Biography of Celine Dion
Celine Dion, with her rare, amazing voice, is one of the most popular and successful singers in the world. Her magical compositions can be heard even in the most remote corners of the planet. The sincere, sensual performance of these stunning songs is mesmerizing. “The Power of Love”, “All by Myself”, “I Surrender” - you want to listen to these and many other compositions performed by this singer forever. But the singer’s most famous composition is considered to be the song “My Heart Will Go On” heard in the film “Titanic”.
Celine Dion
- Artists
25/09/2014
Anna Savchenko
156
Celine Dion's career began when an adult man mortgaged his property to finance the child singer's first recording.
Celine Dion's childhood
Celine is the youngest in the family of Hadamard and Therese. In total, the parents of the famous Canadian singer raised fourteen children.
“Despite the fact that my parents were poor people, they raised us children in complete idyll, love and absolute harmony,” the singer recalls.
Celine Dion was born and lived most of her life on the outskirts of the largest city of Montreal in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Music has been an integral part of her life since the singer’s birth. She even got her name in honor of the song “Céline,” which was incredibly popular a few years before her birth.
Celine Dion sang for the first time in front of a large audience at the age of 5 - it was a celebration of her brother's wedding. A little later, Celine Dion performed her songs together with her older brothers and sisters in the piano bar that belonged to her parents.
Celine Dion photo #2
Carier start
Celine Dion's song "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" is the first musical work from which a demo recording was made. The singer wrote this song at the age of 12 with her mother.
In one of the drawers of the desk, Celine's brother, Michel, discovered a disk by Jeanette Reno, and on the back of it was the name of music manager Rene Angélil. At the family council, it was decided to send him Celine’s first song for an audition.
The 38-year-old, already fully established man, Rene, was moved to tears by the voice of the young singer, and he decided to make a star out of her, no matter the cost.
Celine Dion’s song “La voix du bon Dieu” is exactly the single for which Rene Angelil mortgaged his expensive real estate to record. Thanks to this song, Celine Dion became a local star in Quebec.
A little later, she managed to make herself known in other parts of the world, successfully performing at the Yamaha Festival of Music Performers. The performances brought Celine Dion her first awards and prizes.
In 1983, the French-speaking singer of Canadian origin received her first gold record, and not just anywhere, but in France.
The next step on the path to universal recognition for Celine Dion was the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. The young performer competed for Switzerland and was able to earn the victory.
Celine Dion photo #3
Success in the American music market awaited Celine.
“She grew up listening to the music of Michael Jackson, and when she saw him perform one day, she said that she wanted to become just as famous, and that she, too, wanted to become a star of that magnitude,” recalls Rene Angélil.
Music manager Rene and the aspiring singer decide to “leave the game” for a while and start working on creating the image of Dion. There was only one goal - next time Celine Dion should appear on stage as a real star.
The singer was sent to a dental center, where she underwent several operations aimed at improving her appearance. In addition, Celine began to study English at the Berlitz School.
In 1989, Celine Dion lost her voice at one of her concerts. Without hesitating for a second, the singer turned to an otolaryngologist for help, who forbade her to sing for three weeks. In addition, the attending physician added that Celine does not know how to properly use her vocal cords and recommended that she undergo appropriate training, to which Dion unconditionally agreed.
American debut
Celine Dion's discography already included about six albums, which included songs in French, before she began singing in English.
Her first English-language album is dated 1990. American music critics received the Canadian singer with delight and did not skimp on praiseworthy phrases.
The American public greeted Celine very cordially. After the release of her first English-language album, Celine Dion's popularity began to grow rapidly throughout the United States, and within two years the singer was approaching superstar status.
It is worth noting that Celine Dion’s song “My Heart Will Go On” is rightfully considered the singer’s most successful English-language hit. It was this song by Celine Dion that became the title track for the film Titanic. The lyrics of the song and, directly, its performance, once again made Celine Dion incredibly popular, and the single entered the top 20 best-selling tracks in the history of American music.
Celine Dion photo #4
Family life
Whatever one may say, fate, apparently, is written in the heavenly stars. How could it be otherwise, if all the facts are clear - Celine Dion married her manager. Yes, yes, for the same Rene, who was 26 years older than the singer!
