Celine to pay tribute to Whitney Houston (via video)

[wboxoffice]

Why do certain coffees taste better than others? Celine is Lavazza while Whitney is Juan Valdez.

 

I don't know these brands, but Celine herself has said that she wanted to look like Whitney and sound like Whitney... So please... Whitney isn't known as THE VOICE for nothing. Now Celine is also the best of the best, and sure Celine fans will prefer Celine and Whitney fans will prefer Whitney, but don't be stupid by putting down Whitney to make Celine look better. She doesn't need that, they are both exceptional yet different, that's the beauty of it.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 08:00 PM by wboxoffice

[Your_Su_Phu]

Celine is my fave but from a technical standpoint Whitney (in her prime) was a better singer Edited November 12, 2012 at 08:11 PM by Your_Su_Phu

[zuv]

Calmar, calm down.

 

Yes Celine is a singer, but she's not like any other singers. Celine isn't a no name in the industry and she's not performing just few days a month.

Celine has been singing in extremely high demand none stop since she's 14 years old, and she's now almost 44!

30 years of intense singing. THANK GOD for lip synching!! Cause she wouldn't have a voice anymore. Or if she would still have one, in what condition would it be???

 

I don't know if you heard the interview yesterday, but they said as powerful her voice can be its also as fragile. And she agreed.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 08:17 PM by zuv

[Macaronie]

Of course it's really nice that she perfomed live, but she's a SINGER ! It's her job to sing ! The events where she performs live shouldn't be treated as "special", it should be the NORM. You get paid huge amounts of money to do that, so just do it already ! As far as I know, nobody is forcing her to perform shows, record albums etc..., so why does she need to lipsync at all ?

But...

 

SHE SANG IT LIVE IN ZHE RECORDING BOOTHZZZ???!!!!

 

Counts.

[calmar]

Calmar, calm down.

 

Yes Celine is a singer, but she's not like any other singers. Celine isn't a no name in the industry and she's not performing just few days a month.

Celine has been singing in extremely high demand none stop since she's 14 years old, and she's now almost 44!

30 years of intense singing. THANK GOD for lip synching!! Cause she wouldn't have a voice anymore. Or if she would still have one, in what condition would it be???

 

I don't know if you heard the interview yesterday, but they said as powerful her voice can be its also as fragile. And she agreed.

I'm very calm. But I don't understand this argument. Who is forcing her to perform those shows ? If her voice is so fragile, why does she feel the need to perform so many shows, and lip ? Money. I don't blame her, tho. But if it was really about singing and not about money, she would just perform less, and sing for real, like many other singers when they get older.

It's crazy how this topic is a sensitive subject amongst Celine's fans. Why does everyone get so butthurt when people talk about it ? I'm not saying she's a bad singer or she's stupid, I'm just questionning her reasonning behind all of this. I think it's a very legitimate topic concerning an artist, more so when said artist is "the best singer in the world".

[smw]

Calmar, calm down.

 

Yes Celine is a singer, but she's not like any other singers. Celine isn't a no name in the industry and she's not performing just few days a month.

Celine has been singing in extremely high demand none stop since she's 14 years old, and she's now almost 44!

30 years of intense singing. THANK GOD for lip synching!! Cause she wouldn't have a voice anymore. Or if she would still have one, in what condition would it be???

 

I don't know if you heard the interview yesterday, but they said as powerful her voice can be its also as fragile. And she agreed.

Quick preface: Like us all, I am obsessed with Celine Dion, not Whitney Houston. But…

 

I agree with a lot of what's getting said about Whitney and Celine in this thread. Whitney Houston, at her vocal prime, was technically perfect. Celine is also an untouchable voice in this industry. If you stood them side by side at their prime, I think Celine could take Whitney in some areas, but as far as sheer vocal clarity and power -- Whitney would've taken Celine overall. And that's okay! Whitney did not take care of her instrument. And Celine absolutely has. Even by the time Whitney recorded The Bodyguard songs, her voice was beginning to strain. But, prior to that...wow. Don't watch this video with preconceived judgement. This is a video of Whitney before the English speaking world even knew of Celine. Just watch in awe of Whitney's sheer vocal power and ease as she glides into the notes:

