Round about the time I left Canada 20 years ago for the United States, I started hearing a singer named Celine Dion.
My French-speaking friends got turned on to her first. My French, which I’d studied every day of my school life through high school, had not aged well. But here was a voice I wouldn’t forget no matter what language she sang.
Celine also had a story. A Canadian story. The youngest of 14 children born in small town Quebec, her parents owned a bar where Celine learned to perform. When I started to hear her first songs in English, I recognized the hint of a French-Canadian accent that reminded me of home.
The first big English hit I remember was 1990’s Where Does My Heart Beat Now. It told me this was no ordinary Canadian singer. What Canadian sings power ballads that give you goose bumps?
We Canadians are used to far less showmanship. Growing up in the ’70s, my collection of 45s included Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind and Anne Murray’s Snowbird. My first rock concert was Bachmam-Turner Overdrive.
But mixed into this Canadian was much more American music.
I grew up on the U.S.-Canada border, just a tunnel ride from Detroit. Windsor, Ontario, was a blue collar city and the automotive capital of Canada. Growing up so close to The D, our ears were filled with Aretha and Motown, Iggy Pop and Bob Seger. I was open to almost every music style. It didn’t hurt that my mother loved Louis Armstrong. My father liked Ray Price. My sisters danced to the Supremes on Swingin’ Time, the local TV show.
So when Celine did a cover of Patti LaBelle’s If You Asked Me To in 1992, she seemed like a Canadian who understood where I came from. Understand, too, that when you come from a country with one-tenth the U.S. population, you find yourself rooting for Canadian success.
I couldn’t believe Celine was singing Beauty and the Beast with someone of Peabo Bryson’s status. She was somehow being offered the kind of opportunities that would propel her to a status few Canadians had ever attained.
I’d heard about her manager, RenM-i AngM-ilil, a man 25 years older whom she first met when she was 12. When they married in 1994, the wedding was televised live across the country. This was just plain weird for Canada. As far as I am aware, no other Canadian had been married on TV.
I was a nascent fan. But a skeptical one. When did Canada start growing divas?
One who held her own alongside Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey on VH1’s Divas Live special in 1998.
Four years ago, I declined when some old friends invited me to go along on a trip to Vegas where Celine had taken up residence at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. They came back converts. At least one came back a member of Celine’s fan club.
Finally, late last spring, when the same group announced they were seeing Celine outside of Detroit at the end of September, I decided to join them. The fan club member bought front row tickets. I won’t tell you how much they cost.
But seeing Celine became a weekend event. Hotel rooms were booked. Dinners were planned.
On concert night, I almost couldn’t believe I was sitting in the front row. Surely, there were bigger fans in this stadium.
Then out she came. Gorgeous. Fit. Spray tanned. A head full of blond hair.
And then she opened her mouth. I’m not sure if she chose to open with I Drove All Night because she was singing in a stadium a stone’s throw from Chrysler headquarters. The song had been used in TV commercials for the company’s Pacifica a few years earlier.
It didn’t matter. Because at that moment, I became an unabashed fan. I think it was a kind of baptism.
Over the next few hours, I realized that Celine had long outgrown everything I thought I knew about her. No wonder she was filling stadiums around the world.
There was the voice. It’s not until you hear someone sing live that you appreciate a singer’s range. Not just vocal range, but emotional range.
There was her easy way on stage, the result, no doubt, of a lifetime spent performing.
And then there was her spirit. Yes, she’s a new kind of pop superstar, a phenomenon unto herself, but I couldn’t help but think she remembers where she came from. Wherever she goes, she brings a little bit of Charlemagne, Quebec, along with her.
John Tanasychuk can be reached at jtanasychuk@sunsentinel or 954-356-4632.
INFORMATIONAL BOX:
IF YOU GO
Celine Dion
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
When: 8 tonight
Tickets: $46.75-$185; Ticketmaster.com and 561-966-3309, 954-523-3309, 305-358-5885
Where: BankAtlantic Center, 2555 Panther Parkway, Sunrise
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 30
Tickets: $49.50-$187.75; Ticketmaster
Our hearts go on. See photos from
Celine’s tour at
