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Celine Dion and recent comparison with Adele


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Posted

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it is only recently that Adele is suddenly being compared to Celine, with critics calling her either the Celine of the 2010s or the "cool" Celine Dion... And a lot of fans and critics have been pointing out how a song from Adele's new album, 25, called "All I Ask" could easily have been a "Celine Dion" song.

 

I think their musical styles are very much different. Celine's leaning more towards pop-rock-adult contemprary, while Adele's pop-soul-R&B-ish. People seem to be only drawing the comparison because of the fact that they've come to be known for big, sentimental (schmaltz even, as critics would call it) ballads that are kind of adult contemporary-ish...

 

Here are a few of the music reviews and articles noting the similarities:

 

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http://www.vogue.com/13372503/guide-adele-25-album/

 

“All I Ask”

Cowritten with Bruno Mars, this is Adele at her most Celine Dion–like, singing about the last night in a doomed relationship.

 

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http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/latest-album-reviews-adele-le1f-jeff-lynne-elo-dallas-crane-ty-dolla-ign/news-story/503e1ebae65f1ff74c0ea7eda201cfe4

 

Also vintage is All I Ask, a romantic piano ballad written with Bruno Mars. If Celine Dion released this (and she could) she’d be crucified for being unashamedly retro.

 

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http://www.complex.com/music/2015/11/adele-is-not-appropriating-black-music-shes-2015-celine-dion

 

No, Adele Is Not Appropriating Black Music—She's 2015's Celine Dion.

 

Adele reminds me more of adult contemporary balladeers of the 1990s. Those women were always massive sellers, only the problem is somewhere along the way that kind of majorly white female singer managed to attain wide success again—but her black female more soul-leaning counterpart has not been as fortunate.

 

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http://www.vulture.com/2015/11/what-exactly-makes-adeles-voice-so-special.html

 

"Adele has referred to what happened to her career post-21 as a “phenomenon,” a magnitude of success she can’t conceive of replicating in her lifetime — and something few others ever have or will. She’s there in good company alongside the likes of Streisand, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion, three women who’ve respectively sold millions (and millions and millions) en route to becoming the defining pop voices of their eras."

 

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http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/19/9760350/adele-25-album-review

 

Even more stunning is "All I Ask," a dispatch from the last night of a relationship that’s gorgeous and harrowing in equal measure. "It matters how this ends," she howls over a piano melody worthy of Streisand or Céline Dion.

 

 

=========

 

http://www.vh1.com/news/226520/adele-is-not-whitney-houston/

 

Adele’s Great, But Let’s Stop Calling Her The Next Whitney Houston

 

Adele will never have to know what it’s like to be marketed as a mainstream balladeer and face resentment from those who look like her – something Houston initially struggled with in the late 1980s. Houston made it easier for the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna. If anything, I liken Adele to someone more like Celine Dion, and while I don’t want to strip her accomplishments away, Adele also benefits from our current climate of music. That is to say, one that offers a dearth of singers who can actually sing.

 

 

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http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2015/11/19/adele-does-it-again-with-feeling-on-25-review.html

 

Adele is the Céline Dion it’s okay to like. Not that it’s not okay to like Céline Dion, by any means. But the breathless anticipation with which the global music industry has awaited Adele Adkins’ latest album, 25, would be unimaginable today if the soulful London singer didn’t command the respect of the same tastemakers who would have publicly reviled “My Heart Will Go On” back in the day. At the same time, Adele manages to draw the discretionary entertainment dollars of millions of casual record buyers — who, in recent years, haven’t really seemed motivated to pick up much but Taylor Swift’s 1989, the Frozen soundtrack and Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late in any great numbers — all while she’s doing essentially the same, overwrought thing that Dion was doing during her own march to world domination in the 1990s.

 

 

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http://www.spin.com/2015/11/adeles-25-impulsive-reviews/

 

Her schmaltz has more grit in it than Celine Dion’s, but 25 nonetheless makes it hard for her to shake the comparison, even on the charmingly reggae-lite “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).” This album wouldn’t have done it on its own, and 21 did.

 

==========

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2015/11/adele_s_25_reviewed_how_the_old_soul_makes_middle_aged_music_cool_for_young.html

 

With her new album, 25, largely backing off from the bluer notes of, say, “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele has begun to attract comparisons to Barbra Streisand and Céline Dion (to the displeasure of some).

 

==========

 

http://www.laweekly.com/music/when-can-we-expect-the-adele-backlash-probably-never-6311558

 

If anything sparks an Adele backlash, it will be 25 itself, which finds the singer drifting away from avowed influences like Etta James and more into full-blown Celine Dion territory.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Thanks for this.

 

What I found particularly interesting in some of these articles - like The Star, or Slate - is the notion that Celine was often critically panned back in the day because the critical milieu was so very different than it is today.

 

There seems to be a general argument out there now that the same tastemakers who dismissed Celine back then would be much more inclined to take her seriously today, there's no longer the same need to be 'subversive' to be considered legit. This is particularly evident in Carl Wilson's Slate article (the same Carl Wilson, by the way, who wrote that brilliant Let's Talk About Love book about Celine and music criticism in general). As he writes in his Slate article here:

 

"Part of the reason [Adele] hasn’t faced too much backlash is that we’re in a very different cultural cycle than in Dion’s 1990s, when self-consciously cool people put populist music down on principle. (As I’ve written about at length.) [...] