291 replies to this topic

[Bruno Dion]

August 21, 1998 - Boston, USA

On August 21, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the FleetCenter in Boston, USA, in front of more than 19,000 people with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". This was the inaugural concert of the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". Originally called "Celine Dion: On Tour 1998", the tour was set to begin August 1998 in Boston, USA this would mark the third time Celine has begun a tour in the city. She says it is the closest USA city to Montreal, Canada and considers it a "lucky charm". The concert was preceded by a press conference where Celine and her manager and husband Rene Angelil, talked about the new tour in USA, to help promote the album "Let´s Talk About Love". In reference to the show, the rock music critic Steve Morse, from The Boston Globe, wrote: "Despite Dion´s nerves, she was able to pull off a successful concert. For pure entertainment, however, this was a volcanic triumph". Celine thanked Boston fans for being "lucky charm people". According to Steve Morse, Celine opened her world tour with a high-tech, in-the-round show (on a heart-shaped stage) that sent a sold-out crowd of 18,300 fans into complete rapture. It was glitzy but glitch-free. Celine had told the crowd there might be "mistakes", but none were visible. And Celine stayed genuine even amid a lighting grid the size of a spaceship and a series of video duets with Barbra Streisand and the Bee Gees that threatened to get hokey. "New shoes, new clothes, new hair!", exclaimed Celine to the audience, whose long, tangly hair weave nearly went to her waist (actually were hair extensions), though she pulled it back Kate Winslet-like for a thrilling encore of "Titanic" hit, "My heart will go on", for which she also wore an Edwardian ball gown and sang from a white railing as though she were on the Titanic´s bow. No sentimentality was spared, but it was an effective moment of pop theater and the crowd loved it. She kept the crowd waiting until the end to hear it, but it sent everyone home in a state of smiling grace. This was an upbeat, entertaining show that focused on Celine´s last album, "Let´s Talk About Love", and was enhanced by some personal (and unrecorded) favorites that allowed her personality to rise above the show-biz effects. These favorites came via an acoustic medley in which Celine gathered her musicians around the center of the stage, as she sat on a hydraulically lifted swivel chair. She mesmerized with delicate rendering of Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face", soothed with the Beatles´s "Because", touched hearts with Eric Clapton´s "Tears in heaven", and woke up the romantics in the house with Frank Sinatra´s "All the way", describing it as the favorite "couple" song between her and her husband Rene, who watched nervously from the side-lines. Speaking of nerves, Celine said "I´m so nervous tonight because this is the first show". Those first two songs were the album title track "Let´s talk about love" (augmented by a talented chorus from the W.H. Lincoln School in Brookline, a town in Massachusetts and  part of Greater Boston) and "Declaration of love". Japanese violinist Taro Hakase came out for a bravura "To love you more" followed shortly by Celine singing "Tell him" with a video image of Streisand. Then came two French songs (led by "S´il suffisait d´aimer", translated "If it were enough that we love each other" said Celine), before she improvised beautifully on Eric Carmen´s "All by myself". Celine joked that she was hardly by herself because 50 people were working under the in-the-round stage. The overwrought portion of the show came on a Bee Gees medley of "Staying´ alive/You should be dancing" with Celine, in only her first costume change, prancing in a creamy white suit like John Travolta. Celine performed again at the FleetCenter in Boston, USA the following day (August 22, 1998).

[Bruno Dion]

let's share some concert reviews from this tour. The concer reviews I post are taken from the websites, not personal experiences.

Edited by Bruno Dion, 25 May 2014 - 08:56 PM.

[MrTim212]

This isn't a review but a question: Anyone know if there are any good quality audio bootlegs of full shows from this tour - specifically the early legs when she was still doing "Terre" in the US, "Love Is on the Way" and "All By Myself"?

Edited by MrTim212, 26 May 2014 - 07:53 AM.

[chocolatechip15]

 MrTim212, on 26 May 2014 - 07:53 AM, said:

This isn't a review but a question: Anyone know if there are any good quality audio bootlegs of full shows from this tour - specifically the early legs when she was still doing "Terre" in the US, "Love Is on the Way" and "All By Myself"?

I don't think she ever did Terre in the US on this tour . . .she was doing S'il Suffisait D'Aimer, which was brand-new then. You can find "Live in New York" videos on YouTube from the August 31, 1998 concert about 10 days into the tour.  (I was there! It was AMAZING!).

Here's Love is On the Way:



And S'il Suffisait D'Aimer: (It was so new that she says gets the title wrong; says it's "S'il Suffisait Qu'on S'aime):



And the audience going completely, 100% insane for MHWGO (I was totallly once of those screaming voices!):

Edited by chocolatechip15, 26 May 2014 - 08:22 AM.

[sfbaysinger]

I was going to ask about audios too. Mr. Tim has a few that I want, but I am unable to download them because I can only do MediaFire and the ones I found on that site it says it's an invalid key. I am having a hell of a time finding mp3 audios for any of her shows/tours. Argh. But what a cool topic!

[DionFanAlways]

 chocolatechip15, on 26 May 2014 - 08:13 AM, said:

And S'il Suffisait D'Aimer: (It was so new that she says gets the title wrong; says it's "S'il Suffisait Qu'on S'aime):

Yeah I had always noticed that also when I watch this Maybe it was a working title???
Also she says she is French. So the question I have for all you people who live in Quebec is, do you consider yourself French or just French speaking?