The couple hid their relationship for a long time. Celine and Rene were afraid that the public would consider their romance a manifestation of immorality.
However, the lovers could not hide their relationship forever, and at the presentation of the next English-language album, Celine publicly admitted that she had a fierce love for her manager.
Celine and Rene got married in 1994 in one of the Montreal cathedrals. Six years later, already in Las Vegas, the couple vowed eternal love.
The family happiness of Rene and Celine was burdened by only one thing - the singer tried in vain to get pregnant for a long time. As a result, she underwent treatment in one of the clinics and used the method of in vitro fertilization, and a year later the family could not get enough of their first child. The boy was named Rene-Charles.
In 2010, the couple announced that an addition to the family was expected - Celine was pregnant with twins. That same year, in Florida, Celine Dion gave birth to two beautiful babies within one minute of each other. The children were named Eddie and Nelson, respectively.
The story of Celine Dion is a story of success, a story of beautiful music, impeccable style, easy femininity and boundless love...
Video clip for Celine Dion's song “My Heart Will Go On (Titanic)”
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Childhood and adolescence
Celine Marie Claudette Dion came into this world in the spring of 1968, on March 30th. The newborn baby became the fourteenth child in a family with French-Canadian roots living in Charlemagne, a tiny town that later became part of Montreal (Quebec province, Canada). It was here that she spent her childhood, and it was here that her path to a global career began. The name Celine is a reference to the song of the same name by the French bard Hugues Aufray.
Parents Ademar and Teresa, having learned about the new pregnancy, wanted to have an abortion. The family already had 13 children growing up, and their financial situation bordered on poverty. Teresa's youngest children, twins Paula and Pauline, had just started first grade, and the woman was hoping to take a break from the endless cycle of washing, ironing and cooking, but an unplanned pregnancy confused all the cards. Teresa consulted with the priest, who unequivocally said: “You do not have the right to take the life of a child.”
Later, when Celine was born, the couple opened a modest bar, Le Vieux Baril. A cozy restaurant, full of customers from morning to evening, was not only a source of small income for the family, but also an opportunity to feel like real pop singers. Long before this establishment was purchased, the friendly Dion family toured Canada as a musical group called Dion's family. And now, in their own bar, each family member could fully demonstrate their talent.
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
A Canadian with Syrian and Lebanese roots, Rene Angélil (01/16/1942 - 01/14/2016) began his career as a performer of popular songs. In 1961, he formed the vocal group "Les Baronets" with two childhood friends and was quite famous until the musical group broke up in 1972. Rene decided to put an end to his singing career and continue his studies at law school.
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
Rene was 38 years old when he first met 12-year-old Celine. He saw and heard her sing on a demo tape when he was considered a potential producer for her album.
Soon Rene became Celine's agent, but she had no idea that he was going to make his way to her heart forever. Angélil mortgaged his apartment to provide sufficient resources to finance her debut album in 1981 because he saw great potential in Dion.
The two talented people began a relationship when Celine was only 19 years old. Renee is almost a quarter of a century older than her, so they kept the relationship a secret until it was time to make it public.
Wedding of Celine and Rene
Celine kept a photograph of Rene under her pillow, and was afraid that her mother would discover the photograph. Dion's mother, who traveled everywhere with her daughter until she was 19, was initially wary of Celine's growing infatuation with an older, twice-divorced man. But Dion insisted, telling her mother:
“This is a free country. No one has the right to stop me from loving who I want.”
Celine Dion always said that Rene was “one of the main reasons why her career flourished.” Their extravagant wedding took place on December 17, 1994, and was even broadcast live on Canadian national television.
Angelil's marriage to the goddess of music has been called one of the sweetest celebrity love stories.
Spouses Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
Great start
The girl’s professional growth was ascending - from rehearsal to rehearsal, from one performance to another. By the age of 18, the young performer had recorded 9 discs. Her incredible talent has been recognized with numerous awards - the Felix Awards from the Canadian organization ADISQ and Canada's equivalent of the Grammys - numerous Juno Awards. In 1986, she signed a lucrative contract with CBS Records Canada.