 

Also, I absolutely agree that Celine should lip synch at some of her appearances/concerts. We saw what happened to Whitney. Whitney never lipped, which was commendable -- but her voice was fried by the end. (Granted, other factors helped that along too.) Whitney's mother said when she was born the doctor told her that Whitney may not be able to ever speak… she then became one of the vocalists of all time... and then lost her voice by the end. Celine's voice is also fragile. It's ridiculous to say "Celine's a singer. That's what she does. She should always sing live at every concert and appearance." She has one of the greatest voices of all time, why in the world would she push her voice on days when it's fragile??? It would be idiotic to strain something so precious to this world. It's a genuine gift. It's why we are all here, discussing her in the first place! If she wants to protect her gift, then that's what she should do. Can you imagine if she really did sing The Power of Love live every night in Vegas? She would not have a voice anymore. Just compare videos of Whitney in the early days to Whitney at the end. It's astonishing and unbelievably sad to see such a gift tainted. Celine will not make that mistake. And it's not just about the money. She is in demand. We want to see her. She is a brand. She employs a lot of people. She has albums to promote. And when she is scheduled to be seen, people expect her to sing. It's not so cut and dry. People are oblivious...

Edited November 12, 2012 at 08:44 PM by smw

[wboxoffice]

Quick preface: Like us all, I am obsessed with Celine Dion, not Whitney Houston. But…

 

I agree with a lot of what's getting said about Whitney and Celine in this thread. Whitney Houston, at her vocal prime, was technically perfect. Celine is also an untouchable voice in this industry. If you stood them side by side at their prime, I think Celine could take Whitney in some areas, but as far as sheer vocal clarity and power -- Whitney would've taken Celine overall. And that's okay! Whitney did not take care of her instrument. And Celine absolutely has. Even by the time Whitney recorded The Bodyguard songs, her voice was beginning to strain. But, prior to that...wow. Don't watch this video with preconceived judgement. This is a video of Whitney before the English speaking world even knew of Celine. Just watch in awe of Whitney's sheer vocal power and ease as she glides into the notes:

 

Also, I absolutely agree that Celine should lip synch at some of her appearances/concerts. We saw what happened to Whitney. Whitney never lipped, which was commendable -- but her voice was fried by the end. (Granted, other factors helped that along too.) Whitney's mother said when she was born the doctor told her that Whitney may not be able to ever speak… she then became one of the vocalists of all time... and then lost her voice by the end. Celine's voice is also fragile. It's ridiculous to say "Celine's a singer. That's what she does. She should always sing live at every concert and appearance." She has one of the greatest voices of all time, why in the world would she push her voice on days when it's fragile??? It would be idiotic to strain something so precious to this world. It's a genuine gift. It's why we are all here, discussing her in the first place! If she wants to protect her gift, then that's what she should do. Can you imagine if she really did sing The Power of Love live every night in Vegas? She would not have a voice anymore. Just compare videos of Whitney in the early days to Whitney at the end. It's astonishing and unbelievably sad to see such a gift tainted. Celine will not make that mistake. And it's not just about the money. She is in demand. We want to see her. She is a brand. She employs a lot of people. She has albums to promote. And when she is scheduled to be seen, people expect her to sing. It's not so cut and dry. People are oblivious...

 

Well, at the end, Whitney was spectacular in Sparkle. Yeah I know what you mean about her live voice, but Whitney was still a superstar and amazing until the end, that's what I mean. After Sparkle, I was so moved by her acting and singing scene in the movie, and wished she was still with us preparing other new projects. So I don't think it's sad, the woman was always gifted and amazing until the end.

 

I think from what I can tell is that some people here don't mind much about Celine lipsynching sometimes, but rather that she "tricks" the audience and isn't honest about it. For example she sings live and then pushes a button on the big notes like in All By Myself or Power of Love, and people/fans swear that it's live and are fooled by it. If she came out and said that in order to preserve her voice she can't sing those songs live 100% anymore day after day, then I think more people (at least the ones speaking in this thread) would not mind as much. But it's just kind of weird seeing people praise live performances as amazing when they are lipped, it's this kind of "trickery" that is annoying by going into the studio, pre-recording new vocals and then pretending it's live, not the lipsynching itself.