[Bruno Dion]

Celine did not performed "Terre" during the first USA leg of the tour....
Here is another review:


August 25, 1998 - Philadelphia, USA

On August 25, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the CoreStates Center in Philadelphia, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". According to the music critic Tom Moon from The Philadelphia Inquirer, Celine Dion came to the CoreStates Center Tuesday August 25, 1998 with a clear agenda: to talk and sing about love. The Canadian uber-diva made like the CEO of Love Inc. trying to drum up business: For nearly two hours, she offered paeans to love in all its vexing guises. She sang about love redeeming a wretched soul, love melting a cold heart, love that lasts until the end of time. She told a rapt capacity crowd that love was all that mattered. Her towering, majestic ballads portrayed love in a manner familiar to readers of romance novels - as an ultimate triumph, a blessed event worthy of a slow-motion victory lap in front of a cheering throng. Rarely have the joys of love been celebrated with such militaristic precision.
Celine, 30, years ago mastered the art of the heartstring-tugging, cookie-cutter production number, and for this "Let´s Talk About Love Tour", presented in the round, she pulled out all the stops. She interpreted such hits as "All by myself"' and "Love is on the way" to exact factory specifications. Though the lyrics sometimes addressed love´s anguish, Celine rarely let the messier aspects of passion overrun her melody lines. She sang poignantly in brief solo testimonials, and was equally convincing riding the cresting, orchestral flourishes provided by her backing band. She honored love by rendering every phrase with remarkable composure and a persnickety sense of perfection. The show began with a Dion infomercial, featuring taped testimonials from Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, and other friends and colleagues. After an extended drone, Celine emerged on a platform rising from stage center, wearing a simple black pantsuit and a silver ringmaster's topcoat. The stage, shaped like a heart, employed special hydraulic lifts for the backing band; sometimes the musicians and singers were in full view, sometimes they were lowered out of sight. The stage was modified slightly for the encore, "My heart will go on", Celine´s mega-bombast hit from the movie "Titanic" (and in which she wore a long dark dress). Up popped a version of the railing where several key scenes were filmed. Celine stood at it, her (newly wavy) hair blown by a wind machine, singing resolutely about a love that endures through any kind of blockbuster calamity. Backed by a local children´s choir, Celine opened with "Let´s talk about love" (accompanied by the Bill Jolly Children´s Choir), the title track from her latest album. With this, she established a pattern that would prevail throughout the show.
After several lumbering ballads, she´d switch gears and tackle something moderately funky, such as the lecturing "Treat her like a lady", that allowed her to belt in a slightly different context. Most of those dance numbers were competent, though a sluggish medley of Bee Gees songs from "Saturday Night Fever", "Stayin´ alive" and "You should be dancing", suggested that Celine is more comfortable in less rhythmically taxing settings. Among the ballads, there were several surprises. Streisand reappeared, via video, for "Tell him". Though it was slightly strange to watch Celine singing live to an image on a video monitor, she tried to emulate the elder vocalist´s restraint, and mostly succeeded. The Bee Gees appeared as well, also on tape, to add their keening voices to "Immortality". Celine sang two songs in French, the language of amour; she introduced one, a rueful ballad titled "S´il suffisait d´aimer", as a new song. The show´s highlight came when Celine gathered her musicians around the center pedestal for a set of acoustic covers of familiar songs. Those included a song that aligned perfectly with her sappier side (Eric Clapton´s "Tears in heaven", which was given a glossy, emotionless spin); a song that displayed her skill as a harmonizer (the Beatles´ "Because", which was note-perfect); and a selection that exposed her shortcomings as an improviser ("All the way", which she attempted with an off-the-cuff, Sinatra-style demeanor). Also in that set was Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face", one of the most austere, plaintive love songs ever written. Celine sang this magnificently. Sensing that the prayerlike line required something different from her, she avoided her pet melismatic swoops and cut out the excess emotional embellishments she usually relies on. She held the long low notes until they hurt, and allowed her voice to trail sullenly away rather than end her phrases with a flourish. She showed how devastating she can be interpreting a durable, genuine melody. Twenty-four lucky kids in Philadelphia got the chance to sing backup for Celine at the CoreStates Center. Musician and arranger Billy Jolly was conducting a search of boys and girls between 8 and 12 to sing on a choir when the pop diva performs her hit, "Let´s talk about love". Jolly met the mega-star four years ago when he was choir director for Michael Bolton and she was Bolton´s opening act. He said Celine has a thing for Philly singers. During the performance of "To love you more", Celine was accompanied by Japanese violinist Taro Hakase.



Celine during "My heart will go on" at the CoreStates Center in Philadelphia, USA.

Edited by Bruno Dion, 26 May 2014 - 10:20 AM.

[Bruno Dion]

August 26, 1998 - Washington D.C., USA

On August 26, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". According to The Washington Post, after an obligatory "Titanic" overture, Celine opened the sold-out concert performing in the round on a heart-shaped stage at MCI Center. Her band and backup singers arrived onstage via risers, and a children´s chorus encircled Celine as she insistently sang "Let´s talk about love".
For most of the evening, Celine sang about love. In fact, seven of the 16 songs in her set had "love" in their titles (including one in French: "S´il suffisait d´aimer"), and almost all were suffused in its glow. When those songs were strong or smart, Celine invested them with an appealing grace and engaging energy that put her remarkable voice to good use. When the songs were less compelling, so was Celine, who at times resorted to the volume-for-passion substitution that endears her to Michael Bolton fans, but to few others.

