Life and music career

Life and music career
Childhood and early beginnings
Dion's performance at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival won her the gold medal as well as the award for being the top performer.The youngest of fourteen children born to Adhémar Dion and Thérèse Tanguay, Céline Dion was raised a Roman Catholic in a poverty-stricken, but, by her own account, happy, home in Charlemagne.[19][9] Music had always been a part of the family, as she grew up singing with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called 'Le Vieux Baril.' From an early age Dion had dreamed of being a performer;[13] 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."[20]

At age twelve, Dion collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream").[19] Her brother Michel sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album.[4] Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice, and decided to make her a star.[19] He mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu (a play on words "The Voice of God/The Road to God," 1981), which became a local number-one record and made Dion an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song," with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi" ("I Have So Much Love for You").[4] By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year."[11][4] Further success in Europe, Asia, and Australia came when Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" ("Don't Go Without Me") and won the contest in Dublin, Ireland. However, American success was yet to come, partly because she was exclusively a Francophone artist.[21]

At eighteen, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Dion told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like Jackson.[22] Though confident in her talent, Angelil realized that her image needed to be changed in order for her to be marketed worldwide.[19] Dion receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent a physical makeover, and was sent to the École Berlitz School in 1989 to polish her English language.[5] This marked the start of her Anglophone music career. According to an episode of VH-1's Behind The Music, she learned English in just three months.


1990–1992: Career breakthrough
A year after she had learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with Unison (1990).[4] She incorporated the help of many established musicians, including Vito Luprano and Canadian producer David Foster.[13] The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music that quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. Unison hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Dion's vocals were "tastefully unadorned," and that she never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her."[23] Stephen Erlewine of All Music Guide declared it as, "a fine, sophisticated American debut."[24] Singles from the album included "(If There Was) Any Other Way," "The Last to Know," "Unison," and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad which made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first single to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. The album established Dion as a rising singer in the United States, and across Continental Europe and Asia. In 1991, Dion was also a soloist in "Voices That Care," a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.

Audio samples:
"Where Does My Heart Beat Now" (1990)

"Where Does My Heart Beat Now", Dion's first North American hit, was comprised of 1980s soft rock. (Note the prominence of the electric guitar). It contrasts with the style of subsequent efforts.
"Beauty and the Beast"(1991)

"Beauty and the Beast" was largely influenced by classical music, which became a key feature of Dion's later work.

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Dion's real international breakthrough came when she duetted with Peabo Bryson on the title track to Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991).[6] The song captured a musical style that Dion would utilize in the future: sweeping, classically influenced ballads with soft instrumentation. Both a critical and commercial hit, the song became her second U.S. top ten single, and won the Academy Award for Best Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[13] "Beauty and the Beast" was featured on Dion's 1992 self-titled album, which, like her debut, had a strong rock influence combined with elements of soul and classical music. Owing to the success of the lead-off single and her collaboration with Foster and Diane Warren, the album was as well received as Unison. Other singles that achieved moderate success included "If You Asked Me To" (a cover of Patti LaBelle's song from the 1989 movie Licence to Kill) which peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the gospel-tinged "Love Can Move Mountains," and "Nothing Broken But My Heart." As with Dion's earlier releases, the album had an overtone of love.

By 1992 Unison, Céline Dion, and media appearances had propelled Dion to superstardom in North America. She had achieved one of her main objectives: wedging her way into the Anglophone market and achieving fame.[21] However, while she was experiencing rising success in the U.S., her French fans in Canada criticized her for neglecting them.[25][13] She would later regain her fan base at the Felix Awards show, where, after winning "English Artist of the Year," she openly refused to accept the award. She asserted that she was — and would always be— a French, not an English, artist.[26][5] Apart from her commercial success, there were also changes in Dion's personal life, as Angélil, who was twenty-six years her senior, transitioned from manager to lover. However, the relationship was kept a secret as they both feared that the public would find their relations inappropriate.[27]


1993–1995: Popularity established
In 1993 Dion announced her feelings for her manager by declaring him "the colour of [her] love" in the dedication section of her third Anglophone album The Colour of My Love. However, instead of criticizing their relationship as Dion had feared, fans embraced the couple.[13] Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.

