Celine Dion | Biography, Songs, Diagnosis, Awards, & Facts (2024)

Céline Dion (born March 30, 1968, Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada) is a French Canadian pop singer, known for her vocal prowess and her passionate showmanship, who achieved international superstardom in the 1990s. Working primarily in the pop ballad tradition, she recorded numerous hit albums in both French and English.

Early life and career

The youngest of 14 children raised in a small town near Montreal, Dion began singing with her musically inclined family when she was five years old. At age 12 she came to the attention of impresario René Angélil—whom she eventually married in 1994—and he launched her career with the album La Voix du bon Dieu (1981; “The Voice of God”). Dion subsequently won an award at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo in 1982, and the following year she received the first of many Félix awards (for musicians from Quebec). Also in 1983 she became the first Canadian recipient of a gold record in France. Invited to represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988, Dion won with her performance of “Ne partez pas sans moi” (“Do Not Leave Without Me”). By the end of the 1980s, she had recorded eight studio albums in French. As she transitioned into adulthood, she shed her image as a winsome naïf in favor of a more worldly look and sound.

Superstardom and “My Heart Will Go On”

In 1990 Dion released her first English-language album, Unison, and the romantic ballad “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” became her first top-10 single in the United States. She attracted further international attention for her Grammy Award-winning duet with Peabo Bryson on “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), from the Disney animated feature of the same name. Before long, Dion’s evident vocal talent and emotionally driven songs had made her a worldwide phenomenon, even as some critics dismissed her music as schmaltzy and overly polished. With The Colour of My Love (1993), she scored another hit single (the soaring “The Power of Love”), and Falling into You (1996) earned two Grammys, including album of the year.

Perhaps Dion’s greatest renown, however, came from her recording of “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme of the blockbuster motion picture Titanic (1997). The song won an Academy Award, topped charts in multiple countries, and helped propel sales of her album Let’s Talk About Love (1997)—which also featured duets with Barbra Streisand and Luciano Pavarotti—into the tens of millions. Throughout the 1990s Dion continued to record in French, with D’eux (1995; also released as The French Album) becoming the best-selling Francophone album of all time.

Career hiatus, Las Vegas residencies, and collaborations

At the beginning of the 21st century, Dion took a hiatus from her career to focus on her family. She returned with the albums A New Day Has Come (2002) and One Heart (2003), which flirted with dance pop in addition to her usual adult contemporary fare. While the releases were commercially successful by most standards, their sales did not reach Dion’s previous heights. In 2003 she began performing a live show in Las Vegas, which ran for more than four years, and she launched a second residency there in 2011. Dion’s later recordings included the English-language Miracle (2004) and Taking Chances (2007) and the French-language 1 fille & 4 types (2003; “1 Girl & 4 Guys”) and D’elles (2007; “About Them”).

Despite the fact that Dion was no longer the dominant cultural force that she had been a decade earlier, it was reported in 2007 that worldwide sales of her albums had surpassed 200 million. That total increased after the release of Sans attendre (2012; “Without Waiting”), which included several duets, including one with French rock legend Johnny Hallyday, and Loved Me Back to Life (2013), which featured a duet with Stevie Wonder, among others.

Death of husband and stiff-person syndrome diagnosis

In 2014–15 Dion took a break from performing to care for her ailing husband, who died in early 2016. During this time she was in the midst of her Las Vegas residency and was recording the French album Encore un soir (2016; “One More Night”), which was released some seven months after René Angélil’s death. She later recorded “How Does a Moment Last Forever” for the live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017) and “Ashes” for the parody superhero film Deadpool 2 (2018). In 2019 Dion released Courage, her first English-language album in six years. Three years later the singer announced that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome. The rare neurological disorder was causing spasms that affected her mobility and vocal cords. As she underwent treatment, Dion canceled or postponed various dates for her 2023 tour.

Honors, memoir, and documentary

Dion was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1998 and was appointed Companion in 2008. A memoir, Ma vie, mon rêve (My Story, My Dream; with Georges-Hébert Germain), was published in 2000. I Am: Celine Dion, a behind-the-scenes documentary about her career and health struggles, was released to positive reviews in 2024.