When it comes to the pure ability to move units, there are few female pop singers who can rival the likes of French-Canadian vocalist Celine Dion. In 2004 she achieved the status of winning the World Music Awards’ World’s Best Selling Female Artist of All Time, meaning that she has had a more prolific musical career than similar artists, such as Barbara Streisand, Madona, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. However, sales numbers aren’t the whole story with Celine, as her fame is the result of hard work, blockbuster tours, resident Vegas stage shows and a dynamic synergy with hugely popular films.Celine Dion was the last of 14 children born to a humble, working class family outside Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Although her upbringing was anything but privileged, the young Celine did have opportunities to develop and explore her natural musical abilities as a young girl. She sang at the bar that her parents owned before her family aggressively persued landing her a manager, René Angélil. So moved by the young Celine was Angélil (who would later become her husband) that he twice mortgaged his home to push through Dion’s first albums. While Celine did achieve notoriety in French-speaking regions of Canada before too long, it wasn’t until she took time away from recording to learn English and refresh her image that her international career took off.Celine Dion’s first breakthrough hit was “Beauty and the Beast,” a duet with Peabo Bryson that served as the theme song to the 1991 animated Disney film of the same name. A year later she would score multiple English language hits with the release Celine Dion. But her pop music career didn’t reach it’s apex until she recorded the theme song for the film Titanic in 1997. “My Heart Will Go On” bubbled to the top of the charts just as Titanic sunk nearly every major box office record. With an extraordinary set of pipes and an unrelenting work ethic, Celine Dion has been able to put out successful record after successful record for millions of adoring fans across North America and Europe, in a career that has spanned nearly two decades.
