Dion her first Grammy Award. The song was also included in her self-titled sophomore album.

In that same year, she made her romance with her manager Angelil public through a tearful interview. She also declared her love for him in the dedication section of her third album "The Color of My Love" that was released in 1993. Given their huge age gap, it was only natural for her to fear that their relationship would receive backlash. However, contrary to her expectation, the public approved of the couple, who later got married in an extravagant wedding in December 1994.

"The Color of My Love" itself became her most successful record up to that point, selling more than six million copies in the United States and topping numerous charts in several countries. "The Power of Love", its lead single, additionally became her No. 1 song. Despite her international success, Celine didn't forget her French roots and continued releasing French songs between each English record. She even made an English version of a couple of the French records and included them on her fourth English album "Falling Into You".

The 1996 effort garnered career-best reviews for Dion and became one of the best-selling albums in history with sales over 32 million copies worldwide. Due to the success of her album, she was asked to perform "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In the following year, Dion released another successful album "Let's Talk About Love". The album was preceded with classic "My Heart Will Go On", which served as the soundtrack to blockbuster "Titanic". It soon became her signature song, earning her two Grammy awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award.

Dion spent the rest of the 1990s by releasing three more extremely successful albums, "These Are Special Time" (1998), "S'ill Suffisait d'aimer" (1999) and a compilation album "All the Way... A Decade of Song" (1999). Her status as one of the music industry's biggest pop divas was further solidified that time when she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame.

Even though Dion was at the peak of her career, she decided to take a hiatus in 2000 to focus on her family as her husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. In May of that year, she had two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York to improve her chances of conceiving after years of failed attempts to get pregnant. As a result of the surgery, she was able to conceive and gave birth to her first son, Rene-Charles Dion Angelil, on January 25, 2001.

Dion briefly returned the music industry later that year, following the September 11 attack. Taking the stage at a televised benefit concert "America: A Tribute to Heroes", the singer belted out "God Bless America", a song that she once again performed at the Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego. Later in March 2002, she officially ended her hiatus with the release of her new album "A New Day Has Come", which debuted at No. 1 in more than 17 countries. Despite the commercial success, the album wasn't well received by critics.

Following the release of the album, Dion then unleashed "One Heart" and "Miracle", though both records didn't fare as strongly as their predecessors. It was her next French album, "1 Fille & 4 Types", that was received well by both critics and the public. In France, it debuted at No. 1 and was later certified 2x platinum after selling more than 700,000 copies.

In March 2003, Dion kicked off her three-year Las Vegas residency "A New Day" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Many stars attended the opening night, including Katy Griffin, Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake. Even though the tickets were considered expensive, the show was well-received by audiences and routinely sold out until its end in late 2007. It became the most successful residency of all time, grossing over $385 million.

Returning to the music scene after five years of performing at Vegas residency, Dion marked it with her tenth English album "Taking Chances" in November 2007. To promote the album, the singer embarked on a year-long world tour that started in February 2008. The North America leg of the tour was a huge success, topping Billboard Boxscore after selling out every concert in the U.S. and Canada. While on the road, she also offered a free concert in Quebec City, Canada in celebration of the city's anniversary before she released another greatest hits album, "My Love: Essential Collection", in October that year.

Later in May 2009, she was named one of the best-selling artists of the decade and the second best-selling female artist of the decade in the United States as she sold an estimated 17.57 million copies of her albums since 2000. Even though she didn't release any new songs after that, she treated her fans to a documentary film about her "Taking Chances Tour" entitled "Celine: Through the Eyes of the World" in February 2010. The movie included behind-the-scenes look at her successful tour.

That year also saw Dion being honored by several publications. The Los Angeles Times named her the largest earner of the year, while a local Canada paper hauled her as "Artist of the Decade". In addition to that, Harris Poll revealed that Dion took the top spot in list of the most popular musicians in the U.S. Also in that year, she gave birth to her twins after a sixth treatment of in-vitro fertilization.

Dion went back to Las Vegas on March 15, 2011 for her second three-year residency in the city. Called "Celine", it became one of the most successful residencies of all time. Amid her busy schedules due to the residency, the singer still managed to release a French album and an English album. The French-language one, "San Attendre", was released on November 2, 2012, while "Loved Me Back to Live" made its way out on September 3, 2013.

Dion took another hiatus in August 2014 because of the worsening of her husband's health after he underwent the removal of a cancerous tumor months before. She briefly returned for her Las Vegas residency in late August 2015, before canceling the rest of the January performances due to her husband's and brother's death from cancer. She resumed the show on February 23.

In the following year, she was honored with Billboard Icon Award at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards in recognition of her career spanning over three decades. She later released a single entitled "Recovering", which was a tribute to her husband, and "How Does a Moment Last Forever" that served as the soundtrack to "Beauty and the Beast (2017)". She once again lent her voice for the soundtrack of a film, this time for "Deadpool 2", and unveiled "Ashes". Released on May 3, 2018, the song got a dance remix treatment that topped Dance Club Songs chart.

Following the release of "Ashes", she toured the Asia-Pacific region from June to August 2018 before she started working on her new English album. In the meantime, she ended her Vegas residency as its final show took place on June 8, 2019. Her new album, "Courage", hit the stores on November 15, 2019 and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200.