Céline Marie Claudette Dion, OQ, CC, ChLD is a famous Canadian singer who found world-wide recognition with her single ‘My heart will go on’ in the 1997 blockbuster film ‘Titanic’. Most of her early albums were in French. Dion released her first English-language album titled ‘Unison’ in 1990 and established herself as a viable musical artist in USA and the rest of the English-speaking world.
Dion is the winner of five Grammy Awards which include the categories of Record of the Year and Album of the Year. During the Nielsen SoundScan music tracking era, she was ranked America’s second-best selling female musician. Dion has sold more than 50 million albums in the European continent for which she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). She remains till date, Canada’s best-selling artist and has sold more than 200 million copies all over the world.
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Childhood and Early Life
Dion was born in the suburb of Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada, on March 20, 1968, in a large and poor, but happy family that included 13 siblings, to Therese Tanguay, a homemaker and Adhemar Dion, a butcher. She was born in a family that was musically inclined with her parents running ‘Le Vieux Baril’, a piano bar. She sang publicly for the first time, when she was just five, at her brother’s wedding in 1973 and eventually at the family bar.
At the age of 12, Dion composed ‘Ce n’était qu’un rêve’ where she collaborated with her mother and brother, who recorded her voice and sent it to Rene Angelil, a music manager. Angelil was moved to tears by Dion’s performance and saw great potential in her, so much so that he decided to finance her debut album titled ‘La Voix du bon Dieu’ by mortgaging his own home.
Career Rise
Dion started her career in 1980 and within two years became a household name when she won the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in 1982. She also won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, representing Switzerland. Throughout the 1980’s Dion sang in French but made her English-language debut in 1990 with her album titled ‘Unison’ with with she made a mark in USA and the rest of the English-speaking world. Her 1995 French Album ‘D’eux’ was named best-selling album in the French language of all time, while her English language album ‘Falling Into You’ released in 1996 was certified a Diamond hit in USA as was ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ released in 1997. She has several international number-one hits to her credit which include “Nothing Broken but My Heart”, “Think Twice”, “The Power of Love”, “Because You Loved Me”, “My Heart Will Go On”, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and “I’m Your Angel.”
In 1999, Dion went on a hiatus to tend to her husband who was diagnosed of throat cancer and returned to the musical scene in 2002. From 2002-2007 Dion performed nightly in at Las Vegas, Nevada’s Caesars Palace. The show titled ‘A New Day… grossed US $385 million and remains till date the most successful and highest grossing residency shows of all time. Dion’s music hints influences of rock, R&B, gospel and classical genres of music.
Celine Dion – Young Pictures
Personal Life
Dion married René Angélil, her manager in 1994. She met his for the first time when she was starting her career at age 12, while Angélil was 38. Dion entered into a romantic relationship with him in 1987 and got engaged to him in 1991. The couple tied the knot at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec on 17 December 1994.
The couple have three children together, all conceived through in-vitro fertilization. Their first child, a son René-Charles Angelil was born in 2001, while twin boys Eddy and Nelson were born in 2010. Angélil battled with throat cancer for some years and eventually succumbed to it in 2016. Dion also lost her brother, Daniel, to the same disease within two days of her husband’s death.
House
Dion and her husband lived in a 5.5-acre property which featured a four-bedroom guesthouse, a pool house with three separate pools, a simulated golf range, and a magnificent view of the Atlantic Ocean. Dion put her house on the market after her husband’s death but was able to sell it only recently in April 2017. She currently resides at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace and will continue to stay there until 2019.
Net Worth
Dion has an estimated net worth of approximately $700 Million.
