Musicians - Celine Dion

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	Musicians - Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, OC, OQ (born March 30 1968) is a Canadian Grammy, Juno, and Oscar award-winning pop singer and occasional songwriter and actress. Dion became an adolescent star in Francophone Canada after her manager and future husband, René Angélil, mortgaged his home in order to finance her career. She also gained recognition in parts of Europe and Asia by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, and established a foothold in the Anglophone music market with the release of her first English album, Unison (1990) published by Sony Records.

Dion's music has been influenced by various genres, ranging from pop and rock, to gospel and classical, and she is noted for her technically skilled and powerful vocals. She released a slew of chart-topping English and French records including "I'm Your Angel" and "My Heart Will Go On", before announcing a temporary break from entertainment in 1999. In 2002, Dion returned to the music scene with the release of A New Day Has Come, and in 2004, she received the Chopard Diamond from the World Music Awards show for total sales in excess of 100 million albums. Dion currently performs nightly in her show, A New Day...Live in Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, under a contract that extends to 2007.

Childhood and early career

Céline Dion, the youngest of fourteen children born to Adhémar and Thérèse Dion grew up in a poverty-stricken but, by her own accord, happy home in a small town called Charlemagne. Dion gained an appreciation for music by singing with her siblings in the small piano bar belonging to her parents called the Vieux Baril. In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she said, "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 the age of twelve Dion collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques for the composition of her first song, "Ce N'était Qu'un Rêve" (English: It Was Only a Dream). Her brother, Michel, sent the song to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of an album by Ginette Reno. Angélil immediately knew that Dion would become an international success, and decided to mortgage his home in order to fund her first record. In 1981, they released "La Voix Du Bon Dieu" ("The Voice of God"), which became a number-one single in the local market and made Dion an instant star in Québec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan with the song "Tellement J'ai D'amour Pour Toi". She won both the gold medal and the Musician's Award for "Top Performer". In 1987, Turkish songwriter Atilla Şereftuğ and Swiss songwriter Nella Martinetti approached Dion and asked her to represent Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi". By winning the contest in Dublin, Ireland, she received a large boost to her career in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

By the late 1980s, Dion had already established herself as a local popular artist with albums like Incognito, and had won many Felix Awards, appeared on local and French television shows, and became the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour Ou D'amitié" (1982). At the age of eighteen, after seeing Michael Jackson performing on television, she told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like him. Even though he had no doubt in her talents, Angélil realized that in order for her to be marketed worldwide, her image needed to be changed. She was also sent off to the Ecole Berlitz School to polish her English and interviewing skills. Dion, eager to begin her career in America, learned English in only three months.

Music and recording career

1990–1992: Career breakthrough

A year after she learnt English, Dion made a successful attempt at breaking into the Anglophone market with Unison. She made sure to work with many established musicians, including David Foster and Vito Luprano. The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock and was fit for the adult contemporary radio format; this style would remain throughout many of her future albums. Unison seemed to hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the album was a relief, her vocals were "tastefully unadorned", and that Dion never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her". Stephen Thomas Erlwine of All Music Guide declared it as "a fine, sophisticated American debut". Singles from the album included "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad featuring an electric guitar, "(If There Was) Any Other Way" and the title track, "Unison". The album established Dion as a rising music artist in the United States and across Continental Europe and Asia.

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Musicians - Celine Dion

Childhood and early career

Music and recording career

1990–1992: Career breakthrough

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