|  CELINE
DION
The date was March 25, 2003. For Celine Dion, a famed Strip
property, and the waiting world, it was the dawning of “A
New Day.”
Some
37,000 hours later, it is finally coming to a close, giving
Dion an opportunity to see things in a new light -- both professionally
and personally. With the end of her fifth and final year of
the above-named show in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace coming
on December 15, she has already discovered that at the end
of the “Day,” much will have been gleaned in the
afterglow.
“Being able to do a show in the same city and venue
every night has been a great gift, as well as a great challenge,”
Dion acknowledges. Her final performances will be on Nov..
29-30, Dec. 1-2, Dec. 5-9 and Dec. 14-15.
.
“It's like I've invited the people to come to my house,
after so many years of visiting theirs....and it's allowed
me to explore a little bit of the theatrical world, performing
on our great stage with all the sets that we use, and will
all the great dancers and artists that are part of our show.
Personally, it's been all about my family -- having the opportunity,
with my husband, to raise our son in one place during the
very important early years -- and watching him change and
grow each and everyday. This has changed me completely, like
it does for every parent.”
Prior to its debut, Dion termed “A New Day,” which
is her first theatrical experience, a turning point in her
personal journey that would guide her to self-discovery. Today
she reveals that she has not only grown as a performer during
the last four years but also as a woman and a mother -- and
she’s not just giving people a song and dance.
“Every night, I walk out of here more grown up, more
experienced,” she admits. “Whatever happens at
home with my son, whatever happens with my family, with the
loss of our loved ones -- I lost my father, some members of
the cast lost loved ones -- it comes on stage. My living comes
on stage; my happiness comes on stage. That’s what we
share. We share with the audience more than a show or songs.
We share a life. That’s why the show is so special.
We are giving a part of ourselves every night. We’re
singing, dancing and performing our lives in a way. We are
like a family.”
<TOP>
Her husband Rene Angeli’s well-publicized 1999 bout
with cancer and the birth their son Rene Charles has made
Dion realize even more how precious life and happiness are.
She is a person who is very aware of what she has been given.
She says that she feels blessed and lucky and she thinks that
it has everything to do with the way she grew up in Montreal,
the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters who lavished a lot
of attention on her.
“I really have had 13 mothers and fathers,” Dion
laughs. “When you’re growing up and you’re
the baby and you have all those mothers and fathers around
you taking the time to take you by the hand and telling you
not to touch this, don’t do that, be careful, giving
you so much attention all the time, it gives you a lot of
security and a good foundation. Those are good tools to grow
up with. I grew up slowly, like a sponge, taking the best
of everybody. It starts there – it starts very young.
Not everything was always good but I took the best. I’m
really close to my roots.”
Childhood for Dion seemed to be of short duration –
she was only 12 years old \ when she met Angelil. A demo tape
she recorded at that age reached the Quebec music entrepreneur,
who later mortgaged his house to finance the recording of
her debut album. She left home to make her mark on the world
under Angelil’s protection and he became her manager.
By the time she was 14, Dion was a star in Canada –
in 1983, she became the first Canadian artist to receive a
gold record in France when her single, “D’Amour
Ou S’Amite,” sold over 700,000 copies.
By the end of the 1980’s, as Dion was preparing to record
her first English-language album, “Unison” (1990),
she discovered that she was in love with Angelil. Afraid that
Dion’s fans wouldn’t accept the match, he decided
that they should keep their relationship a secret.
But when in May 1993, her 16-year-old niece died in her arms
from cystic fibrosis, Dion became painfully aware of how fleeting
life can be. She was no longer able to abide by Angelil’s
decision to keep their feelings for each other quiet. Determined
to have her own way, in November 1993, she publicly declared
her love for Angelil, 26 years her senior, in the liner notes
of her album “The Colour of My Love.” They married
in something akin to a royal wedding in 1994 with 500 people
in attendance as all of Canada watched.
<TOP>
“I was very young when I met Rene but I was not a baby
– I was a grown-up 12-year-old,” Dion claims.
“He treated me very respectfully, like a grown-up child,
and he became a friend of the family, my protector, my partner,
my best friend, my fiance and thank god, my husband and the
father of our son. The scary thing about our relationship
is that our love doesn’t stop growing – it gets
better. You never think that love can grow even more once
you reach this.”
It was the strength that she draws from the loves of her life,
Angelil and son Rene Charles, and the fact that they would
be with her that initially prepared Dion for the move to Las
Vegas. Having made their home in posh Lake Las Vegas, the
artist emphasizes that she lives in Vegas, not with it, and
that when the curtain comes down, what happens in their home
is completely dependent upon her and Angelil – they
make the rules.
“Doing the show has given me the opportunity to raise
my son in a safe environment and to let him know that Mom
still goes out to sing but comes home every night,”
she emotes.” My son has stability. It gives me an amazing
challenge as a singer and an amazing opportunity as a mother
to perform and I do want to be more successful as a mother
than as a singer.”
Dion admits that when she began “A New Day,” it
was a gamble and that everyone thought she and Angelil were
“crazy.” She feels that because she was an artist
that traveled the world, people were afraid that doing a show
night after night in one place would be hard for her. She
confirms that besides it being a lot of money for the hotel,
the initial three years was a big risk to take, especially
because it involved performing for 4,000 people on a nightly
basis 40 weeks a year. But the creative freedom given to her
by the show’s creator, Franco Dragone, and the fact
that he designed various flavors for each song, putting her
essence into each, then surrounded her with 48 dancers, incredible
visuals, acrobats, live musicians and the world’s largest
LED screen, totally captured the public’s imagination.
As to how she is feeling as she enters her last year of the
show, Dion reveals that she is experiencing “a roller
coaster of emotions.”
“When we started, our plan was three years, then we
added a fourth year… and then a fifth,” she says.
“At the beginning it seemed like a long commitment where
we couldn’t see the end coming. Now that we’re
in our final year, it seems like the time has flown by. So
now, you sort of cherish every moment, every show, because
you know the end is coming soon. I have to say that the opportunity
to work with so many talented artists, and become part of
this big family on stage is one thing that I will cherish
forever."
Would she ever consider doing a show like this again?
“Yes,” she answers. “I would consider it...but
it's not something that I think about now, because we're coming
to the end of this chapter. The hardest thing has been the
occasions when I'm not well enough to perform, and we've had
to cancel shows. Doing a show every night, giving 100%, is
difficult but it's much harder for me when we have to cancel
because I know how deeply it affects all the people who were
looking forward to it. There are many great things about doing
a show like this but the best thing by far is the people that
I've come to know, the people who work with me on stage, backstage,
‘under the stage.’ I'm surrounded by the best
in the world, and I'm very grateful for that.”
“We're thinking about doing a lot of things after the
show is over,” she sums up. “We're talking about
the possibility of doing a big tour....it's been close to
10 years since we’ve toured, so it's something that
we're looking at. After that, I'm going to take a break --
maybe a year or two -- and continue to raise my son. That's
what I'm looking forward to the most!
It will be another new day.
| |
ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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The
Longest Day
