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French-Canadian
pop diva Celine Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec in
1968, the 14th child of a musically inclined family. Dion
began singing at the age of five, recording her first demo
at age 12. By 1982 Dion had won her first international
contest and soon began recording singles in her native
province, becoming a local star. Though her lilting voice
sold nearly a million albums in Quebec, France, and
Switzerland, Dion remained an unknown in the United States
and even much of Canada due to her exclusively French
lyrics. After learning English in the late '80s, the young
Francophone inked a deal with Sony and released her U.S.
debut, Unison, in 1990. With four Top 10 singles,
including "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" and
"(If There Was) Any Other Way," the album
surpassed sales expectations. Dion gained further
celebrity with a voice performance in the Disney film Beauty
and the Beast; several songs from the soundtrack
appeared on her 1992 eponymous follow-up, which went to
No. 1 and won her a Grammy for "Best Song." Dion
embarked on her first American tour with Michael Bolton,
then returned in 1993 with The Colour of My Love,
which featured another movie theme, "When I Fall In
Love," from Sleepless in Seattle. With
contributions from several top-name pop songwriters, the
album went double platinum in the U.S. and platinum in
Canada.
Now at
the top of the U.S. pop charts, Dion returned to her
Quebecois roots with 1994's Dion Chante Plamondon,
her first international French release. A tribute to the
French-Canadian songwriter Luc Plamondon, the album sold
well -- particularly in Quebec, of course -- but did not
match the performance of her English-language recordings.
That same year she married Rene Angelil, her 55-year-old
manager and producer. In 1996 Dion returned to the top of
the U.S. pop charts with Falling into You.
Dion's
successful streak continued in 1997 with the release of Let's
Talk About Love on Epic. The album went straight to
the top of the Billboard charts thanks to the hit singles
"Tell Him," a duet with Barbra Streisand, and
"My Heart Will Go On," the love theme from the
movie Titantic.
In late
1999 Dion announced to thousands of disappointed fans that
she was taking an extended sabbatical from her music
career. As a final farewell, Dion released a greatest hits
album, All the Way...A Decade of Song, in November
of that year.
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