Biography

Born in Charlemagne (a small town 30 miles east of Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Céline is the youngest of 14 children of a highly musical family. Her parents, both musicians, operated a small club, and on weekends, the entire family performed and entertained the local population. From the tender age of 5, Céline sang with her siblings and quickly acquired the ability to perform live. At the age of twelve, together with her mother and one of her brothers, Céline composed a French song which would forever alter the course of her life.

From humble beginnings in a rural French Canadian home town, Céline Dion has risen to international superstardom like a shooting star. Céline has been called the premier contemporary pop vocalist of the Nineties. She has earned music industry accolades from around the world: Grammy Awards in the US, Juno and Felix Awards in Canada, and World Music Awards in Europe. The entire world has seen Céline Dion literally transform herself from a gifted pre-adolescent into an international superstar.

The demo tape containing the song was brought to the attention of René Angélil, a well respected personal manager. In January 1981, René was so taken by the voice of the young Céline, that he became determined to make her an internationally known talent - he even mortgaged his house to finance the recording of Céline's debut album!

Céline began to receive recognition for her talent in 1982, winning the Gold Medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, along with the coveted Musician's Award for Top Performer. In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France.
The streak of recognition had only just begun.

By 1988, Céline had established a strong name for herself in her native province of Quebec, where she was enjoying superstar status, receiving numerous Felix Awards and racking up platinum albums. That same year, Céline won the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin Ireland, where she performed live before a television audience of 600 million viewers throughout Europe, the USSR, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia.

Céline's international breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit movie 'Beauty and the Beast.' The song went to number one and garnered an Academy Award and a Grammy Award. ''Beauty and the Beast'' formed the cornerstone for Céline's second English language album, called simply 'Céline Dion.' That album produced four more hit singles including ''Love Can Move Mountains,'' ''Water From The Moon,'' ''If You Asked Me To'' and ''Did You Give Enough Love.'' In Canada, the album went six times platinum and set the stage for an incredible streak of Juno Awards.

Blessed with one of popular music's great voices, she has crossed all barriers - even that of language - with her electrifying series of international hits. With her breakneck pace of recording, video shoots, touring and appearing on TV shows and awards specials, it seems like Céline has time for little else. Not the case when it comes to an important cause. Céline has used her talents to further the cause of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. In fact, one of Céline's most emotional songs (''Vole,'' from the 'D'eux' album, later translated into English as the song ''Fly,'' which appears on the 'Falling Into You' album) is a touching memorial to her niece, Karine, who was taken from her by this disease.

In 2002 after her two-year hiatus, she returned to the music world with a new album A New Day Has Come. The album debuted at number one across 17 countries all over the world, and it sold over 600,000 copies in the United States in its first week, being the highest selling album of the year in the first week. She had a contract to perform in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In March 2003, Dion was everywhere: on 25 March her A New Day show opened in Las Vegas, and her album One Heart was released. The album has been certificated as 10th-best selling album of the year, according to IFPI.

She also released her own perfume line, which was well received and was advertised on commercial television. It was one of the top-ten selling perfumes of 2003.

In March 2003, Céline begins a three-year commitment to appear five nights a week at Caesars Palace Coliseum in Las Vegas, a three-tier, 4000-seat arena designed and currently being built for her show. The 90-minute spectacle will introduce a new form of entertainment, a fusion of song, performance art, theatrical innovation and state-of-the-art technology that will inspire its own creative genre. The show is created by Dragone Productions, a team led by Franco Dragone, the creative spirit behind ten of the critically acclaimed productions by Cirque du Soleil.

In October 2003, her French album 1 fille & 4 types was released. The album is yet again a collaboration between Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman (joined by three of his friends, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi and Jacques Veneruso), who had previously worked with her on S'il suffisait d'aimer and D'eux (also known as The French Album, which sold nine million copies worldwide, making it the most sold French-language album of all time). Critics have called it Dion's best and most natural album. Dion herself has referred to it as "the album of pleasure". The first single from this album, "Tout l'or des hommes", established the record for becoming the highest charting Francophone single on the National (English) CHR Audience chart in the BDS era. "Tout l'or des hommes" reached number five on the English CHR Audience Chart.

In July 2004, "You and I", the promo song for the new Air Canada advertising campaign, actually hit No. 1 in the Canadian mainstream adult contemporary category, according to Nielsen BDS. Difficult though this may be to credit, the song, included as a "bonus track" on her A New Day... Live in Las Vegas album, cracked the Top 100 most requested singles on Canadian radio stations for 23 weeks.

In October 2004, Dion released her first concept album, Miracle, produced by David Foster, as part of a multimedia franchise conceived by both Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. The theme of the album is centred around babies. The project was available in three different versions: the CD with a 20-page booklet featuring photos by world-renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes; the Limited Edition CD/DVD Box Set includes a 60-page version of the Miracle book, the Miracle CD and a "making of the CD" DVD; the 180-page book with the Miracle CD and the "making of the book" DVD.