Real success came in 1988, when she won the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Dublin, where Celine performed the song “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”. This was a completely different level of recognition, giving hope for American stars to enter the world. It’s not for nothing that the girl’s idol was (and always remained) Michael Jackson, whose death she experienced very hard later.
Rene Angelil knew for sure: Celine would definitely become a world-class star. As part of this grandiose project, Rene insisted on changing her appearance. He had already achieved some success in this direction before: Celine was tall and very thin, and her hair was too short with ridiculous bangs, so the producer had long ago convinced the girl to grow her hair and curl it beautifully.
But the girl also had a more serious drawback - an incorrect bite, which even at school caused constant ridicule from her classmates. When she underwent the necessary dental surgeries, her image changed dramatically.
Suddenly, a problem with her voice arose: due to the inability to properly control her vocal cords, the girl felt a severe pain in her throat, which could derail her singing career that had just begun. I had to go on sabbatical to save my voice in silence for a month, and then record the positive effect with special classes with a highly qualified vocal teacher, William Riley.
Angelil, working for the future, demanded that Celine also master the English language at the famous Berlitz school. And this yielded results: having an excellent command of the language of international communication, Dion in 1990 was able to make a very successful debut with the album “Unison” on the English-language music market. The musician and arranger David Foster, who constantly collaborated with her, helped the singer achieve such great success.
And in 1992, in a duet with Peabo Bryson, Dion recorded the title track for the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast. The beautifully performed romantic composition graced Celine’s second English-language album, which went gold in the United States and brought the singer the prestigious Grammy and Oscar awards. Now Dion could safely go on her first tour of America.
Celine Dion told how she coped with the death of her husband: “You just have to move on”
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
The last few years have been very difficult for 51-year-old Celine Dion. In January 2020, after a long battle with cancer, her 73-year-old husband Rene Angelil passed away, and his death crippled the singer.
However, for the sake of the children - 18-year-old Rene-Charles and eight-year-old twins Eddie and Nelson - Dion was still able to pull herself together and return to life. In a recent interview on the TV show “Good Morning America,” Celine talked about what helped her cope with the loss, and also gave advice to everyone who is faced with the loss of a loved one.
You can't stop living. You just have to move forward. Imagine that today is the first day of your new life,
— Celine shared her experience.
Celine Dion
In a conversation with reporters, Dion also expressed gratitude to her husband, with whom she had been married for 21 years, for teaching her to be strong and have a positive attitude towards everything that happens - this approach now helps her in raising her children.
Rene always taught me to be strong and positive. I can never replace a father for my children. But I try to be a good parent for them, to do this job for both of us. I am happy every time I look at the children. Then the thought comes into my head: “Renee and I did a great job, and I’m so proud of it,”
- said Dion.
Earlier, in an interview, Celine admitted that Rene is still alive for her - every time she sees her late husband, looking into the eyes of her children.
He is no longer physically with us, but he still lives next to me. His image always pops up in my head when I look at children,
- Celine shares.
Rene Angelil and Celine Dion
Let us remember that Dion met her husband and manager Rene Angelil in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38. Eight years later, Celine and Angelil began dating, and soon became engaged. On December 17, 1994, the couple married at Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal. Their first son, René-Charles Angélil, was born in January 2001, and twins Eddie and Nelson were born in the fall of 2010.
After the death of her husband, in her interviews, Celine noted that she could never love someone more than Rene, who was her first and only man. However, in January 2020, the singer began to be seen in the company of 34-year-old dancer Peppe Muñoz, who was immediately listed as the star’s boyfriend.
Dion herself denies her romantic relationship with Munoz and calls this relationship exclusively friendly.
Peppe and I immediately became friends. Of course we hug and hold hands. He helps me: holds the door, helps me get out of the car. But there’s no need to substitute concepts, he’s just my best friend,
- says Celine.
Zenith of popularity
The singer's striking performances during tours in North American states, combined with the commercial success of her English-language albums, elevated Dion to superstar status. Her songs about love and fidelity were understandable and close to everyone. Her powerful and sonorous mezzo-soprano, covering a range of 5 octaves, makes the hearts of a multimillion-dollar audience of fans tremble. Such a voice is undoubtedly a great gift from above.
