NEW interview with David Foster

May 12, 2005 at 05:45 PM

Celine Dion
"She's -- well, she's just of course Canada's great national treasure. And I've said it before but I will say it again: You take somebody like Whitney you ask her to sing a lick, and she will give you something back that isn't exactly what you asked for. Sometimes it's better than what you wanted but it's not what you wanted. You ask Celine to give you a lick, and she gives you exactly what you ask for. And she'll do it 10 times, sometimes 20 times. She is the most professional. I just can't say enough great things about her and her husband. It's a great, great love story. I've known her since she was 18 or 19. I'm thrilled and honoured that I'm still in their camp. She has other people come in and out of her life, but I'm one of them."

This is where Foster offers his bombshell prediction.

"I suspect -- now this is just my own theory, I don't say this because anybody has tipped me off to anything, this is just what I think -- I think that Celine Dion will one day in the near future just walk away. That's what I think. Because she's been doing it since she was 12. She's now 35, 36, she'd like to have another child, so that might be a deciding factor for her. I think Vegas has been very hard for her, just in terms of the voice and the air and all that. And although she loves to sing, like an athlete, they walk away when they're on top.

"It's just a feeling I have about Celine. I could be totally wrong. I hope she doesn't see this, because she might go, what are you, nuts? That's my feeling. Stay tuned."

Foster says that he doesn't believe he's that great at picking the hits; instead, he brings out the best in a singer.

"Celine can step up to a microphone and give you everything. I can give you 10 per cent more with her, I think. That's my job and that's what I'm really good at. I can't pick a hit song better than anyone else, really. All I can tell is if somebody can really sing. And if they can really sing, I can bring them in here and I can make them sing a little bit better."

And Foster believes that he can trace much of his success to growing up Canadian.

"People can say that I'm full of it and I'm ranting just to rant about my country. But I love being Canadian. It's probably the single greatest key to my success, I believe: my Canadian upbringing."