As it was dedicated to her manager, the album's motif focused on love and romance.[28] It became her most successful record up to that point, selling over six million copies in the U.S., two million in Canada, and peaking at number-one in many countries. The album also spawned Dion's first U.S., Canadian, and Australian number-one single "The Power of Love" (a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1985 hit), which would become her signature hit until she reached new career heights in the late 1990s.[21] Subsequent singles, such as "When I Fall in Love," a duet with Clive Griffin, and "Misled" failed to reach the upper tier of the pop charts in the U.S., but were moderately successful in Canada. The Colour of My Love also became Dion's first bona fide hit in Europe, and in particular the United Kingdom. Both the album and the single "Think Twice" simultaneously occupied the top of the British charts for five consecutive weeks. "Think Twice," which remained at number one for seven weeks, eventually became the fourth single by a female artist to sell in excess of one million copies in the U.K.,[29] while the album was eventually certified five-times platinum for two-million copies sold.

Dion kept to her French roots and continued to release many Francophone recordings between each English record.[30] These included Dion chante Plamondon (1991); À l'Olympia (1994), a live album that was recorded during one of Dion's concerts at the Olympia Theatre in Paris; and D'eux (1995 — also known as The French Album in the United States), which would go on to become the best-selling French album of all time.[30] As these albums were in French, the worldwide commercial success was limited. However, Dion's Francophone fans embraced each release,[31] and generally, they achieved more credibility than her Anglophone works.[25]

The mid-1990s was a transitional period for Dion's musical style, as she slowly diverged from strong rock influences and transitioned into a more pop and soul style (though the electric guitar remained a central part of her music). Her songs began with more delicate melodies that used softer instrumentations, and built up to strong climaxes, over which her vocals could be displayed.[32] This new sound received mixed reviews from critics, with Arion Berger of Entertainment Weekly accusing her of preferring vocal acrobatics over dynamics and embarking on a trend of uninspiring, "crowd-pleasing ballads."[33] Resultantly, she earned frequent comparisons to artists such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.[34] There were also signs that her work was becoming more clichéd: critically, The Colour of My Love was not consistent with earlier works.[35][28] However, while critical praise declined, Dion's releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and in 1996 she won the World Music Award for "World’s Best-selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year" for the third time. By the mid-1990s, she had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world, among female performers such as Carey and Houston.[36]


1996–1999: Worldwide commercial success
Audio samples:
"Falling into You" (1996)

The slow-tempo title track was noted for its considerable use of percussion instruments and the saxophone.
"Call the Man" (1996)

One of the final tracks on the album, "Call the Man" features a choir chanting and humming in an African language.
"I Don't Know" (1996)

Falling into You contained outlandish musical effects, as epitomized by the single "I Don't Know."

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Falling into You (1996), Dion's fourth Anglophone album, presented the singer at the height of her popularity, and showed a further progression of her music.[27] In an attempt to reach a wider audience, the album combined many elements, such as ornate orchestral frills, African chanting, and outlandish musical effects. Additionally, instruments like the violin, Spanish guitar, trombone, the cavaquinho, and saxophone created a new sound.[37] The singles encompassed a variety of musical styles. The title track "Falling into You" and "River Deep, Mountain High" (a Tina Turner cover) made prominent use of percussion instruments; "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (a remake of Jim Steinman's song) and a remake of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself" kept their soft-rock atmosphere, but were combined with the classical sound of the piano; and the number-one single "Because You Loved Me," which was written by Diane Warren, was a maudlin ballad that served as the theme to the 1996 film Up Close & Personal.[36] Falling into You garnered career-best reviews for Dion. While Dan Leroy wrote that it was not very different from her previous work,[38] and Stephen Holden of The New York Times and Natalie Nichols of Los Angeles Times wrote that the album was formulaic,[39][40] other critics such as Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AMG, and Daniel Durchholz lavished the album as "compelling," "passionate," "stylish," "elegant," and "remarkably well-crafted."[41][37] Falling Into You became Dion's most critically and commercially successful album: it topped the charts in many countries and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.[42] It also won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album, and the academy's highest honor Album of the Year.[43] Dion's status on the world stage was further solidified when she was asked to perform "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.[44] In March 1996, Dion launched the Falling into You Tour in support of her new album, giving concerts around the world for over a year.

