Dion was the youngest of 14 children, born to Adhemar and Therese Dion in Charlemagne, a small town 30 miles east of Montr顬, Qu颥c, Canada. This Roman Catholic family often faced material deprivation and austerity, but it was filled with love and music and the family persevered.
Dion honed her musical talents by singing with her siblings from the age of five in the small club belonging to her parents. On weekends, the entire family performed and entertained the local population. At 12, together with her mother and one of her brothers, she composed her first song "Ce n'etait qu'un r궥" ("It Was Only a Dream"), which her brother Michael sent to Ren頁ng鬩l, a manager, whose name he had found on the back of an album by Ginette Reno, a popular Francophone singer. Ang鬩l was brought to tears by Dion's voice and immediately decided to make her an international success.
Angelil mortgaged his home to help finance her career and in 1981, they released her first record in her native French language, "La Voix du bon Dieu" ("The Voice of God"), which made her an instant star in Qu颥c as it became a local #1 single. This recognition would soon spread worldwide, as the following year she won the gold medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, along with the Musician's Award for Top Performer. In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France.
Dion's first English-language album, Unison, released in 1990, expanded her international recognition with the breakthrough top five single, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now". The album also earned Dion her first certification from RIAA as it went platinum in America. However, her real international breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit movie Beauty and the Beast with Peabo Bryson. The song topped the US charts for five weeks and earned her an Academy Award for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television" and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Shortly after her Unison album was released, Dion acted in a television mini-series called Des fleurs sur la neige (Flowers on the Snow). She portrayed a young woman named Elisa who lived a very difficult, abused life. Dion enjoyed her role and has since expressed interest in acting in a motion picture.
Celine DionDion's 1992 eponymous album also featured the single "Beauty and the Beast". That album produced four more hit singles; "Love Can Move Mountains," "Water From The Moon," "If You Asked Me To" and "Did You Give Enough Love." The album went 2נplatinum in America and 6נplatinum in Canada, and won her many awards including Juno Awards and the World Music Award for being the "World?s Best selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year".
In late 1993, Dion fearlessly indicated to the public for the first time that she was in love with her manager, Ren頁ng鬩l. In the dedication section of her third English-language album, The Colour of My Love, Dion named Ang鬩l "the colour of [her] love". Eventually, they became engaged, and married in December 1994. The wedding was widely watched on television across Canada. The couple would soon have a son, Ren魃harles Ang鬩l (born January 2001). The album itself would go on to be certified 6נplatinum in America. Hits included a cover of Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love", which topped the US charts for four weeks, and "When I Fall In Love". In the UK, she received massive success as fans took well to "Think Twice". The song and album stayed at the top of their respective charts for five consecutive weeks, with "Think Twice" spending two more weeks atop the charts. It surpassed the million mark to become the fourth million-selling single ever in the UK, by a female artist.
In 1995 Dion recorded a collection of Carole King songs called Tapestry Revisited, In My Life (a collection of Beatles songs in tribute to producer George Martin).
Falling Into YouIn keeping with her French roots, Dion continued to release French albums between her English language recordings. These include the albums Dion chante Plamondon and C鬩ne Dion ࠬ'Olympia, 1994, and D'eux (known as The French Album in the United States) in 1995.
In March 1996, the monster hit, Falling Into You, was released. It spawned hits such as the title track, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself", and the chart-topper "Because You Loved Me". The album topped the charts in 11 countries, and won the Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the 39th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. It became her biggest selling LP to date; it has been certified 11נplatinum in America and has sold about 30 million copies worldwide.
That year, Dion was also asked to perform at the opening ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympics. She performed the theme song, "The Power of the Dream" accompanied by composer David Foster and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
"My Heart Will Go On"Dion followed Falling Into You with her 1997 release Let's Talk About Love. Though it was a tough act to follow, Let's Talk About Love actually matched the success of its predecessor. The album was recorded in London, New York and Los Angeles and featured a host of special guests, including some of popular music's greatest vocalists; Barbra Streisand, the Bee Gees, and world renowned classical vocalist Luciano Pavarotti, as well as many great songwriters and producers.
Let's Talk About Love.'Let's Talk About Love' was released on the same day as the soundtrack of the 1997 motion picture Titanic. Both albums featured the theme song, "My Heart Will Go On," written by James Horner and produced by James Horner and Walter Afanasieff. At first she was reluctant to record "My Heart Will Go On"; her husband/manager and James Horner had to convince her. My Heart Will Go On became the all-time best-selling Orchestral soundtrack in recording history. The album went on to receive Diamond status in America and won Dion innumerable local and international awards, such as many Juno Awards, and two Grammy's (the song itself won four, but two were presented to the songwriters) in 1999, and three World Music Awards for being the "World's Best Selling Pop Artist of the Year", "World's Overall Best Selling Recording Artist of the Year" and "World?s Best Selling Canadian Recording Artist of the Year". She also received countless awards for her achievements from Europe and Asia. In 1998, she received many honors from her home country; she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for outstanding contribution to the world of contemporary music and Officer of the National Order of Quebec. A year later, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.
At her career peak, Dion was asked to perform on VH1's "Divas Live" special with such superstars as Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain, solidifying her status as one of the biggest divas of contemporary music.
Keeping busy in the studios, Dion released the holiday album These Are Special Times in 1998 and it went on to become one of the biggest selling of its kind. The chart topper, "I'm Your Angel", a duet with R. Kelly came from this album, as well as "The Prayer," a duet with Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, wich was recorded for the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot.
"All the Way...A Decade of Song" contained a collection of her previous hit singles, such as "Beauty and the Beast", "The Power Of Love," "Because You Loved Me," "I'm Your Angel,"and the classic "My Heart Will Go On", plus seven new songs including "Thats The Way It Is", a remake of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" , her remake with Frank Sinatra, "All The Way" (which she dedicated to her husband), and "Then You Look at Me" (from Bicentennial Man, also written by Horner and Jennings). An accompanying DVD with videos and live performances was also released. On that album, she also told the public that she was taking an hiatus from the music industry to enjoy her family.
"A New Day Has Come" released in March, 2002 ended her two-year hiatus from the music world. The album debuted at number one across 17 countries and it sold over 600,000 copies in the United States in its first week, the highest first-week sales for the year. It features the tracks "A New Day Has Come", "I'm Alive" (which is featured in the second Stuart Little motion picture), "The Greatest Reward", which is an adaptation of "L'envie d'aimer", a song from the French stage musical Les dix Commandements (The Ten Commandments), and a cover of Etta James' hit, "At Last". The album resumed her success and has since become 3נplatinum in America and six times platinum (600,000 units)in Canada, with worldwide sales reaching over 12 million copies worldwide.
Apart from her success as a musician, Dion has also become an entrepreneur. She developed her own perfume, which became one of the biggest selling perfume of 2003, she has her own magazine, C鬩ne Dion Magazine, and she has also opened many restaurants in Canada and the northern parts of the US. Her restaurant chain is called Nickles.
On 25 March her A New Day show opened in Las Vegas, and her album One Heart was released with singles including the title track, "Have You Ever Been In Love", which spent 14 weeks at number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and a remake of Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night".
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