[Bruno Dion]

September 3, 1998 - New York City, USA

On September 3, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour", in front of more than 20,000 people. This was the first of two sold-out shows at the Madison Square Garden with this tour (Celine performed there again the following day). Overall, it was the same concert to the one she gave on August 31, 1998 in Uniondale, USA (setlist, costumes and hairstyle), although this show at the Madison Square Garden featured several surprises for the audience, some special guests.
Celine opened her show on the heart-shaped stage performing "Let´s talk about love", in which she was accompanied by a children´s choir. Celine was dressed with a long skirt colour silver and a red belt on the waist. Then, she performed "Declaration of love", after take off the skirt. Then came "Because you loved me", "The reason" and "It´s all coming back to me mow". Japanese violinist Taro Hakase joined her on "To love you more". And the first special appearance took place. Singer Diana King appeared onstage to perform "Treat her like a lady" in duet with Celine (Diana King was usually shown on a screen through a pre-recorded video during the performance of the song). Celine also performed "Tell him" (in duet with Barbra Steisand, who appeared on a big screen through a pre-recorded video), "Love is on the way", "All by myself" and even a French song, "S´il suffisait d´aimer". American comedian Ana Gasteyer made a surprise - but very funny - appearance on the concert reprising her famous spoof of Celine (with the same outfit and hairstyle). Ana Gasteyer´s famous parody of Celine on the American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show "Saturday Night Live" caught Celine´s attention. Flattered by Gasteyer´s imitation, Celine invited Gasteyer to impersonate her in a funny onstage sketch. Celine also performed a medley with some of her favorite songs (including "The first time ever I saw your face", "Because", "Tears in heaven" and "All the way") and a Bee Gees medley of "Staying´ alive/You should be dancing". During "Love can move mountains", Celine changed her outfit. Celine ended the concert with "Immortality" (in duet with Bee Gees, who appeared on a big screen through a pre-recorded video) and "My heart will go on". But just before the "Titanic" finale, while Celine was changing wardrobe one more time, Ana Gasteyer came on stage again wearing Celine´s dress and started to sing her rendition of "My heart will go on". The audience got a good laugh from the parody.
According to the American music journalist Chuck Taylor from Billboard magazine, in the Thursday appearance of September 3, 1998, the audience was treated to an appearance from "Saturday Night Live" cast member Ana Gasteyer, who has perked up the season with a dead-on parody of Celine. The artist proved to be a good sport when Gasteyer popped up onstage - wearing the same outfit as Celine - and went at it with an exaggerated French accent complete with flawed word tenses: "I was born in Quebec. I come from a family of 36 kid. That´s a lot of kid, eh?. I had to sleep in the sink in the bathroom ´til I were 4 years old". Celine then came up from behind, laughing, and said, "this is my clone. I think she´s really hilarious". Also guesting was Diana King, who joined Celine for the reggae-splashed "Treat her like a lady". Through the magic of video technology, Celine was also joined by music video footage of Barbra Streisand on giant overhead screens for their duet of "Tell him"; and by the Bee Gees on "Immortality", which, with its swirling clouds and cheesy video effects, came dangerously close to looking like something out of a suburban karaoke bar. Also from her hit catalog, "All by myself" about raised the roof with its unbridled peak, while "Love can move mountains" and "It´s all coming back to me now" proved that her audiences indeed eat up every morsel of the melodrama she so effectively serves up. And with a nod to her roots, Celine performed one track, the sumptuous "S´il suffisait d´aimer", from her new French album. The evening´s most anticipated moment came with her single encore, the Oscar-winning "Titanic" love theme, "My heart will go on". The song´s eagerly awaited, over-the-top performance was challenged only by the stunning, $50,000 crinoline-parturient crimson dress Celine wore.




Celine during "My heart will go on" at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, USA

[Bruno Dion]

September 14, 1998 - Chicago, USA

On September 14, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the United Center in Chicago, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". Celine performed again at the United Center the following day.
Maureen Ryan from The Chicago Tribune, wrote: "Will her heart go on?. No problem. Judging by her September 14 show, Celine´s heart isn´t in much danger of stopping (well, maybe from running around on stage too much)". According to his review, it´s pretty unusual for headliners at the United Center - not counting the Bulls - to do their shows in the middle of the arena, but Celine made performing "in the round" look easy. For power ballads like "It´s all coming back to me now" and "All by myself", she stood in the middle of the heart-shaped stage, revolving on a little platform, with laserlike lights illuminating her slender frame. For more hoppin´ numbers, such as "Treat her like a lady", Celine jumped around and danced like crazy with her three backup singers. All in all, Celine made the night incredibly fun, chatting between songs, accepting lots of flowers from fans and even donning a white John Travolta suit for a "Saturday Night Fever" medley near the end of the show.
Every time a young fan came up to the stage and offered flowers (this happened like a thousand times between songs), she stopped and thanked the kid and even signed albums and tour programs. In reference to her rendition of "My heart will go on" from "Titanic", in a word, awesome. After the dramatic lights and black-robed backup singers set the mood, Celine rose out of the center of the stage in a fabulous, floor-length red gown. A ship´s railing just like the one Rose and Jack made famous rose from the edge of the stage, and the crowd went nuts. "Hearing her sing the song in person was even better than hearing it on the album - even though the cheering crowd drowned out most of it". An interesting fact is that the first glimpse of the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour" came via Celine´s music video of "S´il suffisait d´aimer", which was recorded during this concert in Chicago. Also, the performance of "To love you more" with Japanese violinist Taro Hakase at the United Center, was later shown during the telethon "An Evening Of Stars", which consists of stories of successful African-American students who have graduated or benefited from one of the many historically black colleges and universities and who received support from the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The telethon featured comedy and musical performances from various artists in support of the UNCF´s and Lou Rawls´ efforts.