Dion followed Falling into You with Let's Talk About Love (1997), which was publicized as its sequel.[32] The recording process took place in London, New York City, and Los Angeles, and featured a host of special guests, such as Barbra Streisand on "Tell Him"; the Bee Gees on "Immortality"; and world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti on "I Hate You Then I Love You."[27][45] Other musicians included Carole King, Sir George Martin, and Jamaican singer Diana King, who added a reggae tinge to "Treat Her Like a Lady."[46] As the name suggests, the album had the same theme as Dion's preceding albums—"love." However, emphasis was also placed on "brotherly love" with "Where Is the Love" and "Let's Talk About Love."[45] The most successful single from the album became the classically influenced ballad "My Heart Will Go On," which was composed by James Horner, and produced by Horner and Walter Afanasieff.[43] Serving as the love theme for the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic, the song topped the charts in many countries across the world, and became Dion's signature song.[47] In support of her album, Dion embarked on the Let's Talk About Love Tour between 1998 and 1999, which received mixed reviews.

Dion ended the 1990s with two more successful albums— the Christmas album These Are Special Times (1998), and the compilation album All the Way... A Decade of Song (1999).[8] On These Are Special Times, Dion became more involved in the writing process. The album was her most classically influenced yet, with orchestral arrangements found on virtually every track.[48] "I'm Your Angel," a duet with R. Kelly, became Dion's fourth and final U.S. number one single, and another hit single across the world. All the Way... A Decade of Song drew together her most successful hits coupled with seven new songs, including the lead off single "That's the Way It Is," a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," and "All the Way," a duet with Frank Sinatra.[8]

By the end of the 1990s, Celine Dion had sold over 100 million albums worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards.[8] Her status as one of the biggest divas of contemporary music was further solidified when she was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special in 1998, with superstars Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey. That year she also received two of the highest honors from her home country: "Officer of the Order of Canada for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Contemporary Music" and "Officer of the National Order of Quebec."[30] A year later she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, and was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.[49] She also won the Grammy Awards for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" and the most coveted "Record of the Year" for "My Heart Will Go On" (the song won four awards, but two were presented to the songwriters).[50]

Compared to her debut, both the quality and sound of Dion's music had also changed significantly. The soft-rock influences on her earlier releases were no longer prominent; they were replaced by more soul/adult contemporary styles. However, the theme of "love" remained in all her releases, and this led to many critics dismissing her work as banal.[51] In a scathing review of Let's Talk About Love, Rob O'Connor wrote:

“ What never ceases to amaze me is how the trite-est, most cliché-ridden music often takes an assembly-line of lauded music industry professionals to perfect... Sinking ships are what I imagine as this tune ["My Heart Will Go On"] plows onward of four-plus minutes, and this album feels as if were never to end. Is it no wonder why I have such fears of going to the dentist?[52] ”

Dion was also criticized for some of her remakes and duets. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "All the Way" were described as disastrous and "creepy" by both Allison Stewart of The Chicago Tribune and Erlwine of All Music Guide.[53] Even though she was still praised for her vocal abilities (Elysa Gardner of L.A Times called her voice a "technical marvel,")[14] the much-favored vocal restraint heard on her early releases had also waned, and Steve Dollar, in reviewing These Are Special Times wrote that Dion was a "vocal Olympian for whom there ain't no mountain—or scale—high enough."[54]


