New Article- Why Fans Can't Get Enough Of Celine

[CellyDee87]

Why fans can't get enough of Céline

Quebecers haven't seen a lot of their pop diva, but when she's here, there's no stopping her

Brendan Kelly, The Gazette

Published: 11 hours ago

 

Céline Dion has hardly spent any quality time in her home province in this century but that has clearly not dampened her fellow Quebecers' enthusiasm for the woman affectionately dubbed notre Céline nationale.

 

Other than a fundraiser last year at the Bell Centre for the Ste. Justine Hospital, Dion has not headlined a show in Montreal since a major blowout at the same arena on the last night of the 20th century. But the nano-second that tickets went on sale last November for her homecoming gigs, it was absolutely clear that folks 'round these parts still have a thing for the songbird from Charlemagne. On Saturday, Nov. 17, four Bell Centre shows - that's roughly 80,000 tickets, for those keeping count - sold out in 35 minutes, a mind-boggler of a record for the venue and promoter Gillett Entertainment Group.

 

All of the tickets for a fifth Bell Centre concert were snapped-up in - this is not a typo! - five minutes a couple of weeks later and, by the time the dust settled - and the Bell Centre accountants had finished counting the money for their happy boss George Gillett - Dion had sold-out eight full-capacity Bell Centres, moving some 160,000 tickets priced at $65, $95, $140, and $195. The shows are Aug. 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 25, 31 and Sept. 1, and there isn't a single ducat available unless you are willing to shell out and pay exorbitant scalpers' prices. For example, one pair of tickets in the reds with a face value of $390 being auctioned on eBay yesterday had attracted a bid of $625 by press time.

 

So why is it that Quebec music fans just can't get enough Céline?

 

I think it's simple really. Folks here are immensely proud of this down-home Québécoise from nowheresville, P.Q., who beat the odds to become one of the most popular entertainers on the planet. Given their minority status in Canada and North America, francophone Quebecers tend, naturally enough, to be more focused on their local culture than, say, English-Canadians are. So when a Quebec artist breaks big on the international stage - whether it's Denys Arcand winning at the Oscars, the Cirque du Soleil ruling the strip in Vegas or Garou topping the charts in Europe - people in Quebec love it. In the rest of Canada, there is a kind of ambivalence about global success, as if it's somehow a little un-Canadian to make it big everywhere.

 

But even among the hot Quebec cultural exports, Céline occupies a unique position. Locals are proud of the Cirque du Soleil as an example of Québécois creativity wowing the world. The pride in Dion, though, is more akin to the emotions felt when one of your kids or siblings hits it big.

 

Sure, rock fans here don't listen to her albums any more than hipsters do in Los Angeles, but you won't hear too many locals publicly dissing Dion. As the top-selling female artist of all time, with more than 200 million albums sold, she is unquestionably the most famous Quebecer on the world stage and, though she has achieved that success by belting out adult-contemporary pop tunes in the language of Mariah and Whitney, she has never made a secret of her French Québécois heritage. In fact, she's usually made a point of talking about how much those franco roots mean to her.

 

Given all that emotional/cultural baggage, word is that the shows here will be noticeably different from the concerts in the U.S. and the rest of Canada. Her husband/manager René Angélil has hinted that the Bell Centre shows will feature the same song selection as her gigs at the Palais Omni-Sport de Bercy arena in Paris in May, with perhaps as many as 10 French-language songs. In non-francophone cities, she usually does just one Gallic number, Pour que tu m'aimes encore, the top-selling French-language single of all time.

 

The show is directed by Jamie King, who has previously worked with Madonna and Christina Aguilera, and includes the requisite bells-and-whistles demanded by any self-respecting flashy high-profile pop-star in this day-and-age, including eight dancers and a series of new videos featuring Dion.

 

Local fans not lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket for the upcoming concert series have one last chance to catch Dion's Taking Chances tour. It was announced this week that La Dion will headline a ninth show at the Bell Centre, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2009, with tickets set to go on sale Saturday, Aug. 23 at noon for what will be the very last show of the tour. Given the speed with which the previous concerts sold-out, you'd be advised to be ready at the phone, computer or Admission outlet right at noon (if not earlier!). The system for ticket sales at the Bell Centre is to be announced next week.

 

The truly astonishing thing is that these kind of sales in Montreal are nothing new for the singer. The last time she played the Habs' home rink, during the Let's Talk About Love tour in 1998-99, she filled the big hall on seven occasions in December 1998 and packed the joint another two times in September of the following year. Of course, this isn't the only town where Dion can move a few concert tickets. Her Las Vegas show, A New Day, attracted more than three million paying customers to a 4,000-seat theatre at Caesar's Palace between 2003 and December 2007, ringing up around $400 million.