[Bruno Dion]

October 13, 1998 - Oakland, USA

On October 13, 1998 Celine Dion performed at The Arena in Oakland in Oakland, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour".
According to the pop music critic James Sullivan from The San Francisco Chronicle, at the Oakland show, Celine played directly to her constituency, a full house. The raised stage of her theater-in-the- round was heart-shaped, her outfit made her look like a gift box of chocolates, and admirers laid bouquets at her feet. Midway through the opening number "Let´s talk about love", Celine was joined onstage by a few dozen elementary school children, who formed a ring around her and helped her sing the chorus. The gesture was calculated sweetness, like much of Celine´s act. He wrote: "still, you can´t go wrong with well - groomed children - especially when they´re as animated as the little girl in the fleece pullover, who thrust her hands toward the floor when the kids turned to face the crowd, offering a hint of her own impending diva-dom". First emerging from beneath the stage in a black top, a deep-red sash and a silvery, gownlike sarong, Celine threw off the wrap after the first song to reveal a pair of black, boot-cut slacks that clung to her legs. "Show me what you got tonight!", Celine whooped, launching into "Declaration of love". For songs like that one, her electric band and three backup singers were raised from their circular pits, giving the stage an appropriate look of commotion. For ponderous numbers such as Eric Carmen´s "All by myself" complete with piano interlude filched from Rachmaninoff, the musicians were lowered into their pits, leaving the singer alone in the spotlight. Easily the best part of the 80-minute set came when Celine summoned her band to center stage, where they sat on the lip of the riser as she essayed a medley of some favorite songs. Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face", the Beatles´ "Because" and Eric Clapton´s "Tears in heaven" were all delivered with tender care - no small feat in a basketball gym. Even Sinatra´s "All the way" steered clear of swagger, and the accordion gave all four songs a touch of Celine´s romantic French-language roots.
Less appealing was her gimmicky, canned interaction with the Bee Gees, who appeared on the enormous video monitors in a prerecorded "chat" with the headliner, introducing a video montage that accompanied Celine´s version of the Gibb brothers´ "Immortality". That she´s a huge fan was made more evident by the medley that immediately preceded the Bee Gees´ cameo - a combination of "Stayin´ alive" and "You should be dancing", for which the singer appeared in a white Travolta suit with a brown, midriff-baring top. "Let´s turn this place into the hottest dance club in town!", Celine hollered. While her fans were dutifully thrilled, not many behinds were wagging. Aside from doing the wave - an impressive display, with nearly 100 percent participation - this was one stiff crowd. Of course, they´d all come to see one song in particular, and Celine made it her sole encore. "My heart will go on" featured Celine and two backup singers in statuesque gowns. For the climax, Celine hung over the edge of a replicated ship´s prow, her kinky Sarah Jessica Parker-style hair blowing in an artificial wind. Meanwhile, clips of Leo and Kate appeared on the monitors. The spectacle drew shrieks of approval. Midway through the set, Celine worked to another video accompaniment, performing a virtual duet with Barbra Streisand on "Tell him". Unfortunately, her Streisand duet underscored Celine´s greatest shortcoming. For its part, critic Brad Kava from the San Jose Mercury News, wrote: "If you think the Bee Gees wrote the greatest dance songs ever, and if last year´s movie epic about a sinking pile of ship stirs the depths of your emotions, then you´d rate Celine Dion´s Oakland Arena show Tuesday (October 13, 1998) as magnifique".
According to him, the shrieking was deafening as video screens flashed images of heartthrobs Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio from "Titanic", and Celine, leaning against a fake ship´s prow, launched into the multimillion-selling movie theme, "My heart will go on",' which closed the show. She got almost as big a response singing what she said are her favorite dance songs ever, "Staying alive" and "You should be dancing", dressed in a white pantsuit, a la John Travolta, copying his finger-in-the-air moves, while the audience joined in. But there were some better moments, even some endearing ones, in the two-hour, 17-song set by this 30-year-old French-Canadian chanteuse. One was a tender song in French, "S´il suffisait d´aimer", which showed the best of her vocal stylings. Perched on a riser on the round stage in the middle of the arena, she trilled and gently meandered around the words, avoiding the melodrama that marred some of her other numbers. On "Treat her like a lady", Celine managed to muster some funk, dancing with three backup singers around the stage. Two drummers and two guitarists helped spread the sound. "The reason", recorded with Beatles producer George Martin and Carole King, captured some of the magic of both. Later, she did a magnificent job on the Beatles´ "Because", a strange choice for a singer used to being center stage. Her voice was surrounded by those of her troupe, in a dark, misty, stirring harmony. She was less successful on Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face", Sinatra´s "All the way" and "Love can move mountains". It was as if she´d put an electric sander to them, smoothing them into something radio calls easy-listening. "Tell him" included her duet with Barbra Streisand through the magic of video, but it was even worse. Like blackbirds on a telephone wire, they seemed to be competing for turf, rather than singing together. Both appeared to equate volume with passion, and what could have been a forum for vocal stylings and improvisations by two great singers ended up a caterwauling contest. Celine performed the theatrical anthem "Let´s talk about love" as her opener, surrounded by the glee club from San Jose´s Bagby Elementary School. On "Declaration of love", she was a whir of motion, jumping on the piano, running around the stage, trying to welcome every person in the basketball arena. Unlike too many other divas, Celine reached out to them. She didn´t mess with her hair or change costumes excessively. She performed for most of the night in skin-tight pants and a black top. (There was a skirt over it for the first song and then two changes later: the Travolta garb and, of course, a long, high-collar dress for the "Titanic" track). At one point, she even led the audience in the wave. The crowd, well-dressed older folks and parents with teenagers, dressed in shiny clothes and big, bright jewelry, had already done the wave on its own while waiting for her. Opener Andre-Phillippe Gagnon was brilliant. He did half an hour of dead-on impressions of rock stars.




