From poverty to illness to the loss of her voice… the international artist is born from the heart of her wounds
The astonishment was not limited to Taylor Swift’s features when, a few days ago, Celine Dion appeared on the Grammy Awards stage with all her brilliance and smile. No one would have imagined that the Canadian singer, despite the illness that destroyed her body and the conversations that predicted the end of her career, would return with such record speed to stand for the millionth time under the spotlight, and in front of an audience that rose in applause and applause.
“I only know how to sing. “This is what I have done all my life, and this is what I love to do.” This is a morale booster that Dion gave herself the day doctors warned her that the stiff person syndrome that struck her in 2022 might strike her vocal cords and deprive her of singing forever.
But backstage at the Grammy ceremony proved the opposite, as the international artist could not hold the tune in her chest for long. She snatched a moment away from illness and from the doctors’ warnings, to sing alongside the rising American singer Sonia Elise.
A concussion and the nickname “Dracula”
She may have been hidden from sight for 4 months due to excruciating pain and strict treatment, but “resilience” is a word that has been on the front page of Celine’s dictionary, since her beginnings in the vast and demanding world of music.
It is true that her wealth today amounts to $800 million, but she grew up in a poor home. As an infant, she slept in the stairs due to lack of space, and later shared the same bed and clothes with her sisters. Being the youngest of 14 children. Nevertheless, she remembers that humble house in Quebec, Canada with warm words: “We were not poor, but we did not have money. We have been given love, affection and support, nothing more is needed!”
Dion is the youngest in a family of 14 children (the artist’s Facebook)
At the age of five, Dionne was involved in a hit-and-run accident that left her with a concussion. But it was only weeks before she woke up to discover what was most precious to her; Her voice. She sang for the first time at her brother’s wedding, and from that day she became the star of the small bar her parents owned.
Amidst her parents, her older brothers, and the customers of the store where the music never stopped, little Celine felt safe and happy. On the other hand, school was hell for her; “I hated it,” Dionne says. Her classmates never looked at her as a star, but rather taunted her and bullied her, calling her “the vampire” (Dracula), because of her prominent fangs and thin face.
Dion in her artistic beginnings (the artist’s website)
A lost childhood and a mortgaged house
She writes in her memoirs that when René Angélil heard her singing in his office for the first time, he cried. She was 12 years old, and he was 38 years old. With a tear, the journey of work, love, and success with Renee began, and with a tear it ended.
But between the beginning and the end, there is a distance of 4 decades that Celine Dion crossed in the rhythm of perseverance, the desire for development, and continuous work. This girl, who rose to international status at the age of 15 thanks to the song “D’amour ou d’amitié,” almost never took a day of rest in her life.
She paid a heavy price to achieve her dream of singing, so she was forced to put her childhood behind her and walk towards the stars. “I don’t regret losing my teenage years. Yes, I missed home and family, but my dream was one, which was to become a singer,” Dion always repeated.
However, the road was not strewn with roses, as the business manager and star maker, Rene Angélil, was forced to mortgage his house in order to produce her first album. For her part, Celine underwent rigorous training and cosmetic procedures in order to improve her features. At first, she collided with the barriers of form that might hinder the arrival of female artists, and she always admitted that she did not possess the minimum aesthetic capabilities.
Dion after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 (the artist’s Instagram)
Health and voice betrayals
The exceptional, powerful voice, thanks to which Dion recorded more than 30 albums and 150 songs, and achieved tens of millions of sales around the world, seemed like a traitor from the first years. In 1989, her throat hurt during a party, forcing her to remain silent for 3 consecutive weeks.
The same incident happened again in 2012, when Dionne lost her voice again due to weakness in her tendons. This led to her canceling a large number of concerts and abstaining from speaking for nearly two months. In 2018, she underwent ear surgery that kept her away from theaters for a month.
Not only did health crises threaten Dion’s artistic career, they also accompanied her inside the family home. A heart attack rocked her engagement to her manager, Rene Angélil, knowing that their relationship was fraught with difficulties from the beginning. About this imaginary love story, she writes in her autobiography: “I was in love with a man whom I should not love and who did not want me to love him or to love me.”
The man who had just emerged from a difficult marriage hesitated to give his heart to Celine, who was three decades younger than him. When they finally married in 1994, cancer entered their lives, affecting Angelil’s throat.
Celine Dion married her manager, Rene Angélil, in a legendary wedding in 1994 (Instagram)
The suffering of pregnancy and Renee’s departure
Meanwhile, Celine, who stayed away from the limelight at the peak of her success in order to take care of her husband, was trying to get pregnant to no avail. She suffered repeated miscarriages and underwent artificial insemination, before a new day dawned (as her song A New Day Has Come says) and her firstborn son, René-Charles, was born in 2001.
The same suffering was repeated before the birth of twins Eddie and Nelson in 2010, but the joy for them was not complete, as cancer returned to invade the couple’s lives and took Angelil this time.
Dion with her three children at her husband’s funeral in 2016 (AFP)
“I have to be strong for my children,” Dion held on to this idea and returned to the stage to chant in memory of Rene: “I would be lying if I said I was fine. I think of you a hundred times and hear your words in the echo of my voice.”
There are many times when Celine Dion gathered herself and returned to life after the blows of fate. She clung to her voice cords, but she did not expect that the next strike would cut those cords and strip her of the stage and music equipment.
However, after a year of excruciating pain due to the disease that affects one person in a million, Dion returns to prove that she is truly a unique case among millions. After her “Grammy” appearance, she is preparing to release a documentary on the “Amazon Prime” platform, which depicts, moment by moment and without embellishment, her journey in the shadows and behind the curtains with a disease that may have dried up her body, but it certainly did not dry up her heart.
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