2000–2002: Career break
After releasing and promoting thirteen albums during the 1990s, Dion stated that she needed to settle down, and announced on her latest album All the Way... A Decade of Song, that she needed to take a step back from the spotlight and enjoy life.[9][55] Angélil's diagnosis with throat cancer also prompted her to hiatus.[56] While on break, Dion was unable to escape the spotlight. In 2000, the National Enquirer published a false story about the singer. Brandishing a picture of Dion and her husband, the magazine misquoted Dion, printing the headline, "Celine — 'I'm Pregnant With Twins!'"[57] Dion later sued the magazine for over twenty million dollars.[58] The editors of the Enquirer printed an apology and a full retraction to Dion in the next issue, and donated money to the American Cancer Society in honor of Dion and her husband. A year after the incident, after undergoing fertility treatments, Dion gave birth to a son, René-Charles Dion Angélil, on January 25, 2001 in Florida.[59][60]

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dion returned to the music scene, and in a televised performance sang "God Bless America" at the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Chuck Taylor of Billboard wrote, "the performance... brings to mind what has made her one of the celebrated vocalists of our time: the ability to render emotion that shakes the soul. Affecting, meaningful, and filled with grace, this is a musical reflection to share with all of us still searching for ways to cope."[61]

2002–2003: Return to music
Dion's aptly titled A New Day Has Come, released in March 2002, ended her three-year break from the music industry. The album was Dion's most personal yet, and established a more mature side of Dion with the songs "A New Day Has Come," "I'm Alive," and "Goodbye's (the Saddest Word)," a change that resulted from her new-found maternal responsibilities, because, in her own words, "becoming a mother makes you a grown-up."[55] She stated, "A New Day Has Come, for Rene, for me, is the baby. It has everything to do with the baby...That song ["A New Day Has Come"] represents very well the mood I'm feeling right now. It represents the whole album."[10] While the album achieved commercial success, critical comments suggested that it was "forgettable" and the lyrics were "lifeless."[62] Both Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone magazine, and Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly, stated that Dion's music had not matured during her break, and classed her music as trite and mediocre.[63][64] Sal Cinquemani of Slant magazine called the album "a lengthy collection of drippy, gooey pop fluffer-nutter."[65]


The upbeat tempo of "One Heart" and the bright colours and "party" style of the music video were a new direction to Céline Dion's work.Drawing inspiration from personal experiences, Dion released One Heart (2003), an album that represented her appreciation for life.[66] The album largely consisted of dance music — a deviation from the soaring, melodramatic ballads, for which she had once been given mixed reception. Although it achieved moderate success, One Heart hinted at Dions' inability to overcome the creative wall that she had hit, and words such as "predictable" and "banal" appeared even in the most lenient reviews.[67][68] A cover of Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night," released to launch her new advertising campaign with Chrysler,[69] incorporated dance-pop and rock and roll and was called reminiscent of Cher's 1980s work. However, it was dismissed as Dion trying to please her sponsors.[70]

By the mid 2000s Dion's music had changed to the point where her releases possessed maternal overtones. Miracle (2004), a multimedia project conceived by Dion and photographer Anne Geddes, had a theme centering on babies and motherhood. The album was saturated with lullabies and other songs of maternal love and inspiration, the two most popular being covers of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy." The reviews for Miracle were generally weak: while Charles Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that the single "Beautiful Boy" was "an unexpected gem" and called Dion "a timeless, enormously versatile artist,"[71] Chuck Arnold of People Magazine labeled the album as excessively sentimental,[72] while Nancy Miller of Entertainment Weekly opined that "the whole earth-mama act is just opportunism."[73]

The Francophone album 1 fille & 4 types (1 Girl & 4 Guys, 2003), fared better than her first two comebacks, and showed Dion trying to distance herself from the "diva" image. She recruited Jean-Jacques Goldman, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi, and Jacques Veneruso, with whom she had previously worked on two of her best selling French albums S'il suffisait d'aimer and D'eux. Labeled "the album of pleasure" by Dion herself, the cover showed Dion in a simple and relaxed manner, contrary to the choreographed poses usually found on her album covers. The album achieved relative critical success: reviewer Stephen Erlwine of All Music Guide wrote that Dion was "getting back to pop basics and performing at a level unheard in a while."[74]