[calmar]

Quick preface: Like us all, I am obsessed with Celine Dion, not Whitney Houston. But…

 

I agree with a lot of what's getting said about Whitney and Celine in this thread. Whitney Houston, at her vocal prime, was technically perfect. Celine is also an untouchable voice in this industry. If you stood them side by side at their prime, I think Celine could take Whitney in some areas, but as far as sheer vocal clarity and power -- Whitney would've taken Celine overall. And that's okay! Whitney did not take care of her instrument. And Celine absolutely has. Even by the time Whitney recorded The Bodyguard songs, her voice was beginning to strain. But, prior to that...wow. Don't watch this video with preconceived judgement. This is a video of Whitney before the English speaking world even knew of Celine. Just watch in awe of Whitney's sheer vocal power and ease as she glides into the notes:

 

Also, I absolutely agree that Celine should lip synch at some of her appearances/concerts. We saw what happened to Whitney. Whitney never lipped, which was commendable -- but her voice was fried by the end. (Granted, other factors helped that along too.) Whitney's mother said when she was born the doctor told her that Whitney may not be able to ever speak… she then became one of the vocalists of all time... and then lost her voice by the end. Celine's voice is also fragile. It's ridiculous to say "Celine's a singer. That's what she does. She should always sing live at every concert and appearance." She has one of the greatest voices of all time, why in the world would she push her voice on days when it's fragile??? It would be idiotic to strain something so precious to this world. It's a genuine gift. It's why we are all here, discussing her in the first place! If she wants to protect her gift, then that's what she should do. Can you imagine if she really did sing The Power of Love live every night in Vegas? She would not have a voice anymore. Just compare videos of Whitney in the early days to Whitney at the end. It's astonishing and unbelievably sad to see such a gift tainted. Celine will not make that mistake. And it's not just about the money. She is in demand. We want to see her. She is a brand. She employs a lot of people. She has albums to promote. And when she is scheduled to be seen, people expect her to sing. It's not so cut and dry. People are oblivious...

Whitney destroyed her voice with drugs, alcool, and just not caring overall. You can sing your whole career and not lose your voice. If you know of no other singers that do, you need to expand your musical horizons.

And don't get me wrong, I understand the occasionnal lipped performance, for a tv show, when she is sick, or when her voice is truly in bad shape. What annoys me, is that Celine seems to have slipped in a pattern of lipping more and more. Nowadays, it's almost a surprise when she sings truly live. And since a few years, even when it's live on tv shows, DVDs and other releases, her voice is blatantly auto-tuned. I'd prefer to see less appearances and performances, but having her sing for real, because she still has a GREAT voice.

[Your_Su_Phu]

I don't think it's a surprise at all. We can pretty much tell almost instantly whether a performance is lipped or live ahahaha

 

She also tends to keep to a pattern. Not just with the percentage of lipping in residencies and tours, but we know for a fact she never lips on the American late-night talk shows (Jay Leno, David Letterman). What did surprise us was that so much of the recent Sans Attendre special was live, since those specials have in the past been mostly lipped

 

Btw I've definitely noticed the increase in autotuning/polishing in recent dvds, but how are you so sure the recent special had excessive autotuning? It sounded fine to me. Celine does not have perfect intonation but it's pretty good, and on some of her "on" nights her voice is so sweet and centered in the pitch it almost sounds autotuned. You could especially hear this during the 1991-1994 period

Edited November 12, 2012 at 09:09 PM by Your_Su_Phu

[calmar]

I don't think it's a surprise at all. We can pretty much tell almost instantly whether a performance is lipped or live ahahaha

 

She also tends to keep to a pattern. Not just with the percentage of lipping in residencies and tours, but we know for a fact she never lips on the nightly American talk shows (she has lipped on Oprah though). What did surprise us was that so much of the recent Sans Attendre special was live, since those specials have in the past been mostly lipped

