Prodigy. At just 14 years old and in just one year, Celine Dion has built a solid reputation in her native Quebec. His first title “It was only a dream” was composed with the family and landed on the desk of producer René Angélil in 1981. While the latter was thinking of putting an end to his career as an impresario, he fell under the spell of the young girl’s voice and mortgaged her house to finance the production of the singer’s first album. “I had never heard anything like it. For me, it’s the most beautiful voice in the world,” he confided later.
His song, “It was only a dream”, was released a few months later in France. But it was her single entitled “D’amour et d’Amitié”, from the album “Tellement j’ai d’amour…” that made her known to a large audience in France. The song, written by renowned French songwriters Eddy Marnay and Roland Vincent, was featured on Michel Drucker’s famous program “Champs Élysées” on January 29, 1983.
“She will go very far”
On this occasion, the star presenter is full of praise for the young artist. “I would simply like to tell you that it will go very far”, comments in particular Michel Drucker. The voice and the talent are already there, even the gimmicks. And the premonition turns out to be correct.
The young singer chained albums at the rate of one to two per year and success followed. However, at the end of the 1980s, Celine Dion was not yet the international superstar she was about to become. This status will wait until she learns English and tackles the Anglo-Saxon market with the release of her first album in the language of Shakespeare, “Unison”, which was released in 1990.
But it was above all the middle of the decade that devoted her to “Diva”, in the same way as Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, with the colossal successes of “The Color of My Love” and especially “Falling into You” and “Let’s Talk AboutLove”. However, La Voix québécoise did not turn its back on the French public and signed, in 1995, with the help of Jean-Jacques Goldman in the composition, the best-selling French-language album of all time: “D’Eux”. The opus is an ultimate consecration for the singer on the French-speaking scene and seals her unbreakable bond with the French public.
