BIOGRAPHY
(Thanks goes to my bud Mel)
Born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec (a small town 30 miles east of Montreal in Canada), Celine is the youngest of 14 children. Her family was very musical and her talent for music began to develop
quickly. She first sang in front of an audience when she was 5 years old, at her brother Michel's wedding. Music eventually became an obsession for Celine. By the time she was 11 years old she realized she had the ability to achieve exactly what she wanted. "I was telling my mom everyday that I wanted to be a singer. And she said, 'Yeah, but professionally, not in clubs and not just for fun.'" Celine recalls.
They never heard back from Rene. Celine recalls "my brother called
him and said 'We know you didn't listen to the tape because you would've called right away.'" Rene then listened to the tape and called Celine and asked her to come to the studio. He had her sing for him and upon hearing her voice, he realized she had what it took. So he set out to find a record company, but no record company wanted to take a chance on a 12 year old kid. However, Rene believed in her and so he mortgaged his house to finance her first record.
Celine was an instant hit in Quebec and France. The album sold
over a million copies. In 1982 Celine dropped out of school to pursue
music full time. That year she won the Yamaha song contest in Tokyo, in
1985 she sang for the Pope, in 1988 she won the Eurovision song contest in
Dublin, and between 1982 and 1989 she recorded 7 albums and won 15 Felix
awards. All of this without speaking a word of English.
By now, Celine was 18 and the most successful Canadian singer in
history, but one thing was missing- success in the United States. The
language barrier was the problem. So Rene had her take a year off, change
her image, and learn to speak English. In 2 months she was fully
bilingual. She was ready to try and conquer the US.
In 1990, Celine came out with her first English language album-Unison. Her hit single from that album, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" reached number 4 on the charts. Celine was touring and doing up to 5 shows
a week to promote the album. Then one night, it all came crashing down. At a concert in Sherbrooke, Quebec, when Celine tried to sing, she couldn't make a sound. Her voice was completely gone. "When I lost my voice, it was like losing everything. There's a lot of things that you have to go through in life, it makes you stronger. And I lost my voice once, it's true. I went on stage, sang the first song, gave it all I got, I had nothing I don't know how I did it. Second song, guitar solo I went out backstage and I started to cry."
The diagnosis was that there were nodes on her vocal cords. The
suggested treatment was surgery, but the operation would likely ruin her voice. Celine wanted a second opinion. So they traveled to New York City and met with Dr. Wilbur Gould. He didn't find any nodes, but determined that Celine's vocal cords were severely inflamed. Dr. Gould prescribed three weeks of voice rest.
Now Celine treats her vocal cords very carefully. She keeps it
limber by performing a precise 45 minute daily routine. Her voice
eventually got stronger. Unison eventually went certified gold in the
United States and sold over 2 million albums worldwide. In 1992 she
released yet another album. Her self titled album which sold 3.4 million albums. That album carried the theme song for Disney's movie Beauty and the Beast. She sang this as a duet with Peabo Bryson and the song picked up a Grammy and an Oscar. The album also had several other hit singles, including "If You Asked Me To" and "Love Can Move Mountains."
In 1993, another tragedy hit Celine. This was the year when her
niece Karine ended a 16 year battle with Cystic Fibrosis. She actually did in Celine's arms. Because of this, Celine is a strong supporter of the Cystic Fibrosis foundation, and was named the foundation's national Celebrity Patron.
By this time, Celine was 25 years old and the relationship between her and Rene had grown beyond just singer and manager. They had fallen in love with each other. And one night on tour, Rene asked Celine to marry him. For a while after that they kept their relationship a secret from the public. They weren't sure what the public would think because of the 26 year age difference and because he had been her manager for so long. Since Celine wanted to make it public, she took matters into her own hands. She made a simple announcement- four lines on the cover of her next album, The Colour of My Love. "Rene, for so many years I've kept our special dream locked away inside my heart... but now it's getting too powerful to keep this inside of me... so after all these years, let me "Paint the truth, show how I feel, try to make you completely real"...Rene, you're the colour of my love." On December 14, 1994 they were married before 500 people in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal. The event was considered to be Canada's equivalent of a royal wedding.
It was with the release of The Colour of My Love that Celine began
to be known as one of the best pop singers of the decade. The album sold over 13 million copies. It included the hit theme song for the motion picture Sleepless in Seattle called "When I Fall In Love." It was a duet performed with Clive Griffin. It also included hit singles "Think Twice," "The Power of Love," and "Misled." "The Power of Love" stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for 4 weeks. "Think Twice" stayed at number one on British charts for 7 weeks (an achievement not replicated since the Beatles in 1965) and became the 4th million selling single in the UK by a female artist.
In 1995 with her D'eux album (called The French Album in the US)
Celine achieved what everyone thought was impossible. She introduced
French Music to the top of the UK charts. In seven short months, D'eux
became the best selling French album in history.
But 1996 was the year everything came together for Celine. She sang in the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Atlanta, before millions of people. And she launched fourth English album, Falling Into You which once again, contained a movie theme. "Because You Loved Me," the theme song for Up Close and Personal spent 16 weeks in the top 5 and became the biggest selling adult contemporary hit of all time. The album also had 2 other big hits, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" and "All By Myself." The album sold over 24 million copies and won 2 Grammy awards, including Album of The Year. This is the album that knocked D'eux out of the number one spot on the charts.
Her newest album, Let's Talk About Love, is what Celine calls "the
album of [her] life." Released November 18, 1997 it includes duets with her idol, Barbara Streisand, as well as Luciano Pavarotti. It also features collaborations with the Bee Gees and Sir George Martin. And once again, contains a movie theme song. This time the love theme for the movie Titanic. "My Heart Will Go On" has helped keep Celine's album in the top 5 for many weeks, as well as keep the soundtrack for Titanic in the number one spot. The song also recently won an Academy Award for best original song and has earned the record for most radio listeners.
Not only does Celine have 14 albums, she has numerous singles and
has won many awards. Including 38 Felix awards, 15 Juno awards, 4 World Music awards, 3 Grammy awards, 2 Oscars, and many more. But if that wasn't enough, she also owns a chain of restaurants called Nickels. It's a fifties and sixties style diner. The idea was created by Celine, the uniforms were designed by Celine and the stores sell Celine items and predominately feature her music in the jukeboxes. There are currently 30 stores throughout Quebec and Ontario with several more in the making.
With each new album and song, Celine has managed to top her previous successes and along the way become the best selling artist of all time. Who would have imagined that the little girl from Quebec would have conquered the world the way she has? Celine recalls "I never wanted to have a hit. I always wanted to have a career, and I think I'm having an amazing one."