 

Even before the final curtain fell on the Vegas spectacle on Dec. 15 last year, the busy Dion team had already announced that she would be spending most of 2008 and the first couple of months of 2009 on a mammoth world tour. The Taking Chances tour kicked off in February with a series of shows in South Africa and, by the time it finally winds down early next year, she will have packed in crowds in 85 cities in 24 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. The North American leg of the road trip kicks off with a show Tuesday at the TD Bankforth Garden in Boston and will include pit-stops at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Madison Square Garden in New York, GM Place in Vancouver and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

 

After it all winds down with one last musical soirée at the Bell Centre on the eve of Valentine's Day next year, the province's most celebrated couple are set to actually spend some serious time in Montreal. But not right away, according to Angélil, who told Le Journal de Montréal that "we're going to spend the winter in Florida, like all good Quebecers, and then the summer in Quebec."

 

Céline Dion's Feb. 13 concert tickets go on sale Saturday, Aug. 23 at noon at Admission. Call 514-790-1245 or go to www.admission.com.

 

bkelly@thegazette.canwest.com

 

 

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

 

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...f3-0605b84eb3f1

 

[ThisTime]

Thanks for posting it (: It was a good article!

[Davey84]

oooh thanks Denelle!! great article!!!

[nano]

Thanks for posting

[ashleylovesceline]

Great article! I wish I could go to Montreal... all of you better post some awesome reviews!!

[martele]

Oh yes, I would like to go to Montréal for this last concert. I was in Montréal at the beginning of July this year... Was certainly the wrong time to see Céline there. :-(

[AlyhBdtz]

nice article

[antonia-celine4eveR]

Thanx very very much

Great article

[VintageCeline]

Ooo thanks for sharing!

 

I wish I could go to Montreal, or even Canada

 

x

[destin139]

Thanks for sharing this article!! It's nice to see some positive and nice media coverage of celine!!

How i wish i could be there in montreal for the last show - that is going to be one special night!

[SensationalCeline]

Thanks so much for this review. Fans can never get enough of Celine. Never.

[takeachance]

That was nice read . thank you ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[dovey15]

great article, thanks for posting! i'm definitely going to try for some tickets to that final show - it will be one not to be missed!!!

[Lou555]

It's a good article but I think there is much more than what he said to explain Céline's lasting popularity here. It's true that she has kind of a special status due to her enormous english success, her fairytale life and being kind of the province's daughter or 'notre Céline nationale' as many call her here but I think the fact that she started so young is also part of it. The fact that she never stop singing in french also keeped her present and part of the francophone music scene always(another big part of why she's so beloved I think). People witnessed her rise to fame, success and womanwood and more....and followed her carreer and still do. Céline and René have always shared with home fans a lot, about her carreer, their dream, goals, achievements and life also, for many she's like family it's true. We always saw her mother(Maman Dion) and Claudette her sister on tv shows from time to time for so many years now. Céline has always been an open book in interviews and has stayed grounded and humble. There is a very successfull francophone music industry here. People listen and buy a lot of francophone music in Québec and listen to local francophone Québec tv shows a lot too. Céline has always been part of that industry because she never stoped releasing songs in French and taking part in tv shows(interviews from everywhere in the world). Céline's music has always been part of our life on radio, on music tv channels and she's still is part of it big time(in french and english). She may not be the recent flavor of the month, of course not , but she's considered much more than that...die hard fans are still anxious for her to release a new cd(english and french) even today and when she does people buy it because they know they'll like it and they have to own it still. Anyway that's how I see it around me at home and when we have the opportunity to see her perform it's the cherry on the cake really. So, it's been so long since she did shows at home and not all of us had the chance to see her in Vegas that people bought tickets very fast. A lot of us here also think that Céline won't be doing as many shows in the future...and that she will take more breaks soon but maybe we're wrong I hope we are!!!!

[Terre]

A very nice article, thanks for posting it! I wish I could go to Montreal to see the last show!

[whosarahre]

the article is more "why people from quebec cant get enough of celine"

[CelineRules!]

That's a great article. Nice to read positive news about her.

[littlechap]

Thank you so much for sharing this great artile. I love it to read some positive news about Celine

[C.D._LoVer]

thanks for sharing!

[CelineHayatiAna]

great article