Canadian singer Celine Dion has released 27 studio albums, seven live albums, 19 compilation albums, and 25 box sets. Referred to as the "Queen of Power Ballads",[1][2] Dion is the best-selling Canadian artist of all time and the best-selling artist in the Nielsen SoundScan era in Canada (from 1996 to present).[3][4][5] Dion is also the second best-selling female artist in the United States since Nielsen began tracking sales in 1991 with over 53.2 million albums sold in the country.[6] Guinness World Records recognises her as the Top Selling Album Act in Europe with 33 million certified album sales since 1996 .[7] In 2003, Dion was honored by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for selling 50 million albums in Europe.[8] Billboard placed her second among the best-selling female album artist of the 2000s Decade in the United States with 17.3 million albums sold via Soundscan.[9] According to Billboard, Dion is the sixth Greatest Billboard 200 female solo artist of all time,[10] as well as the eighth Greatest female solo artist of all time in Billboard's chart history.[11]
Her debut album, La voix du bon Dieu was issued in 1981. In the '80s, Dion released her French-language albums in Canada, with several compilation albums issued also in France. Her first English-language album, Unison, was released in 1990 and has sold over four million copies worldwide.[12] It was followed by Dion chante Plamondon in 1991 and Celine Dion in 1992. The latter became one of six of her albums to be certified Diamond in Canada for shipments of at least one million units.[13] Dion's popularity became well-established with her 1993 album, The Colour of My Love, which topped the charts in various countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and has sold 20 million copies around the world.[14] In the United States, it was certified six-times platinum.[15] Released in 1995, D'eux became the best-selling French-language album in history, with sales of 12 million copies worldwide.[16][17] In France alone, D'eux spent 44 weeks at the top of the chart and has sold 4.5 million units, becoming the best-selling album of all time.[18][19] It also became Dion's first out of six Diamond-certified albums in France.[20]
Falling into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997) were major successes for Dion, both reaching number-one in many countries around the world, and becoming two of the best-selling albums of all time, with sales of over 32 and 31 million copies, respectively.[21][22] Both albums were certified Diamond in the United States, with Falling into You achieving later twelve-times platinum certification and Let's Talk About Love eleven-times platinum for eleven million units.[15] Let's Talk About Love became the first album to be certified ten-times platinum by the IFPI for sales of over 10 million copies in Europe.[23] In 1998, Dion released another French-language album, S'il suffisait d'aimer and her first English-language holiday album, These Are Special Times, which became the fourth best-selling Christmas album in the United States in the Nielsen SoundScan era, with sales of 5.6 million copies.[24][25][26][27][28] Worldwide, it has sold twelve million units.[29] A greatest hits compilation with seven new recordings, All the Way... A Decade of Song was issued in November 1999, topping the charts around the world, and selling over 22 million copies, globally.[30] In the United States, All the Way... A Decade of Song became the best-selling greatest hits album by a female artist in the Nielsen SoundScan era where it topped the eight million sales mark.[31] In Japan, it was certified two-times Million for shipments of two million copies.[32]
In March 2002, after a two-year break, Dion returned to music with the album, A New Day Has Come, which topped the charts in many countries and has sold 12 million copies, worldwide.[33] During the five-year run of her Las Vegas residency show, A New Day..., Dion released five studio albums: One Heart (2003), 1 fille & 4 types (2003), Miracle (2004), D'elles (2007) and Taking Chances (2007). In 2012, Dion began recording songs for her new French and English-language albums. Sans attendre was released in November 2012 and topped the charts in Francophone countries. It became the best-selling album of 2012 in France where it was certified Diamond.[20][34] Loved Me Back to Life was issued in November 2013 and became Dion's 13th number-one album in the Nielsen SoundScan era in Canada and 11th to debut at the top of the chart.[35] It also reached number two in the United States, and number three in the United Kingdom and France. Loved Me Back to Life was certified four-times platinum in Canada, two-times platinum in France and platinum in the United Kingdom.[13][20][36] In August 2016, a few months after her husband and manager René Angélil died, Dion released a new French album, Encore un soir.[37] It topped the charts in Francophone countries and was certified Diamond in France.[20]
Born into a large family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion was discovered by her future manager and husband René Angélil, and emerged as a teen star in her home country with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She gained international recognition by winning the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland with "Ne partez pas sans moi". Her debut English-language album, Unison (1990), established her as a viable pop artist primarily in North America and several English-speaking markets, while The Colour of My Love (1993) gave her global superstardom. Dion continued her success throughout the 1990s with several of the bestselling English-language albums in history, such as Falling into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997), which were certified diamond in the US with more than 30 million sales worldwide each. She also released a series of international number-one hits, including "The Power of Love", "Think Twice", "Because You Loved Me", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", "I'm Your Angel", "That's the Way It Is", "I'm Alive" and her signature song "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the 1997 film Titanic, which solidified her popularity.[8]
She has been regarded by several magazines as one of the greatest singers in music. With record sales of over 200 million worldwide, she is listed as one of the best-selling music artists of all time,[9][10][11][12] as well as the best-selling Canadian recording artist and the best-selling French-language artist in history. In 2003, she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for selling over 50 million albums in Europe. Seven of her albums have sold at least 10 million copies worldwide, the second-most among women in history. She has won five Grammy Awards, achieved two Honorary Doctorates in Music degree from Berklee College of Music and Université Laval.[13][14] Billboard named her the "Queen of Adult Contemporary" for having the most number-one adult contemporary songs for a female artist.[15] Dion is also the sixth all-time best-performing female soloist in Billboard 200 history.[16] At the end of 2009, Dion was recognized by the Los Angeles Times as that decade's top-earning artist, with combined album sales and concert revenue exceeding $747 million.[17][18]
At age 12, she collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream". Michel sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album.[28] Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star.[21] In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu, which later became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi".[28]
Two years after she learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with Unison (1990), the lead single having originally been recorded by English singer Junior in 1983 and later Laura Branigan.[35][28] She incorporated the help of producers including Vito Luprano and David Foster.[25] The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music and quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. Unison also hit the right notes with critics: Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly wrote her vocals were "tastefully unadorned", and she never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her".[36] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared it "a fine, sophisticated American debut".[37] Singles from the album included "(If There Was) Any Other Way", "The Last to Know", "Unison", and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first top-ten hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. In 1991, Dion was a featured soloist on "Voices That Care", a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.[citation needed]
Her real international breakthrough came when she duetted with Peabo Bryson on the title track to Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991).[38] It became her first top-ten hit in the UK and her second top-ten hit in the United States. The song earned its songwriters an Academy Award for Best Song and gave Dion her first Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[25] "Beauty and the Beast" served as the lead single from her 1992 self-titled album, which, like her debut, had a strong pop rock influence combined with elements of soul and classical music. Owing to the success of the lead-off single and her collaborations with David Foster and Diane Warren, the album was even more well-received commercially than Unison; it was certified diamond in Canada and double platinum in the U.S. The album's second single "If You Asked Me To" (a cover of Patti LaBelle's song from the 1989 movie Licence to Kill) became her first number-one single in Canada and peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
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