Céline Marie Claudette Dion (OC OQ) (born March 30, 1968) is a Canadian Grammy and Juno award winning pop singer and occasional songwriter. Born to a large, impoverished family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion became a young star in francophone Canada after her manager and future husband, René Angélil, mortgaged his home to finance her first record. She later gained recognition in parts of Europe and Asia after she won both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.
In 1990 Dion established a foothold in the anglophone music market with the release of Unison, published by Epic Records. During the 1990s, she achieved worldwide fame and success with several English and French records, of which her most successful were Falling into You (1996), and "My Heart Will Go On" (1998) the theme to the 1997 film Titanic. In 1999 she announced a break from entertainment in order to focus on her husband, who was diagnosed with throat cancer.
Three years later, Dion returned to the music scene with the release of A New Day Has Come. In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day..., at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. This move was seen as "one of the smartest business decisions in years by any major recording artist" given the relatively poor performance of her current releases. She conceived the idea for the show after seeing O by Dragone early in her break from recording, and began on March 25, 2003, in a 4000-seat arena designed for her show. The show, put together by Franco Dragone, is a combination of dance, music, and visual effects. It includes Dion performing her biggest hits against an array of dancers and special effects.
As of 2003, Dion has performed nightly in her show A New Day... at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, under a contract that extends through December 2007.
By 2004 she had accumulated record sales of 175 million, and was presented with the Chopard Diamond Award from the World Music Awards show for becoming the Best-selling Female Artist in the World.
Dion's music has been influenced by various genres, which range from pop and rock to gospel and classical, and she is noted for her technically skilled and powerful vocals.
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