Did Celine lose her voice during the D'eux tour?

[celinesounds]

I found this article

 

The show at the Zenith Theatre in Paris was recorded and released on VHS and CD in October 1996 as Live à Paris. It was re-released on DVD in November 2003. During one of the spectacles in the Zenith Dion broke her voice.

 

it was true?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27eux_Tour

[stevethefan]

Not sure. Maybe it's true. I know when she had a really bad problem with losing her voice where she had to be silent for weeks was years before 1996. I think that had happened in the late eighties.

[whineupemily]

Not sure. Maybe it's true. I know when she had a really bad problem with losing her voice where she had to be silent for weeks was years before 1996. I think that had happened in the late eighties.

 

Im fimiliar with that also; but im not sure about her loosing her voice during the D'eux Tour; hmm, mystery?!

[celinefanonline]

for live a paris she didn't lost her voice but her voice got broke..

[celinesounds]

for live a paris she didn't lost her voice but her voice got broke..

 

what's the difference?

[marie_claire]

for live a paris she didn't lost her voice but her voice got broke..

 

what's the difference?

 

there's a difference between lost and broke... what she means is that celine broke her voice in the middle of the song like when she sang the LES BLUES DU BUSINESMAN, as far as I can remember there's one song in Live à Paris video that Celine sang and her voice got broke but still managed to work it out unnoticable... well yeah... and when you say lost her voice, there can be hoarseness of voice in the whole show ... that's how I understand what broke and losing of voice means... hehehehe...

 

[Davey84]

Céline lost her voice during the Incognito or Unison tour in Canada. that was the reason for all the vocal training that had its peak during 94-96 imo

[celinesounds]

for live a paris she didn't lost her voice but her voice got broke..

 

what's the difference?

 

there's a difference between lost and broke... what she means is that celine broke her voice in the middle of the song like when she sang the LES BLUES DU BUSINESMAN, as far as I can remember there's one song in Live à Paris video that Celine sang and her voice got broke but still managed to work it out unnoticable... well yeah... and when you say lost her voice, there can be hoarseness of voice in the whole show ... that's how I understand what broke and losing of voice means... hehehehe...

 

 

 

thanks i didn't know that

[Black Kitten]

i'm familiar of the Incognito and Unison incident, but i've never heard about the D'eux tour incident. all i know is that she's quite "sick" during the recording/filming of Live a Paris at the Zenith theatre. for me, vocally, Live a Paris is way better than Al'Olympia (which was a great performance as well). Edited September 3, 2008 by dhena

[woodstock]

A friend of mine who is not fan of Celine told me about that, but that was in Bercy not in Le Zénith, so it may be 1996, not 1995. She told me Celine was almost crying on stage when she came back to apologize but everybody in the crowd gave her warm applauses, nobody was disappointed because you could see she was sincerely sad...

If someone was there too...

[Joe]

She spoke about that incident in an interview with Sonia Benezra. It indeed happened at the Zenith in October 1995, and since they were going to film the concert that night, we have footage of Céline crying on stage and telling the audience she's not able to perform. (At least I think that's what she's saying, I don't understand French at all...)

 

I have the video but I don't know if I'm allowed upload it on YouTube because it was encoded by a member of another forum.

[Guest Reuben]

No, I think she lost her voice during the Unison tour, in Quebec, or the UK. She might have done it during the Deux tour, but she takes so good care of her voice now that I only think its happened once.

[Nikosn17]

wtf Live A Paris is one of her best vocal performances ever.

[Michel xx...]

there was a video of this incident on YouTube for a while ago.. I can't find it again.. but it's true...

[William2005]

I wanna see this video!

[takeachance]

Ya id be curious to see this video too. I hate seeing her sad tho, but love seeing how honest she always is

[Costa Santos]

It's kinda true. There's a new unauthorized biography of Celine, out this year, whose title is "Céline Dion: Une Femme, Tout Simplement...". On the eighth chapter of it, they talk about Celine having lost her voice. Check it out:

 

"... En octobre 1995, René la rejoint à Paris où elle donne une série de cinq concerts au Zénith. Le premier soir, sa voix l'abandonne. Pour elle, c'est une catastrophe, deux jours plus tard une captation télévisée est prévue..."...

 

... "... In Oct., 1995, René gets her back in Paris where she performs a series of five concerts in Zenith Arena. On the premiere, her voice goes away. For her, it's a tragedy, because two days later, a taping is planned..."...

 

[celinesounds]

can someone put a youtube link, please

[Dionesque]

...or upload the video for download in Multimedia section??

I don't like YouTube really, hehe... Thanks in advacne!

[WaterFromTheMoon]

I'd really love to see that too...

[chocolatechip15]

Celine talks about this in her autobiography: "And yet, the first night at the Zenith, without feeling any sign, without any pain as a warning, my voice gave out and completely fell apart. A total vacuum. I was crying. The entire team would be walking a tightrope because of me. Two evenings later, our smallest mistake could put everything in jeopardy." But she goes on to say that her voice miraculously came back quickly, and the taping went well.

[Katie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWj8QO76sOc

[Celine Fan 77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWj8QO76sOc

 

That's not from Paris, I can't remember where it was filmed, but I think it was somewhere in Europe.