Celine during "Let´s talk about love" at The Arena in Oakland in Oakland, USA

[Bruno Dion]

October 21, 1998 - Inglewood, USA

On October 21, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour" and in front of about 18,000 people.
According to critic Adam Sandler, to her credit, Celine kept the vocal histrionics and hyper stage movements she has become known for to a minimum during her sold-out concert at the Great Western Forum, preferring instead to illustrate her evolution as an artist through singing prowess and a relaxed stage manner. Performing in the round on a heart-shaped stage, Celine worked hard to incite a reaction from the unusually dormant and celebrity-studded crowd by effectively advancing the perf´s theme of "Love" through song and story. While the format has become an overused tour device to foster intimacy, its goal was aided by Celine´s take on Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face", Ewan MacColl´s classic that forced down Celine´s usually high-end vocals a few keys and demonstrated her enormous note control.
Other songs in the grouping didn´t come off as well. It was also difficult to get a sense of intimacy during the evening as Celine has moved her popular roadshow from the smaller confines of 6,000-seat amphitheaters to the more cavernous 20,000-plus seat arenas where touching love songs unwittingly devolve into power ballads. Celine´s penchant to over-reach was perhaps best illustrated when embarking on a misguided foray into ´70s music when she called the songs of the Bee Gees "the greatest songs in the world" and launched into "Stayin´ alive", complete with rotating disco ball. The shift was an unneeded exercise in order to segue into a video duet with the Gibb brothers. Similarly, Celine´s duet on "Tell him" with Barbra Streisand was done via Babs-TV - tape taken from the album´s "Making of" spec.
The closing, complete with Titanic bow railings on which Celine leaned, gave the crowd exactly what they had hoped for: Celine´s signature warbling of "My heart will go on" and film clips of Leonardo DiCaprio, which were met with jet noise-like screams from the females in the crowd.

[Bruno Dion]

December 1, 1998 - Albany, USA

On December 1, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". This was the last 1998 concert in USA with this tour.
According to Greg Haymes from The Times Union, Celine delivered a show worthy of consideration as one of the year´s most amazing. Even arena-rock veterans like Aerosmith won´t be able to top this for the sheer extravaganza factor. Backed by a six-piece band and trio of backup singers, Celine stormed the heart-shaped stage with "Let´s talk about love', the subject matter varied little during her 95-minute show.
"Tonight we´re here to talk about love, right?", Celine asked between "Because you loved me" and "The reason". The crowd, predominantly couples and women, loved every minute of it. Celine tried to get funky with uptempo filler like "Treat her like a lady" and her Bee Gees´ disco medley, complete with a white pants suit-clad Celine doing John Travolta´s dance moves to a disco mirror ball. Making the most of her video presence, four giant overhead screens and numerous monitors also scattered around the stage, Celine sang video-duets with the Bee Gees as well as Barbra Streisand. Her highwater mark may have been during her tribute segment, especially her homage to the Beatles (the unexpected "Because" filtered through a French cafe) and Frank Sinatra (an effective rendition of "All the way", ironically her most understated performance of the night). It was, of course, the "My heart will go on" that everyone came to hear, and her roof-raising encore rendition, in which she sang the second half of the song from a ship´s bow-like railing at the point of the stage, was almost worth the price of admission itself.
The opening act, the seven-piece Dakota Moon, turned in a firey half-hour performance. According to some fans who attended the show, "we were mesmerized from the moment Celine walked on stage until the moment she left. This was the greatest thrill to be able to see her in person. Words cannot describe how beautiful the show was and how touched we were at her warmth and true beauty".

[Bruno Dion]

December 5, 1998 - Halifax, Canada

On December 5, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax, Canada in front of more than 10,000 people with the "Let´s Tal About Love Tour".
The entertainment reporter Stephen Cooke from The Chronicle Herald, wrote: "There´s a saying that goes 'You can never be too rich or too thin'. Unless you´re Celine Dion. Of course, she´s rich because she sells gajillions of records and her concerts, including last night´s at the Halifax Metro Centre, are constantly packed. She´s thin because each show is a rigourous two-hour workout, and she´s been touring for four months. I figure she clocked a couple of kilometers making the rounds of her square stage in the centre of the floor to reach out to every corner of the arena. And reach out she did, bringing the crowd to its feet several times, getting it dancing, and occasionally bringing tears to its eyes". This concert at the Halifax Metro Centre, a huge production, began with a showstopper, the title track to her recent album, "Let´s talk about love". As the lights gleamed and Celine faced the roaring crowed, her image appeared on video screens superimposed on the rotating earth, and a youth choir from Halifax´s L´ecole Beaufort joined her onstage for the final choruses. Then she ditched her skirt, revealing hip-hugging, sparkly grey slacks, to launch into the upbeat "Declaration of love", prowling the stage and letting off a karate kicks while wailing in true disco diva fashion.
There´s an annoying trend among popular female singers to drain a song of its life by squeezing every last drop out of it with virtuostic bravado and it would be easy to lump Celine in with this brand of squealers, except she knows what to do when given a skillfully crafted melody like Carole King´s "The reason", where her voice is raised aloft on a stunning crescendo, or her sole French number, "S´il suffisait d´aimer", in which she sounds sweeter, more profound and more affecting in her native tongue. On the other hand, her rendition of the bombastic Jennifer Rush 80s hit "The power of love" is pretty much the same as the original and doesn´t offer much in the way of intrepretation. She gets to sing out loud and sing out strong, but the sound and fury doesn´t signify a whole heck of a lot. Celine´s technical skill as a singer is better displayed in a duet on "Tell him" with Barbra Streisand, who appears on audio and videotape.
Even though Babs is on tape, Celine doesn´t take advantage and try to outsing her, instead letting the emotion come through her control and flawless harmony. The impressive number gets a standing ovation, for as much as the trick as for the tune. Between songs, Celine is down-to-earth and jovial, delivering kisses to the cheeks of kids who bring flowers and joking goodnaturedly about her girlish figure. Midway, she delivers a heartfelt acoustic set, with her band sitting round her in a circlem that for me is the true highlight. A stunningly evocative "The first time ever I saw your face" is proof enough that Celine has instincts most singers only dream of. After a rousing "Saturday Night Fever" medley, Celine returns in a flowing red gown for the inevitable finale of "My heart will go on" from "Titanic". Clinging to a metal railing that rises from the floor, she beckons to her devoted fans, who would gladly go down with her ship if so asked.
This was a special benefit concert to support the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

