Celine Dion Biography

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, OC, OQ (born
March 30, 1968) is a Canadian singer, and occasional songwriter and
actress. Born to a large, impoverished family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion
emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and
future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record.
In 1990 she released the anglophone album Unison, establishing herself as a
viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the
world.



Dion first gained international recognition in the
1980s after she won the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the
1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Following a series of French albums in the
early 1980s, she signed on to Sony Records in 1986. With the help of her
husband, she achieved worldwide success with several English and French
albums, ending the decade as one of the most successful artists in pop
music. However, in 1999, at the height of her success, Dion announced a
temporary retraction from entertainment in order to start a family and
spend time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer. She
returned to the music scene in 2002 and signed a four-year contract to
perform nightly in a five-star theatrical show at the Colosseum at Caesars
Palace, Las Vegas.



Dion's music has been influenced by
genres ranging from pop, soul and rock to gospel and classical, and while
her releases have often received mixed critical reception, she is renowned
for her technically skilled and powerful vocals. In 2004, after
accumulating record sales in excess of 175 million, she was presented with
the Chopard Diamond Award from the World Music Awards show for becoming the
"Best-selling Female Artist in the World." In April 2007 Sony BMG announced
that Celine Dion had sold more than 200 million albums
worldwide.