[Katie]

That's in Zénith of Paris, she says so in the little Interview she givs before they broadcast the song. She even talk about about her voiceproblems, ans say that despite the lack of voice the French audience was Great and supportive

[Timster]

Céline lost her voice during the Incognito or Unison tour in Canada. that was the reason for all the vocal training that had its peak during 94-96 imo

 

Yes, I totally agree. Also the Incognito & Unison era were great (100% live concerts, with some amazing performances), it was definitely taking its toll on her voice. When you study her vocals closely, her voice sounded very thin and weak in some performances from these years, even though overall it would appear she was delivering well. Take the performance of WDMHBN from Winter Garden for instance, many people say it's really good, but in reality it's extremely weak, nasal and tired, and towards the end she is really struggling - I'm not surprised this became playback! It's obvious that bad technique was to blame for the voice losses, I kind of feel she was forcing high notes out without the control are care for her voice that she gained starting from 1992, leading to the vocal peak in 1994-1996 like you mentioned. Her voice in the Celine Dion era was definitely more refined and relaxed, and then the more solid powerful vocals came through in the TCOML/D'eux era.

 

In terms of the D'eux incident, I remember reading that it happened just a few days before the DVD taping, so one could argue that the amazing "Live à Paris" concert may not show the very best of Celine during this tour, assuming she hadn't fully recovered from whatever happened. I wish we had more footage from this tour, especially from the English shows! She had so much energy and passion.

[eyso]

personally I think that she reached her vocal peak in 1994 and then sort of "transitioned" in 1995 into her FIY voice. i don't think she lost her voice during the tour; rather, I think her voice changed significantly by the end of the TCMOL era -- after 1994, Celine no longer had the virtuosic flexibility that defined her vocal trajectory up until then. I would speculate that while she likely never "lost" her voice, she began to develop nodules, which restrained her tone and forced her to transition to a belt-heavy approach, whereas before she had been singing more from the chest. Just my 2 cents tho.

[eyso]

related question: did Celine lose her voice during the pre-Vegas rehearsals in 2003? We know for sure that she sounded majorly worse during the LV TV special than during the ANDHC era...and she sure seemed nervous leading up that debut. Sometimes when I'm watching the "Take a Kayak" monologue I like to think about this, because when she says "I come to Ceaser's Palace every night to perform....I barely can sing" she seems to be telling the truth it seems like 95 and 2003 were both difficult years for her vocally...

[eyso]

in any case the big thing that seemed to happen in 95 was that she lost a significant amount of her head voice (falsetto) range due to nodules, and then adapted / extended her chest voice (belt) to compensate for the range she had lost. which led to her incredible transformation into the 1996 Celine, who always seem to belt as if her life depended on it...

[Timster]

related question: did Celine lose her voice during the pre-Vegas rehearsals in 2003? We know for sure that she sounded majorly worse during the LV TV special than during the ANDHC era...and she sure seemed nervous leading up that debut. Sometimes when I'm watching the "Take a Kayak" monologue I like to think about this, because when she says "I come to Ceaser's Palace every night to perform....I barely can sing" she seems to be telling the truth it seems like 95 and 2003 were both difficult years for her vocally...

 

Her voice was definitely weaker in 2003 compared to 2002. Her tone was always very soft in 2002, but in 2003 all of a sudden it turned 'hard' again, she had lost almost all the softness she had the year before. Comparing performances of I'm Alive from these 2 years clearly shows the change - when she tried to sing softly at the start of the song in the Vegas reharsal/CBS special it was so quiet you could barely hear her, but in 2002 this style of singing was easy for her. As for the high notes towards the end, she really struggled and sounded really whiney. Despite having problems in 2003, she still did some great things. For example, she was able to sing first verse of TPOL just like the 90s and transition seamlessly into the playback. This never happened after 2003. Personally, I think things got a lot worse from 2004-2006, as although she got more comfortable with the show and could sing the songs with a bit more oomph, her voice was always very nasal.

 

 

As for the "I come to Ceaser's Palace every night to perform....I barely can sing" - she was saying that she could barely sing because she was so upset at the time due to the lack of response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

[eyso]

point taken, but i read it more as a freudian slip than anything else. reality check: celine could barely sing her old hits during 2003-2006, and to make up the difference she and her team decided to use playback. i mean, she lip-synched TPOL on the OPRHA SHOW, for g*d's sake. but whatever. the important point is that celine has dealt with vocal issues from the very beginning of her career, and in each case has exhibited an almost superhuman ability to transcend them; she is a vocal performance artist who creates create beauty out of difficulty and in the process embodies and exemplifies the sublime. while celine's 2003 performances may have been "disappointing" for us dioniacs (those of us who fell in love with cline's 94-98 voice and never looked back), in the end there is no way to critically evaluate these performances during these difficult times as anything other than the work of a genius; a master; a cosmic vocalist from a place beyond time and space. anyone else would probably have cancelled the engagement. celine, however, cared too much for her fans to let them down. and for this we should be grateful, and humbled, and awe-stricken; for it is not the duty of the diva to always be perfect; rather, the diva's charge is to transform his or her voice into a work of art. celine has given us such a work; her masterpiece is her entire oeuvre. i think all of us here ought to realize the art in her weakest, least confident performances, for it is only through the diva's weakness that we can apprehend her art. and celine's art, as destiny will continue to reveal, is humble at once humble and arrogant; feminine and masculine; powerful and powerless. by refusing to hide her weaknesses from the world, celine dion has succeeded in redefining the diva; and in the process she has truly changed the world.

 

but then again, i'm just a guy without a life who dreams about one day writing a book about this woman, this under-appreciated genius, this strange and idiosyncratic vocal artist who is somehow able to transform her voice radically from year to year. so you should probably take my words with a grain of salt.

 

LV,

 

eyso