Though her albums were relatively successful, signs of a decline began to appear in the poorer critical reception of The Collector's Series Volume One (2000), A New Day Has Come (2002), and One Heart (2003). The mass appeal of Dion's later works had declined due to the nature of the themes. Her songs received less airplay as radio became less embracing of balladeers like Dion, Carey and Houston, and was focused on more up-tempo, Urban/Hip-hop songs.[75] However, by 2005 Dion had accumulated sales of over 175 million records, and received the Chopard Diamond World Music award for becoming the best-selling female artist in the world.[16][17][76]


2003–2007: A New Day... Live in Las Vegas

Dion performing "I'm Alive" during her show A New Day... in Las Vegas.In early 2002 Dion had announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day..., at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.[12] This move was seen as "one of the smartest business decisions in years by any major recording artist" given the relatively poor performance of her current releases.[77] She conceived the idea for the show after seeing O by Franco Dragone early in her break from recording, and began on March 25, 2003, in a 4000-seat arena designed for her show.[12] The show, put together by Dragone, is a combination of dance, music, and visual effects. It includes Dion performing her biggest hits against an array of dancers and special effects.

Reviewer Mike Weatherford felt that, at first, Dion was not as relaxed as she should be, and at times, it was hard to find the singer among the excessive stage ornamentations and dancers. However, he noted that the show has become more enjoyable, due to Dion's improved stage-presence and simpler costumes.[47] The show has also been well-received by audiences, despite the complaints of expensive tickets; the show has sold out almost every night since its 2003 opening. According to Pollstar, Dion had sold 322,000 tickets and grossed US$43.9 million in the first half of 2005, and by July 2005, she had sold out 315 out of 384 shows.[78] By the end of 2005, Dion grossed over US$76 million, placing sixth on Billboard's Money Makers list for 2005.[79] A New Day... was the 6th biggest selling tour in America in 2006.[80] Because of the show's success, Dion's contract was extended into 2007 for an undisclosed sum. On January 5, 2007 it was announced that the show would be ending on December 15, 2007, with tickets for the period after October 2007 having gone on sale from March 1.[81] The A New Day... DVD will be released on 11 December 2007.[82]


2007-Present: Return to studio
In 2005, Dion released her first comprehensive greatest hits album in French, On ne change pas, which features three new songs, including a duet with Il Divo called "I Believe in You". Her latest French language album D'elles, released on May 21, 2007, debuted at the top of the Canadian album charts, selling 72,200 copies in its first week. It marked her tenth number-one album in the SoundScan era, and her eighth to debut at the top position. In Canada, the album has been certified 2x platinum, and within first week has already shipped half a million units worldwide.[83] D'Elles reached also No. 1 in France and Belgium. The first single "Et s'il n'en restait qu'une (je serais celle-là)" debuted at the top of the French singles chart a month earlier.

Dion has finished working on a new English album Taking Chances, which will be released on November 12 in Europe, and on the 13th in North America.[84] Her first studio album since 2003's One Heart, the album will feature pop, R&B, hip-hop, and rock inspired music.[85] Dion has collaborated with R&B/Hip-hop producer Timbaland,[86] ex-Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody, as well as Kristian Lundin, Peer Astrom, Linda Perry, and R&B singer-songwriters Ne-Yo and R. Kelly.[87][88] Dion stated, "I think this album represents a positive evolution in my career [...] I'm feeling strong, maybe a little gutsier than in the past, and just as passionate about music and life as I ever was."[89] Celine Dion is currently in the UK, on October 27, 2007 Dion appeared on the fourth series of the British talent contest, The X Factor, as a mentor to the show's contestants. She also performed "Taking Chances" on the live show which was her first UK performance for five years. She will also appear on the show Saturday Night Divas on ITV1. [90]

Artistry and image
Dion grew up listening to the music of Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Anne Murray, Barbra Streisand, and the Bee Gees, all of whom she would eventually collaborate with. During her younger years, which she spent performing in her parents' piano bar along with her other siblings, she also performed many songs by Ginette Reno and other popular Quebecois artists. She has also expressed appreciation for Édith Piaf, Sir Elton John, and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, as well as many soul singers of the 1960s, 70's and 80's, including Roberta Flack, Etta James and Patti Labelle, whose songs she would later rerecord. Her English-language material has been influenced by numerous genres, including pop, rock, gospel, R&B and soul, and her lyrics focus on themes of poverty, world hunger, and spirituality, with an overemphasis on love and romance.[28][45] After the birth of her child, her work also began to emphasize maternal bond and brotherly love.