 

Btw I've definitely noticed the increase in autotuning/polishing in recent dvds, but how are you so sure the recent special had excessive autotuning? It sounded fine to me. Celine does not have perfect intonation but it's pretty good, and on some of her "on" nights her voice is so sweet and centered in the pitch it almost sounds autotuned. You could especially hear this during the 1991-1994 period

I don't want to come across as a "know-it-all" or pretentious, but I'm an audio engineer and I own a recording studio, and I work with auto-tune pretty much everyday. Your ears get trained to detect it, even when it's very subtile. A real, naturally on-pitch note will sound different than an auto-tuned note. Sometimes, you can hear an unnatural "shift" in the sound. Listen to the end of Pour que tu m'aimes encore from the special, the part "Je me changerai en or, pour que tu m'AIMES encore". the m'AIMES is heavily auto-tuned. Also, her vibrato is flattened on long notes, which sounds pretty robotic, as she is doing vibrato (which is a rapid variation of pitch), but the note stays perfectly on-pitch.

[GoldenLeaf]

I don't know these brands, but Celine herself has said that she wanted to look like Whitney and sound like Whitney... So please... Whitney isn't known as THE VOICE for nothing. Now Celine is also the best of the best, and sure Celine fans will prefer Celine and Whitney fans will prefer Whitney, but don't be stupid by putting down Whitney to make Celine look better. She doesn't need that, they are both exceptional yet different, that's the beauty of it.

Ever heard of personal preferences?

 

If some people like me prefer Celine's rendition over Whitney's rendition that doesn't mean we are automatically putting down WH.

 

As for Whitney, she lip-synced several TV appearances during her career (this includes her Super Bowl performance considered as the highlight of her career) not to mention that she also lip-synced some songs during her last Tour. Yet her fans never complained about it.

Edited November 12, 2012 at 10:24 PM by Calypso

[wboxoffice]

I just have to laugh at the idea that Celine lipsynchs because she's stressed at certain events, etc. This is the woman that the Oscars used to call 1 day prior to the event, and she would show up singing unrehearsed completely live in front of billions of people. So no I don't think that she now lipsynchs because she's stressed and nervous at certain events. lol

[manu23]

The lip synch topic is so sooooo boring. I've seen her live three times in my life and I hope I will see her again a lot, but at the end, what I listen to every day are her albums, so I hope she takes her of her voice even if that means lyp synch sometimes, but I agree she should do less shows from now on.

 

Just comparing Celine to Whitney or Mariah I think we should be more than grateful

[CelineDionFan710]

yep i saw her on the commercial cant wait

[Javito]

The lip synch topic is so sooooo boring. I've seen her live three times in my life and I hope I will see her again a lot, but at the end, what I listen to every day are her albums, so I hope she takes her of her voice even if that means lyp synch sometimes, but I agree she should do less shows from now on.

 

Agree with you Manu, all what's left in the end are her recordings, that's what we use to listen when we're home playing her music and that's what we have with us, so if the price we have to pay to keep getting more albums and CDs from Céline in the future is that she has to lipsynch songs here and there, to me that's so fine!

 

But that can't prevent me from thinking she has waisted her voice A LOT in Vegas all these years, and that she should do many less concerts and sing more the new songs instead of burning her voice singing TPOL or MHWGO for the 1.563 time .

[manu23]

Agree with you Manu, all what's left in the end are her recordings, that's what we use to listen when we're home playing her music and that's what we have with us, so if the price we have to pay to keep getting more albums and CDs from Céline in the future is that she has to lipsynch songs here and there, to me that's so fine!

 

But that can't prevent me from thinking she has waisted her voice A LOT in Vegas all these years, and that she should do many less concerts and sing more the new songs instead of burning her voice singing TPOL or MHWGO for the 1.563 time .

 

The first five years in Vegas and then the word tour was a crazy thing to do, even if half of every show was lipped it was still a lot, they should have never done that and maybe her voice now could be even better, on the other hand, she has very good doctors taking care of her voice, if they allowed it maybe it was ok..