Celine Dion achieved her goal: she gained unprecedented popularity in the United States and firmly established herself on the world stage. Proof of unconditional international recognition was the singer’s offer to perform “The Power of the Dream” at the opening of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, as well as to sing on Divas Live on VH1 (1998) together with superstars Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey and Shania Twain.
Regularly appearing new recordings by Celine Dion increased her fame as the world's best-selling singer, which was confirmed by the awards she received. Thus, in 1996, Dion was awarded the World Music Awards for the third time with the wording “World's Best Selling Singer of the Year.” And for the album “Falling into You” (1996), she was awarded a Grammy for best pop album of the year.
At the end of the 1990s, Celine Dion set a real record: over 100 million of her albums were sold worldwide. Of course, a big boost to the singer’s popularity was her masterpiece song “My Heart Will Go On,” which became the main theme of the best melodrama of the 90s, James Cameron’s “Titanic.”
Celine Dion: “My late husband is the only man I kissed”
Rene Angelil and Celine Dion
Less than a year has passed since Celine Dion lost her husband and manager in one person - in January 2016, Rene Angelil died after a long battle with cancer. The singer still confesses her love to him and considers herself a married woman.
In a fresh interview with CBS after her performance in Las Vegas, Celine admitted that Rene was the only man in her life whom she loved and for whom she generally had strong feelings. Moreover, this is the only man she kissed. It was very difficult for all of us to survive his death - for me and for our children, it was especially difficult to see how he was fading away, how he was leaving us.
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
In this sense, his death was in some way a relief, because at once it put an end to the many years of suffering of my closest, dearest, most beloved person - the only man I kissed in my life, the only man I loved. To the surprise of the host, the singer replied:
Yes, I have never kissed anyone in my life except my husband. He was my soulmate. My partner in everything, and together we were one. So when his many years of suffering ended, no matter how hard it was for me without him, I told myself that this was better for him, because he deserved peace.
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil
Whether she will fall in love in the future, Celine does not know - now her heart is occupied by Rene:
I love! I love. Love him!
- the singer admits.
I am still in love with him, my heart is completely occupied by him. What about a man's love? I have the love of my children, the love of my fans, the people I work with. So my life is not devoid of love.
The singer Sia has a song that says: “When I go to bed, I imagine that I’m going to bed with you.” So when I go to bed, I imagine going to bed with him. And I go up on stage with him. And anyway: I'm still married to him.
Celine Dion with her son Rene-Charles at the funeral of Rene Angélil
Let us remember that the singer met her husband and manager Rene Angélil in 1980, when she sent him her demo recording. Celine at that time was only 12 years old, and he was 38. They started dating in 1987, got married seven years later - in 1994, and then lived in love and harmony until Rene’s death on January 14 of this year.
From Rene, the singer has three sons - 15-year-old Rene-Charles and twins Nelson and Eddie, who were five years old at the time of the death of their 73-year-old father.
Rene Angelil and Celine Dion
Celine Dion and Rene Angelil with children, 2011
Celine Dion with her son, 2020
Personal life of Celine Dion
The singer first saw her future husband when she herself was still practically a child: at the age of 12, Celine met with music manager Rene Angelil to pass a personal audition.
He became her manager, later a friend, and mortgaged his house for the release of the song “La voix du bon Dieu”. There was no question of a romantic relationship between a 12-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man. But when Celine turned 19, their relationship moved to a new level.
The lovers got married in Montreal's Notre-Dame Cathedral (Quebec) on December 17, 1994. For Rene, the singer became the third wife. Perhaps she would not have decided to take this step if her lover had not suffered a heart attack in 1992.
Subsequently, the couple had to face another challenge: in 1999, the producer was diagnosed with throat cancer. But they got through it together. Celine was there during chemotherapy, sitting outside the operating room doors when Rene had surgery - twice. A year later there was a stable remission. In honor of this event, in 2000, on January 5, Celine and Rene repeated their wedding vows in Las Vegas.
They were passionate lovers, despite their 26-year age difference, and close friends. But the joy of family life was darkened by the absence of their own children. In 2000, Celine, realizing that her husband was no longer young, decided to undergo IVF, and on January 25, 2001, she gave birth to her first child, Rene-Charles.
