Rare Pictures - Official Topic

[drove all night]

On 4/24/2026 at 1:15 PM, Els said:

My pleasure! I really like the long interview that really lets her personality shine. I think I'll try to do a little translation of it for those who don't speak French.

I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate that! Very generous of you!

[Els]

Ok, I translated it! Sorry, it's long... it came out to like 10 pages! 😱 I tried to capture the meaning, so it's not always the most elegant, but here it is!

 

La Semaine, March 17th, 1984
"A new mouth: The Special Surgery of Céline Dion", by Ginette Ravel

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2026 at 07:52 PM by Els
Better quality images for readability

[celine_dion_faces]

On 4/24/2026 at 8:02 PM, Els said:

Ok, I translated it! Sorry, it's long... it came out to like 10 pages! 😱 I tried to capture the meaning, so it's not always the most elegant, but here it is!

 

La Semaine, March 17th, 1984
"A new mouth: The Special Surgery of Céline Dion", by Ginette Ravel

Wow! Thank you so much for translating! 

[Zoespack]

It seems to me that interviews were so much more interesting back then. Is it because promotion now is the primary goal ? Is it because paper press declined and a mn on TV is so expensive ? Anyway, even nowadays any interview or show in Quebec is more interresting because Céline shows her full personality and her very funny side.

[drove all night]

On 4/24/2026 at 8:02 PM, Els said:

Ok, I translated it! Sorry, it's long... it came out to like 10 pages! 😱 I tried to capture the meaning, so it's not always the most elegant, but here it is!

 

La Semaine, March 17th, 1984
"A new mouth: The Special Surgery of Céline Dion", by Ginette Ravel

HOLY CR**!!!!!!!!!! What a gift to the Forum!!!!!!!!!!!! so much work! Unbelievable you translated the whole thing! Thank you soooo much!!!!

[Els]

On 4/24/2026 at 8:37 PM, drove all night said:

HOLY CR**!!!!!!!!!! What a gift to the Forum!!!!!!!!!!!! so much work! Unbelievable you translated the whole thing! Thank you soooo much!!!!

Haha thanks! It's my pleasure! There's a nice glimpse into Céline's personality and how sweet and funny she is here, so I'm glad if others get to appreciate it too! Like @Zoespack said above, the interviews back then used to be so much more interesting. I've always found this one really touching 🥲

[Els]

On 4/24/2026 at 8:32 PM, Zoespack said:

It seems to me that interviews were so much more interesting back then. Is it because promotion now is the primary goal ? Is it because paper press declined and a mn on TV is so expensive ? Anyway, even nowadays any interview or show in Quebec is more interresting because Céline shows her full personality and her very funny side.

Yeah, I think about that a lot too. They used to really take the time to do long interviews, give more page space to that stuff. I guess the fast pace of everything today makes that less profitable or possible... even if I think there would still be a market for that stuff. At least with us! 😅

I also think that part of it, around that time period, was also that they were trying to "market" her personality too. Not in a gross/overly capitalistic way. Just so that the world could get to know her. In that 1983 biography "La naissance d'une étoile", they even sort of say that in the blurb on the back cover: "Ce livre vous fait découvrir la personnalité attachante de cette adolescente dont la voix unique émeut des milliers de gens autant au Canada qu'en France où elle a remporté des disques d'or." [This book allows us to discover the endearing personality of this teenager whose voice moves thousands of people both in Canada and in France where she has earned gold records.] And it's true that her personnalité attachante is a big part of the reason a lot of us are here and still here after decades...

[drove all night]

On 4/24/2026 at 8:32 PM, Zoespack said:

It seems to me that interviews were so much more interesting back then. Is it because promotion now is the primary goal ? Is it because paper press declined and a mn on TV is so expensive ? Anyway, even nowadays any interview or show in Quebec is more interresting because Céline shows her full personality and her very funny side.

I think it's a mixture of many things: First of all the "digital era", as less and less people read printed magazines, everything's running online, so the editorial offices made huge changes, and drastically reduced. The time of the real good journalists who had time to prepare for big interviews and did thoroughly researched articles is more or less gone. The online media mostly "clickbaits" with sensationalist or provocative headlines and long online articles are rarely read (apart from us hardcore fans). And the figures of online visits are important to sell advertisements. Another side of the story is that the majority of people "unlearn" to read long texts as most people only communicate in brief texts or emoticons, the "digital overkill era" leaves not too much time to dive in, as the inner urge to scroll to the next is too strong. And AI will do the rest, when people just head over every thinking to a force which we all aren't prepared for!

[Zoespack]

@Els & @drove all night

In this sense, I Am Céline Dion is also a response to this loss of the essential.

Indeed, an endearing personality, both sweet and strong, and also a model of integrity. I often think of her parents, the way they raised their kids and I can’t help but admire them.

Edited April 25, 2026 at 03:41 AM by Zoespack

[Celine Fan 77]

New old picture from the 1999 Grammy Awards just posted by Tommy Mottola on Instagram

[Céline RO]

“Nothing will take show business away from me, trust me” 

- from the interview above

[emiliejolie]

On 4/23/2026 at 4:33 PM, drove all night said:

WOW! It was just yesterday, while revising my Céline Compendium, when I ran over a very tiny picture of this cover story and tried to find a better picture of it. But without success! Thank you so much for posting that! Fills a gap in my collection!

