Céline Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion OC, OQ (born March 30, 1968) is a popular vocalist from Québec, Canada. Her music has been influenced by pop, rock and soul, and from humble beginnings she has risen to become one of the best-selling female artists of all time, with worldwide record sales surpassing 200 million.

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A New Day Has Come, released in March, 2002 ended her two-year hiatus from the music world. The album debuted at number one across 17 countries and it sold over 600,000 copies in the United States in its first week, the highest first-week sales for the year. It features the tracks "A New Day Has Come", "I'm Alive" (which is featured in the second Stuart Little motion picture), "The Greatest Reward", which is an adaptation of "L'envie d'aimer", a song from the French stage musical Les dix Commandements (The Ten Commandments), and a cover of Etta James' hit, "At Last". The album resumed her success and has since become 3× platinum in America and six times platinum (600,000 units)in Canada, with worldwide sales reaching over 12 million copies worldwide.

Related Topics:
A New Day Has Come - March - 2002 - United States - Stuart Little - Musical - The Ten Commandments - Etta James - Canada

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Apart from her success as a musician, Dion has also become an entrepreneur. She developed her own perfume, which became one of the biggest selling perfume of 2003, she has her own magazine, Céline Dion Magazine, and she has also opened many restaurants in Canada and the northern parts of the US. Her restaurant chain is called Nickles.

Related Topics:
Entrepreneur - Restaurant

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On 25 March her A New Day show opened in Las Vegas, and her album One Heart was released with singles including the title track, "Have You Ever Been In Love", which spent 14 weeks at number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and a remake of Roy Orbison's "I Drove All Night". The album has been certified as 10th-best selling album of the year, according to IFPI.

Related Topics:
25 March - Billboard Adult Contemporary - Roy Orbison - IFPI

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Dions French album 1 fille & 4 types was released in October 2003. The album which, like S'il suffisait d'aimer took only five to six days to record, is a collaboration between Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman. They were joined by three of his friends, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi and Jacques Veneruso, who had previously worked with her on S'il suffisait d'aimer and D'eux (also known as The French Album. Critics have called it Dion's best and most natural album. Dion herself has referred to it as "the album of pleasure". The first single from this album, "Tout l'or des hommes", established the record for becoming the highest charting francophone single on the National (English) CHR Audience chart in the BDS era. "Tout l'or des hommes" reached number five on the English CHR Audience Chart.

Related Topics:
October - 2003 - Collaboration - Jean-Jacques Goldman

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In 2004, Dion recorded the title track for the Franco-Québécois movie Nouvelle-France, titled "Ma Nouvelle-France", written by Luc Plamondon and Patrick Doyle and produced by Christopher Neil. In July 2004, "You and I", the promo song for the new Air Canada advertising campaign, actually hit No. 1 in the Canadian mainstream adult contemporary category, according to Nielsen BDS. The song, included as a "bonus track" on her A New Day... Live in Las Vegas album, was among the Top 100 most requested singles on Canadian radio stations for 23 weeks.

Related Topics:
2004 - Nouvelle-France - Luc Plamondon - Patrick Doyle - Christopher Neil - July - Air Canada

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Continuing her success, Dion released her first concept album, Miracle, in October 2004. It was produced by David Foster, as part of a multimedia project conceived by both Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. The theme of the album is centred around babies, and available in three different versions: the CD with a 20-page booklet featuring photos by world-renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes; the "Limited Edition" CD/DVD box set includes a 60-page version of the Miracle book, the Miracle CD and a "making of the CD" DVD; the 180-page book with the Miracle CD and the "making of the book" DVD. In January 2005, Miracle was certified Platinum by RIAA in USA.

Related Topics:
Concept album - Miracle - October 2004 - David Foster - Anne Geddes - 2005 - RIAA

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On July 2, 2005, Dion sent a taped performance of "Love Can Move Mountains" to Ontario, Canada as part of the worldwide Live 8 concerts. That same year, she recorded "Dance With My Father" for the album So Amazing. A tribute album to the late Luthur Vandross.

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On October 3, 2005, she released On Ne Change Pas, a collection of her greatest french music hits.

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Following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Celine Dion publicly criticized Bush regarding the Iraq War and slow response in aiding the hurricane victims. The general public were very surprised to see Celine Dion in such an emotional state, breaking down into tears while discussing the unfortunate events. Furthermore, she vowed to donate one million dollars for relief efforts.

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