After going through a series of futile attempts to get pregnant again, the singer still gave birth to twins Eddie and Nelson using IVF. This happy event took place on October 23, 2010.
However, the happiness of motherhood was mixed with bitter experiences caused by the return of a cancerous tumor in 2013. Celine canceled upcoming performances and tours, stayed with her husband around the clock, and when it became clear that this time the disease would not recede (Rene could no longer eat on his own), she spoon-fed him.
Shortly before his death, Rene asked his wife for two things - to be sure to return to the stage as soon as it was all over, and to let him die in her arms. On January 14, 2020, Angélil passed away.
Celine did not quickly come to her senses after Rene’s death: after all, “my most beloved person on Earth, the only man whom I kissed and whom I loved…” was gone forever.
After the death of her husband, Celine became her own producer and the owner of his two production centers.
Two years later, a new tragedy awaited the Dion family. Her 59-year-old brother Daniel passed away; the cause of death was oncology.
Next, the singer made a statement that due to hearing problems (pathology of the middle ear), she was canceling all performances for the spring of 2018.
At the beginning of 2020, Celine made her first public appearance with her new boyfriend, 34-year-old dancer Pepe Muñoz. He is a dancer and originally worked in Dion's team.
Celine Dion's husband dies
On January 14, 2020, the husband and producer of Canadian singer Celine Dion, Rene Angélil, died at his home in Los Angeles. The couple was together for almost 30 years.
The love story of Celine Dion and her husband
The couple met when Celine was only 12 years old, but her future husband was already 38. The girl, with the help of her mother, recorded her voice on tape and sent it to the producer, whose name and address Teresa Dion (Celine’s mother) found on the back of one of the musical disks. Rene drew attention to the enormous singing talent and invited the girl to work with him. To find funds for Celine Dion's first professional recording, he had to mortgage his house.
The relationship between the singer and producer began only 7 years later, by which time Rene was still not free. However, he soon announced his divorce. At first, Celine Dion and Rene Angelil hid their relationship from the public, as they were afraid that the singer’s fans would not understand and accept such a union, because the age difference was very large. However, everything secret sooner or later becomes clear, and they still found out about the novel.
Four years after the start of their relationship, the couple announces their engagement. The wedding of Rene Angelil and Celine Dion took place on December 17, 1994.
The happiness of family life lasted for several years, and the couple even renewed their vows in 2000, but soon misfortune befell Celine and Rene. Then Rene Angelil was first diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. And even at that time, Celine Dion could have lost her husband. In order to remain close to her husband, the singer announced the end of her concert activities; she herself looked after Rene. He underwent surgery, which turned out to be quite successful, and the disease subsided for a long time.
After such a terrible illness, relative calm came, and Celine and Rene even managed to become parents twice, although it was not too easy. To do this, the singer had to resort to the help of doctors and undergo the IVF procedure. But all efforts were successful, and in 2001 Rene Charles was born, and nine years later - in 2010 - the twins Nelson and Eddie.
Death of Celine Dion's husband
However, in 2013 it became known that Celine Dion's husband was again sick with cancer. He suffered a relapse of the disease, which seemed to have subsided. Just as Celine announced the cessation of concert performances several years ago, she hoped that her love and care would help her overcome her terrible illness again.
But this did not happen, and on January 14, 2020, at the age of 73, Rene Angelil, Celine Dion’s husband, died. A message about this appeared on the star’s page on one of the social networks, along with a request to respect the singer’s personal life and the feelings of her family and not cause too much excitement around this news. As it became clear later, Celine Dion’s husband died in their home in Los Angeles in the arms of his wife and in the presence of his closest relatives. In recent days, he could not feed on his own, and the singer had to feed him several times a day using a special tube. Rene was only a few days shy of his 74th birthday.
And almost immediately, just two days after the news that Celine Dion’s husband died of cancer, it became known that another serious tragedy had occurred in the singer’s family: her older brother had died. The cause of death was also cancer of the larynx, tongue and brain. Due to preparations for her husband's funeral, Celine Dion was unable to attend the farewell to her brother, but the singer's older sister (and Celine Dion has 13 brothers and sisters in total) and her mother were always with him.