[Bruno Dion]

December 7, 1998 - Montreal, Canada

On December 7, 1998 Celine Dion performed at the Molson Center in Montreal, Canada with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". This was the first of seven sold-out consecutive concerts at the Molson Center with this tour. During the show, Celine received six Billboard Awards, handed live via satellite by Bette Midler from Las Vegas, USA. A little while after, Carole King physically presented Celine with the Billboard Awards that she had won and sang in duet with her the song "The reason" (on the tour, Celine usually performed the song in solo, not in duet).
According to Lucinda Chodan and Mark Lepage from The Gazette (the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada), "Let´s talk about love" was the first song Celine sang as a red light throbbed around her on the heart-shaped stage. The 25,000 bums previously on seats levitated as Celine rose on a platform centre-stage, and they sang along with her and 24 young Montrealers invited on stage to join in the chorus. They continued to applaud through "Zora sourit" (which often replaced "S´il suffisait d´aimer" during the first leg of the tour in North America), and they extended the usual unusually warm Montreal welcome when singing-songwriting legend Carole King joined Celine on stage for a duet on "The reason". But the place exploded when Carole King handed Celine an armful of Billboard Awards in a presentation simulcast on Fox TV to most of the planet. When Celine said during the show she always felt like she was singing for her family in Montreal, it was hard not to believe her. And when she tugged at their heartstrings with her own mega-hits or a medley of Roberta Flack-Beatles-Clapton-Sinatra Standards, it was hard not to think of the words of another little girl in another magical fable who followed her own yellow brick road. Celine performed in a grey suit with a curly hairstyle. She wore a red dress for the finale performance, "My heart will go on". The performance of "Treat her like a lady", in which Diana King appeared on big screen to sing in duet with Celine through a pre-recorded video, became later into the music video for the song.
After the concert, Celine and her manager and husband Rene Angelil gave a press conference. Accompanied by the President of Sony Music France, Paul Rene Albertini, Celine received a diamond record for her album entitled "S´il Suffisait D´Aimer". Celine continued her seven-night run at the Molson Centre on December 8, 11, 12, 13, 17 and 18, 1998. All concerts were sold out.




Celine during "The reason" at the Molson Center in Montreal, Canada

[Bruno Dion]

January 25, 1999 - Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong

On January 25, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, China with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". The Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Shortly after the airport closed, the site hosted a Celine´s concert as part of her 1998-1999 world tour. The buildings were demolished over the following years. The runway was used as a venue for Celine´s  January 25, 1999 concert.
According to the press, Celine reaches for a high note during her sold-out performance at the old Kai Tak Airport. The French-Canadian singer, famed for her "Titanic" theme song "My heart will go on", gave a display of power ballads in an 18,000-seat temporary arena under a clear, moonlit sky. By 7:00 p.m., thousands of people had streamed into the venue, while queues for last-minute tickets grew. Celine spent two hours belting through her hits. According to The Bangkok Post, Celine took to the chilly tarmac at Hong Kong´s old Kai Tak Airport and gave a two-hour concert before a 20,000-strong audience.
The audience - which included many of Hong Kong´s rich and famous - loved it as the French-Canadian diva gave a sparkling 18-song show ending with "Titanic" theme, "My heart will go on". Few days before the show, Dick Kaufmann from promoters DKA Asia, said "Ticket sales have picked up dramatically in the past few days as the weather has improved and we´re looking at some 20,000 people from the maximum allowed of around 35,000". The agency planned to ship concert ticket holders to the location with chartered buses, but changed the plan to shipping them to a site close to the former airport. "We are very fortunate as now guests will be able to take a five-minute stroll from the old terminal building straight onto the site of the concert", Kaufmann added. "The concert probably can´t be repeated on this site as a detoxication programme is set to be begin on the tarmac in preparation for possible redevelopment of Kai Tak as a shopping centre or for housing", he added.
During the evening of January 25, 1999 Celine performed the first song, "Let´s Talk about love" with a choir from the Glenealy School, who met with Celine on backstage, minutes before the show. According to one of the choir´s members "It was the most incredible experience and we were so lucky to be able to watch the rest of the concert too, which was amazing". Celine also told to the audience she was very nervous, including the band members on the stage. Because they have been tour around the world so many times, and this was their first time to perform at an airport. The audiences were very happy. Celine also performed many other songs such as "Declaration of love", "Because you loved me", "The reason", "It´s all coming back to me now", "To love you more", "Treat her like a lady", "Tell him", "All by myself", "Love can move mountains" and, of course, "My heart will go on", in which she wore a red dress. Unfortunatelly for the Hong Kong fans, it wasn´t used the heart-shaped stage specially designed for the tour.




