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CelineOnline.com |
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"It's the
moment you think you can't that you realize you can."
-Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Biography
Rising from humble beginnings in the small town of Charlemagne, Quebec, Celine
Dion became one of the biggest international stars in pop music history, selling
more than 100 million albums worldwide. The youngest in Adhemar and Therese
Dion's family of 14 children, Dion grew up in an environment full of the
inherent chaos and material austerity that comes with such a large working-class
family. However, the Dion household was also one filled with love for children
and music, and her parents and siblings were important figures in the early
development of her singing career. Celine Dion began singing in her parents'
piano bar when she was just five years old. By the age of 12 she had written one
of her first songs, "Ce N'etait Qu'un Rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream"), which she
recorded with the help of her mother and brother and shipped off to a manager
named Rene Angelil, whose name they found on the back of an album by Ginette
Reno, a popular Francophone singer. After weeks with no response from Angelil,
Celine's brother Michel phoned him and said, "I know you haven't listened to the
tape, because if you had, you would've called right away." Angelil dug up the
tape and called the family back the same day to set up a meeting with Celine.
When the 12-year-old performed in his office in Montreal, Angelil cried and set
in motion the process of making her a Quebecois, and later international star.
He mortgaged his house to pay for her first two albums, producing a local number
one single. In 1983 she became the first Canadian to have a gold record in
France and she won a gold medal at the Yamaha songwriting competition in Japan.
Her worldwide reputation was in the making, but success in the United States was
not yet forthcoming. More ... |