 

What is better for a singer? Sing regularly or just a few concerts every year? Some expert?

 

After listening to SA I don't want to lose this voice ever

[Javito]

I have no idea, I just know that her voice in Sans Attendre sounds less nasal than in D'elles, and maybe that's due to the less quantity of concerts she's doing now compared to the brutal 2003-2007 era in which she recorded D'elles

 

723 concerts in less than 5 years had been madness, not only for the discussion if they resorted to use playback or not, but also mentally for her: to perform almost the same collection of songs during 723 concerts had to be exhausting for Céline, like she has admitted yesterday in the canadian TV show.

[Celinenvegas]

I just have to laugh at the idea that Celine lipsynchs because she's stressed at certain events, etc. This is the woman that the Oscars used to call 1 day prior to the event, and she would show up singing unrehearsed completely live in front of billions of people. So no I don't think that she now lipsynchs because she's stressed and nervous at certain events. lol

 

Exactly, don't think you can get more stressed than the Oscars! Like a billion people are watching LIVE!!!!!! She's always done so well there and she was their "go to" girl.

[celine-rc]

I totally forgot about this !

[Bóól'át'í]

Yes, people have different tastes. I prefer a Whitney with a declined voice than to Celine in her prime. Whitney will always be my #1. But that doesn't mean I like Celine any less. I just prefer Whitney to Celine.

[lucassfilho]

OMG OMG OMG! Céline looks amazing! She appears from 0:06 to 0:10! Can't wait to see the full performance!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FDJB737nSc

[gafsa]

I'm bored with the lipsynch talk, let's brush our teeth.

[DionFanAlways]

I'm bored with the lipsynch talk, let's brush our teeth.

Thank you, my thoughts exactly.

[Koolan]

The lipping discussion again for the millionth time.

Calmar, don't you think you should use the time to fix Dionesque's bootlegs instead of yapping away? Take a chill pill, dude.

[Tyler1991]

Jesus christ people. This may sound a bit strange coming from me, but Celine has surprised us quite a bit already during this "Sans Attendre Era" .....we haven't even seen the performance yet... let's wait until we see it before we say it's lipped. Not to mention it's clear that her voice is in top notch shape from her recent performances, so she could do it live if she wanted to.

[Nmj]

Jesus christ people. This may sound a bit strange coming from me, but Celine has surprised us quite a bit already during this "Sans Attendre Era" .....we haven't even seen the performance yet... let's wait until we see it before we say it's lipped. Not to mention it's clear that her voice is in top notch shape from her recent performances, so she could do it live if she wanted to.

Who are you ad what have you done with the real Tyler haha

[Tyler1991]

Oh believe me, I wish I knew what has happened to myself as well.... I'm not nearly the same person I used to be...

[Celinenvegas]

Yes, people have different tastes. I prefer a Whitney with a declined voice than to Celine in her prime. Whitney will always be my #1. But that doesn't mean I like Celine any less. I just prefer Whitney to Celine.

 

I'm a huge fan of both as well. Whitney was first for me, way back in 84 around the time when she was to debut and then Celine in 1990. It's easy to love them both. I just love the soulfulness of Whitney's voice, it always seemed so effortless. To me, The Preachers Wife soundtrack is her best work. I always wanted a full gospel album from her in good voice, sadly it wasn't meant to be. I had hoped the talent would come through and she'd get back on track, I think she was on her way. I miss her.

[nuts2you]

Only two more days, can't wait to see this. who is going to record it,?

[PuraVida]

Celine and Whitney, in my opinion are the two greatest singers in recent history.

 

I agree, Whitney was stunning...but Celine had her own moments of vocal AWESOMENESS. Even in the 80s while Whitney was making herself famous worldwide, Celine showed an unmatched vocal beauty and skill.

 

 

For those interested in the Whitney-Celine debate more largely (I think just comparing them in the 80s is fascinating), Celine is a strong contender. CAN WE EVER FORGET THIS:

 

Celine's earth-shattering performance.

 

1:43, 2:18, 2:41 on, but really 3:11 on are just incredible.