Céline Marie Claudette Dion is a Canadian singer. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec,Celine emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
Céline Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada, the youngest of 14 children of Therese, a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion, a butcher, both of French-Canadian descent. Celine was raised a Roman Catholic in a poverty-stricken, but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne. Music had always been a part of the family (Celine Dion was named after the song Céline, recorded by French singer Hugues Aufray two years before her birth ). On 13 August 1973, (at the age of five) the young Céline made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song Du fil des aiguilles et du coton. Thereafter, she continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril. From an early age Celine had dreamed of being a performer. In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she recalled, "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."
At age 12, Celine collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream"). Her brother Michel Dondalinger Dion sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album. Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice, and decided to make her a star. In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu("The Voice of the Good God"), which later became a local number-one hit and made Dion an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi" ("I Have So Much Love for You").
By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year". Further success in Europe, Asia, and Australia came when Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Ne partez pas sans moi (Don't Leave Without Me) and won the contest by a close margin in Dublin, Ireland. However, American success was yet to come as she was at that point exclusively a Francophone artist. At eighteen, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Celine told Rene that she wanted to be a star like Jackson. Though confident in her talent, Rene realized that her image needed to be changed in order for her to be marketed worldwide. Celine receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the École Berlitz in 1989 to polish her English.
In 1989, during a concert on the Incognito Tour, Celine injured her voice. She consulted the Otorhinolaryngologist William Gould, who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her vocal cords, or do not utilize them at all for three weeks.Celine chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.
Artistry
Influences
Celine cites idols as varied as Aretha Franklin, Charles Aznavour, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Anne Murray, Barbra Streisand, and the Bee Gees, all of whom she would eventually collaborate with. Dion has also stated that she grew up listening to artists such as Janis Joplin, the Doobie Brothers, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, but never got the chance to sing their genre of music. She has also shown appreciation for Edith Piaf, Sir Elton John, Cher, Tina Turner and many 1960s, 1970s and 1980s soul singers such as Etta James, Roberta Flack and Patti Labelle. Among her peers, she has expressed admiration for fellow vocalist Whitney Houston, whom she had often been compared to. Her music has been influenced by numerous genres, including pop, rock, gospel, R&B and soul, and her lyrics focus on themes of poverty, world hunger, and spirituality, with an emphasis on love and romance. After the birth of her first child, her work increasingly focused on maternal love
