Céline Marie Claudette Dion (OC, OQ) (born March 30, 1968)
is a Canadian Grammy and Juno award winning pop singer and
occasional songwriter and actress.She began her career in the early
1980s
as a French singer before breaking into the international music
scene in the 1990s.
Anglophone albums
· 1990: Unison
· 1992: Celine Dion
· 1993: The Colour Of My Love
· 1996: Falling Into You
· 1997: Let's Talk About Love
· 1998: These Are Special Times
· 2002: A New Day Has Come
· 2004: Miracle Francophone albums
· 1987: Incognito
· 1991: Dion Chante Plamondon
· 1995: D'eux
· 1996: Live À Paris (live recording)
· 1998: S'il Suffisait D'aimer
· 1999: Au Coeur Du Stade (live recording)
· 2003: 1 Fille & 4 Types
· 2005: On Ne Change Pas (best-of compilation) ·Other activities
Dion became an entrepreneur with the establishment of her franchise
restaurant "Nickels" in 1990. She has since divested her interests
in the chain and was no longer affiliated with Nickels as of 1997.
She also has a range of eyewear and a line of perfume, manufactured
by Coty, Inc.. In October 2004, Canada's national air carrier Air
Canada hired Dion as part of the new promotional campaign as the
airline unveiled new in-flight service products and new aircraft
livery. "You and I," the theme song sung by Dion, was written by an
advertising executive working for Air Canada.
Dion has actively supported many charity organizations worldwide.
She has promoted the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation since
1982 and became the foundation's National Celebrity Patron in 1993.
She has an emotional attachment to the foundation; her
niece Karine succumbed to the disease at the age of sixteen.
In 2003, Dion joined a number of other celebrities, athletes and
politicians to support "World Children's Day", a global fundraising
effort sponsored by McDonald's. The effort raised money from over
100 countries and benefited many orphanages and children's health
organizations. Dion has also been a majorsupporter of the T.J.
Martell Foundation, the Diana Princess Of Wales Memorial Fund, and
many health and education campaigns.Dion has donated proceeds from
selected performances of her Las Vegas show to various charitable
causes.
Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born March 30, 1968) is a
Canadian Grammy and Juno award winning pop singer, and occasional
songwriter and actress. Born to an impoverished family in
Charlemagne, Québec, Dion achieved success in francophone Canada
after her manager and future husband, René Angélil, mortgaged his
home in order to finance her career. She later gained recognition
in parts of Europe and Asia after she won both the 1982 Yamaha World
Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.
In 1990 Dion established a foothold in the anglophone music market
with the release of Unison, published by Epic Records.Dion's music has been influenced by various genres, which range from
pop and rock to gospel and classical, and she is noted for her
technically skilled and powerful vocals. During the 1990s she
achieved worldwide fame and success with several English and
French records, of which her most successful was "My Heart Will Go
On",the theme to the 1997 film Titanic. In 1999 Dion announced a
temporary break from entertainment in order to focus on her husband,who was diagnosed with throat cancer.
Dion returned to the music scene in 2002 with the release of A New
Day
Has Come. By 2004 she had accumulated record sales of 175 million,
and
was presented with the Chopard Diamond award from the World Music
Awards show for becoming the Best-selling Female Artist of all time. As of 2003 Dion has performed nightly in her show A New Day at
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, under a contract that extends through
2007.Childhood and early careerDion's performance at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival won her
the gold medal as well as top performerThe youngest of fourteen children born to Adhémar Dion and
Thérèse Tanguay, Celine Dion was raised a Roman Catholic in a
poverty-stricken but "happy home" in Charlemagne, a small town about
thirty miles from Montréal. Dion grew up singing with her siblings
in the small piano bar belonging to her parents called
'The Vieux Baril,' and had always wanted to become a singer:
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 eighteen, Dion saw Michael Jackson performing on television and
she told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like Jackson.
Even though Angelil was confident in her talent, he realized that in
order for her to be marketed worldwide, her image needed to be
changed.
Dion receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which
she underwent a physical makeover.
