Will we ever see Céline Dion on stage again?
Thomas Leblanc, Véronique LeVasseur and Carl Wilson discuss the singer’s new doc and her health challenges
With next week's release of I Am: Celine Dion on Amazon Prime Video, media personality Thomas Leblanc, Céline Dion superfan Véronique LeVasseur and music writer Carl Wilson join Commotion guest host Amil Niazi to look back at the singer's storied career, react to her newly public struggle with stiff-person syndrome, and reflect on her legacy as one of the greatest vocalists of our time.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
Amil: Carl, let's talk about her voice. It is so powerful, and people have put her up there with Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle, Barbra Streisand, as one of maybe the greatest pop vocalists of all time. What do you think it is about her voice that puts her up in that echelon of stars?
Carl: She has this incredible instrument. It has incredible force. It has a real range dynamically. She has a five octave, I think, harmonic range, which to put it in context, is like one more than Beyoncé, I think, and two more than Adele — has incredible highs and lows that she can hit. But I also think that stylistically, she really stood out from the other divas of the '90s who really came from gospel/R&B backgrounds, when we talk about Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.
Because of her Quebec background, she really was influenced by a whole set of different musics, partly soft rock and that kind of thing, partly Barbra Streisand, cult singers, but also this background of Quebec and European variety show music, and soft opera in a lot of ways. And so she has a kind of purity. She doesn't play vocal tricks with her performances in the same way that people who come out of that American Black gospel tradition have — the sort of melisma and twists and turns. She goes for the pure emotion and the intensity of the melody in that way, and I think that's really set her apart. It was one of the things that made her maybe a little less cool initially, but over time it became a stylistic signature, that you know that voice right away when you hear it.
Amil: You do absolutely know that voice immediately; it is so unique. Thomas, what do you think we can get from this doc?
Thomas: What she's been saying is this was the first time in her life that she stopped performing. As a fan, I see it as her coping mechanism. I think she's had to find new ways to cope. Also, I think the doc is really about her identity. She's always said she wanted to be a mother, it's been very important to her, but also that she is a singer and a performer — and who is she if she can't sing, if she can't perform on stage?
Keep in mind that René [Angélil, her husband] died in January 2016. She was back on stage in Vegas a few weeks after. Her mother died in early 2020 when she was still touring before the pandemic, and then a pandemic hit. I can't imagine the grief and the financial stress, to be honest, of having to go through all of this. And then she's alone in Vegas. Her way to cope was to be with fans. So I think we have to take a hard look at what the music industry does to people to keep going, because she always says the show must go on, but at what cost? And I think that's the real question we need to ask ourselves.
Amil: That is such a good point. Véronique, what do you think? Will we see Celine return to the stage?
Véronique: Yes, I think she will come back. How will she come back? I don't know, but she needs it. She loves it. She's craving it. It's her life. She can't turn it back. Like she said, she will crawl if she needs to be there, so she will. She's an athlete. She's been singing all her life. She has this incredible range, yes, but also the emotional intelligence of those songs that she related over the years. So, I think she can do anything if she wants to.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Ty Callender.
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