Dion has faced considerable criticism from many critics, who state that her music often retreats behind pop and soul conventions, and marked by excessive sentimentality.[5][51][52] According to Keith Harris of Rolling Stone magazine, "[Dion's] sentimentality is bombastic and defiant rather than demure and retiring....[she] stands at the end of the chain of drastic devolution that goes Aretha-Whitney-Mariah. Far from being an aberration, Dion actually stands as a symbol of a certain kind of pop sensibility — bigger is better, too much is never enough, and the riper the emotion the more true."[91] Dion's francophone releases, by contrast, tend to be deeper and more varied than her English releases, and consequently have achieved more credibility.[92][25]

Dion is often regarded as one of pop music's greatest and most influential voices,[93] [25][5][92][94] In MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music" countdown, she placed ninth (sixth for a female), and she was also placed fourth in Cove magazine's list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists."[15] Upon her debut, many critics had welcomed her restrained vocal inflections, and she was praised for her technical virtuosity and intensity. As Charles Alexander of Time writes, "Her voice glides effortlessly from deep whispers to dead-on high notes, a sweet siren that combines force with grace."[21] As her music progressed, however, Dion's vocal performances came to resemble more closely those of her contemporaries, especially Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey[95], and she was heavily criticized for oversinging and for lacking the emotional intensity that once was a part of her earlier work.[54][40] One critic noted that the emotion, "seems to have been trained right out of her lovely voice," leaving her with "more voice than heart."[33]

Audio sample:
"My Heart Will Go On" (1998)

Though one of the biggest songs of all time, "My Heart Will Go On" has been called one of the worst songs of all time.[96] According to Blender Magazine, "Dion pushes arena-size schmaltz into the red... Never has a song about all-consuming love sounded so trivial."[97]

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Many critics have stated that Dion's involvement in the production aspect of her music is fundamentally lacking, which results in her work being overproduced[92] and impersonal.[25] Additionally, while she came from a family in which all of her siblings were musicians, she never learned to play any musical instruments. However, she did help to compose many of her earlier French songs, and had always tried to involve herself with the production and recording of her albums. On her first English album, which she recorded before she had a firm command of the English language, she expressed disapproval of the record, which, according to her, could have been avoided if she had assumed more creative input.[25] By the time she released her second English album Celine Dion, she had assumed more control of the production and recording process, hoping to dispel earlier criticisms. She stated, "On the second album I said, 'Well, I have the choice to be afraid one more time and not be 100 percent happy, or not be afraid and be part of this album.' This is my album."[25] She would continue to involve herself in the production of subsequent releases, helping to write a few of her songs on Let's Talk About Love (1997) and These Are Special Times (1998).[98]

Despite her success, Dion is often the subject of media ridicule and parody. She is frequently impersonated on shows like MADtv, Saturday Night Live and South Park for her strong accent, as well as her conservative nature and on-stage movements. She is also heavily mocked in her home country of Canada on popular shows Royal Canadian Air Farce and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. However, Dion has stated that she is unaffected by the comments, and has even stated that she is flattered that people take the time to impersonate her.[55] She even invited Ana Gasteyer, who parodied her on SNL, to appear on stage during one of her performances.

Dion is rarely the center of media controversies. However, in 2005, following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, she appeared on Larry King Live and tearfully criticized U.S. President George W. Bush regarding the Iraq War and his slow response in aiding the victims of Hurricane Katrina: "How come it's so easy to send planes in another country, to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives? We need to be there right now to rescue the rest of the people."[99] She later claimed, "When I do interviews with Larry King or the big TV shows like that, they put you on the spot, which is very difficult. I do have an opinion, but I'm a singer. I'm not a politician."[100]