Celine during the concert at the Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong

[Bruno Dion]

February 12, 1999 - Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

On February 12, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA in front of more than 50,000 people with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". Celine arrived to Hawaii on February 4, 1999 after five concerts in Japan with the same tour. She was greeted at the Honolulu International Airport by Gov. Ben Cayetano and performer Keali´i Reichel. There, she was interviewed. Reichel made the opening act for Celine´s concert at the Aloha Stadium.
According to the critic John Berger from The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, "Any doubts about Celine Dion´s ability to draw a crowd or rock the house as a stadium concert act in Hawaii were laid to rest". The Aloha Stadium was comfortably full. The weather was perfect. Celine´s performance eclipsed her show here a year ago in every way possible. Several recent hits and album tracks were added. The video screens added to Celine´s performance without blocking the view of the stage. The lighting sequences were more effective. The concert sound was clear even on the loudest numbers. The encores were staged and timed much more reasonably than a year ago. The show was about five minutes longer than at the Blaisdell Arena last February 1998 but moved more smoothly. Celine´s comments during the show also seemed more spontaneous last night - especially when she digressed and began talking about golf. She looked a bit tired, and perhaps tanned to the verge of sunburn after a week or so of pre-concert relaxation here, but sounded well rested and ready to work. Work she did. No question about it, she´s an incredible vocalist. Celine moves more like a rock star than a conventional female pop singer. A tight gray jumpsuit accented her movements and lithe rocker-style poses for most of the night. She seemed delighted and quite appreciative of the crowd´s response. "Because you loved me" became a community sing just as it did a year ago; the audience participation seemed more natural and spontaneous on the evening of February 12, 1999.
Celine displayed her acting skills with "Tell him". The song is a duet with Barbra Streisand (who is seen on the video screens). Celine responded visually while Streisand sang. Her ability to react without overacting added to the drama of the song; so did the work of the video crew. Celine opened with "Let´s talk about love", in which she lashed the "shaka" sign to local children who performed with her. She closed the night, of course, with "My heart will go on". It is still a glorious signature for her. Other familiar tunes from her discography were "Declaration of love", "The power of love" and "Love can move mountains". "Beauty and the beast" and "Where does my heart beat now" were two surprising omissions. Anyway, these two songs were not part of the tour´s set list. However, Celine´s choice of alternative material was interesting. A mini-set of four "unplugged" love songs paid homage to Roberta Flack, the Beatles, Eric Clapton and Frank Sinatra. A subsequent disco segment found her wearing a Travolta-style white suit and dancing as Travolta did in "Saturday Night Fever". That provided the lead-in to a video duet with the Bee Gees and a smooth return to the present. During the whole show, Celine wore a typical Hawaii´s "Lei" (a wreath of flowers draped around the neck) and a flower on her curly hairstyle.
Unfortunatelly for the Hawaii fans, it wasn´t used the heart-shaped stage specially designed for the tour. Keali´i Reichel made his second annual appearance as Celine´s opening act in Honolulu. This time he opened with his popular version of the Beatles´ "In my life", included several of his signature songs, and previewed a song from his next album. It was wonderful to enjoy his music in such a setting once again.




Celine during "My heart will go on" at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

[Bruno Dion]

March 26, 1999 - Milwaukee, USA

On March 26, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, USA with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour", in front of more than 20,000 people.
According to Dave Tianen from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, pop-diva Celine Dion performed in front of a full house on March 26, 1999 night at the Bradley Center. In the ´90s, romance is sung with a French-Canadian accent. It would seem only fair to acknowledge that no recording artist has done more to define the contemporary love song than Celine Dion. Consider this. The two top-selling albums of 1998 were the "Titanic" soundtrack, which featured Celine´s reading of the massively popular "My heart will go on", and her own solo project "Let´s Talk About Love". During the concert, Celine demonstrated further evidence of her grasp of the romantic imagination with a sold-out performance at the Bradley Center. It was a lavish production worthy of Celine´s superstar credentials, with a heart-shaped stage set in the middle of the Bradley Center floor. It speaks well of any performer to be able to sell out a venue the size of the Bradley Center with an adult audience. Still, Celine´s detractors are ardent and many. That's a valid pop tradition that runs from Doris Day and Jane Morgan through Connie Francis and Petula Clark, to Streisand and now Celine. There´s always been a market for attractive women with pretty voices singing about love. A more valid criticism is the accusation that she tends to oversing, going for the fences on every song.
On this concert, Celine didn´t seem any more prone to bombast than such sister divas as Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. Indeed, during a reading of Roberta Flack´s exquisite "The first time ever I saw your face", she demonstrated she could sing softly with nuance and tenderness. And if anyone missed the point, she followed it with another subdued effort on Eric Clapton´s "Tears in heaven". If there´s an argument for putting Celine in front of Carey and Houston, it´s for what she doesn´t do. She has the wisdom not to feel compelled to write her own material. As a result she wisely mines superior material from such talented people as Carole King ("The reason"), David Foster ("To love you more") and Bryan Adams ("Let´s talk about love"). There´s no denying that "The power of love" and "To love you more" verge to the melodramatic.
But they´re striking melodies, and Celine sings them with such verve as to easily carry the moment. Indeed, "The power of love" generated a standing ovation on the show. Celine herself is a warm and vibrant presence who proved more than equal to the task of winning over an enormous room like the Bradley Center. She chatted with the crowd about her progress as a golfer, and danced with elan if not great fluidity during a medley from "Saturday Night Fever".
There were a couple of points, however, where the production sailed over the top. During a video duet with the Bee Gees on "Immortality", the Gibb brothers were seen to disappear into the clouds like disco deities. And for Celine´s closing encore of "My heart will go on", the stage sprouted a bow railing that the singer rushed to at the climactic moment, as offstage fans blew her long tresses behind her. Although with the same outfits as the past concerts of the tour, Celine wore a new hairstyle, a straight hairstyle she would use during the rest of the tour.