Edited April 25, 2026 at 12:05 PM by emiliejolie

[emiliejolie]

On 4/23/2026 at 4:33 PM, drove all night said:

WOW! It was just yesterday, while revising my Céline Compendium, when I ran over a very tiny picture of this cover story and tried to find a better picture of it. But without success! Thank you so much for posting that! Fills a gap in my collection!

I own this magazine, here is the article in its own. Funny to see how it is identical as the Simard Family, here Nathalie with  Maman Simard

[emiliejolie]

1983

[Els]

On 4/25/2026 at 2:16 PM, emiliejolie said:

I own this magazine, here is the article in its own. Funny to see how it is identical as the Simard Family, here Nathalie with  Maman Simard

Wow, it's funny that they recycled the same formula pretty much exactly!

Maybe this is a long shot, but do you happen to have (or anyone else here) a magazine with the cover story "La difficile adolescence de Céline Dion" (or something like that)? It was from around the same time period, probably 1984 but maybe 1983 or 1985. I've only ever seen a pixelated thumbnail of it a long time ago and never managed to find it. If you have that, I'd be so, so appreciative of a scan or pictures!

[drove all night]

On 4/25/2026 at 2:16 PM, emiliejolie said:

I own this magazine, here is the article in its own. Funny to see how it is identical as the Simard Family, here Nathalie with  Maman Simard

Thank you so much! Very generous of you to share scans! And yes - the similarity it interesting. Obviously Céline and her mother inspired the Simard cover story.
And, hey, we should all book on AirBNB Mother Dions house and cook those recipes there!! 

[drove all night]

On 4/25/2026 at 2:38 PM, emiliejolie said:

1983

OMG! Never in the world would I expected a cover story about "our Queen" in an Astrological magazine! What a discovery! And thank you AGAIN for your generosity to share it with others! Very kind of you! 

[emiliejolie]

On 4/25/2026 at 3:17 PM, Els said:

Wow, it's funny that they recycled the same formula pretty much exactly!

Maybe this is a long shot, but do you happen to have (or anyone else here) a magazine with the cover story "La difficile adolescence de Céline Dion" (or something like that)? It was from around the same time period, probably 1984 but maybe 1983 or 1985. I've only ever seen a pixelated thumbnail of it a long time ago and never managed to find it. If you have that, I'd be so, so appreciative of a scan or pictures!

This one ?

[emiliejolie]

Today is present day 🥰🥰🥰

[drove all night]

On 4/25/2026 at 5:18 PM, emiliejolie said:

Today is present day 🥰🥰🥰

WOW! Another Gem!  
And she's wearing the (how I call it) "Cannes"-dress with the bouquet of mimosas and sitting on that "Gerry the Cat"-suitcase so many girls of that time owned (me included!). Somehow I always imagined Maman Dion sewing that dress for her. My mother made me a similar ones in the 80ies. All those ruffles were quite in style in the early 80ies! 

Edited April 25, 2026 at 03:45 PM by drove all night

[Els]

On 4/25/2026 at 5:16 PM, emiliejolie said:

This one ?

Oh, I didn't even know about this one! I don't *think* that's the one I'm thinking of... In my memory there's a picture of her that's more of a profile view. But all I'm really working with here is a vague memory at this point. Thanks for this though, it's a great find!

[Els]

I feel like I read here somewhere a few days ago that someone (sorry, I can't remember who) really liked color pics from the 80s... These are from the La Presse archives which you probably know, but the color ones were buried pretty deep for some reason. They're from July 19, 1985.

 

(Photographer: Robert Mailloux, Fonds La Press)

Edited April 25, 2026 at 09:37 PM by Els

[delta]

un énorme merci pour ce partage

[drove all night]

What a nice discovery:
But the information isn't correct. It's from the Today Show on Nov. 1, 1991. Looks like they were interviewed by a young Katie Couric.

 

[Els]

On 4/25/2026 at 10:38 PM, drove all night said:

What a nice discovery:
But the information isn't correct. It's from the Today Show on Nov. 1, 1991. Looks like they were interviewed by a young Katie Couric.

 

Gosh, that video is like a kind of Proust's madeleine to me, I remember watching that on TV 😂

[Celine Fan 77]

Rare pic from the recording sessions for “Dion chante Plamondon” (I believe)

 

[Matias]

On 4/23/2026 at 4:47 PM, Els said:

Photos from eddymarnay.com. We know most of them, but there are a few rare ones in there, I think. I'm not sure I've seen the first one before. And in number 2 with maman Dion, I'm pretty sure that's Céline in the background on the phone in the bedroom?

 

 

I wonder what the occasion was...


 

 

[Matias]

Why did this magazine paint her dress green? (I'm not mad at the color thou lol)

[drove all night]

On 4/26/2026 at 11:47 PM, Matias said:

Why did this magazine paint her dress green? (I'm not mad at the color thou lol)

Green? I don't see green! -  Just kidding - in remembrance of that 2015 online phenomenon which went viral where countless people disagreed on whether a dress was blue/black or white/gold - which revealed the differences in human color perception. 

Edited April 26, 2026 at 09:54 PM by drove all night

[Matias]

On 4/26/2026 at 6:54 PM, drove all night said:

Green? I don't see green! -  Just kidding - in remembrance of that 2015 online phenomenon which went viral where countless people disagreed on whether a dress was blue/black or white/gold - which revealed the differences in human color perception. 

Those were simpler times...sigh lol 😆