Celine Dion: why she had such a hard time breaking through in France: Current Woman The MAG


At 52, Celine Dion is the biggest singing star in the world. Yet his career almost never took off in France. And for good reason. Teenage teeth, a look far from trendy and a register far from unanimous … In its beginnings, the appearance of the Canadian denotes those of Vanessa Paradis, Elsa Lunghini or Isabelle Adjani. A disgrace that Celine Dion has often mentioned in interviews. Very young, I didn’t trust myself, not finding myself pretty. I had teeth problems and I was very thin. So I never thought that one day I would be asked at 50 to become a muse. It’s a miracle”, she confided during a press conference for the brand L’Oreal Paris in 2019. As for her diva voice, coming from vocal performance, she fascinates Americans, but the French public is much more reluctant.

Determined to seduce France, the young woman completely changes her look. No more “canines that scratch the floor” as she has often described them. Goodbye to the huge indomitable mane and the old-fashioned dresses her mother made. She starts singing classics from the lyricist of Starmania, Luc Plamondon. “The fact that Céline is resuming these hits for the French public, it was a way of making a first sign, a first step towards the French public”, analyzed the journalist Laure Costey in 50 ‘inside, on Saturday March 27, 2021.

How Jean-Jacques Goldman helped Celine Dion win in France

On Parisian television sets, she is completely transformed. More female, she interprets equivocal texts far from her image of a little girl. In the process, she meets a certain Jean-Jacques Goldman. From this “love at first sight artistic” several songs are born, but above all one of his greatest titles For you to love me again, present in the opus Of them released in 1995. A song reminiscent of the love story between Céline Dion and her husband René Angélil. Very quickly, she took first place in the charts and gets a music victory. As for the album Of them, it is the best-selling French-language opus of all time.

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