[Bruno Dion]

April 2, 1999 - Dallas, USA

On April 2, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Reunion Arena in Dallas, USA in front of more than 19,000 people with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". The show strarted at 8:00 p.m and it was presented by Ericsson.
Pop music critic Dave Ferman, from the Star-Telegram (a major USA daily newspaper), wrote: "For me, the good and the bad of Celine Dion´s show could be distilled into one song: Because you loved me". Big ballad, big hit, big moment in a big glitzy show at an absolutely full Reunion Arena. Celine does most of it in fine voice. The band has every note nailed perfectly. The stage lights up in the shape of a heart, once again reinforcing the Let´s Talk About Love theme of this tour, which is the title of Dion´s latest gazillion-selling CD. We´re almost to the end - and then Dion gets a thought. Howzabout, she tells the crowd, we all sing the last line together. As if, in the middle of the show near the end of a multimonth tour, she just thought this up. So the crowd tries. Not good enough. Dion pouts. On the next try, though, we pull off her brillant, once-in-a-lifetime idea. As if. And between that song and the next, Dion reminds us, again and again, that we are in fact in Dallas, and that Dallas is just about the gosh-darned best place in the whole wide world. And it was moments like this that make Dion´s show less than it could be. And her duet with Barbra Straisand on Tell him, during which she sang with Straisand´s video image, was simply too cheesy for words. To be fair, parts of the show were welloiled, arena-friendly pop music. Dion knows how to work an in-the-round stage, the sound was excellent, and her entrance was, for this sort of show, boffo: she rose out of the middle of the stage singing Let´s talk about love and was quickly followed by members of her band and then, for the end of the song, by more than two dozen members of the Children´s Choir of Greated Dallas, who sounded great. This is the dichotomy of Dion´s show; On songs such as It´s all coming back to me now or The reason, she is a solid, smart live performer, looking and sounding thoroughly at home in a huge arena. But then there were also moments when she simply went over the top. There is something to be said for just standing there and singing. Dion is a massive star, and a massive name, but a little restraint would do her more than a little good".

[Timster]

You could just give us a link to your website where we can read all this information

http://celinedion200...99-to-2002.html

[québecflower]

DionFanAlways, on 26 May 2014 - 09:58 AM, said:

Yeah I had always noticed that also when I watch this Maybe it was a working title???
Also she says she is French. So the question I have for all you people who live in Quebec is, do you consider yourself French or just French speaking?

here in canada we say French canadian... French is for la france

[Celinefan1993]

I wanna have a cd/dvd combination of this tour in English!!! It was her biggest prime in my eyes and her voice was stunning!!!

[pat200]

Is there any link to how much that tour grossed overall? I think it easily did 100 million but i can't find any source...

[clefurgey]

If anyone has or knows someone who has audio or video of the orlando stop from this tour, please let me know.
My best friend was at this show, it would mean so much if we could find audio or video.
Also, since I'm here I thought i'd ask anyway, does anyone remember a site called theultimatecelinetrading website, or something similar? I found it years ago when I thought I could do email bootleg trades, but never really got replies.
If anyone has anything from that site they'd be willing to share please let me know.

[stone]

I know Rene's throat cancer cancelled pretty much most of the stadium tour besides the Stade de France dates, and the UK shows, but can you imagine if she actually performed in Portugal and Spain and all the other stadiums in Europe?!?! Now she since January she stopped all promo since Rene's cancer scare in December. Just shows you she always puts her family and love before her career.

Edited by stone, 27 May 2014 - 09:43 PM.

[Yentl Anchel]

Her europian leg started in Holland. She canceled a lot of dates, but what I like the most is that she tried to reschedule them all The concert at State de France she did to make up the missed concerts at Lyon and Marceille. So if Rene didn't got sick, what live album would we've got then? Live in Marceille, Livei n Lyon, or maybe a English show?

Edited by Yentl Anchel, 28 May 2014 - 12:04 PM.

[chocolatechip15]

16 years ago, yesterday - August 31, 1998 -- was my very first Celine concert -- at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, part of the LTAL tour. I had literally counted down the hours for the entire summer, and started sobbing, overcome with emotion, when Celine came onstage.  The below is the review from the local Long Island paper, Newsday, from the next day, September 1, 1998 - 16 years ago, today. Not the greatest review, but they do say that "her warmth managed to shrink the Coliseum's cavernous confines." I've saved the clipping all these years as a memento of one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I've never successfuly gotten a picture on this forum before, so I hope this comes out readable!




 Celine 383KB.jpg   383.69K   28 downloads

Edited by chocolatechip15, 01 September 2014 - 07:54 PM.

[chocolatechip15]

And this is a review from the New York Post of Celine's show at Madison Square Garden a few days later in September 1998.  I was sadly not at this one, but I saved this clipping too.

 Celine 412KB.jpg   412.87K   29 downloads

[CelineDionForeverNY]

chocolatechip15, on 01 September 2014 - 07:58 PM, said:

And this is a review from the New York Post of Celine's show at Madison Square Garden a few days later in September 1998.  I was sadly not at this one, but I saved this clipping too.

Celine 412KB.jpg

I can't believe someone called TLYM and IACBTMN yawn-inducers...

[Leo]

According to this article, Celine performer her Eurovision-winning song in Brussels in the medley. Is that true?

http://www.lesoir.be...618-Z0GX92.html

Edited by Leo, 20 August 2017 - 01:44 PM.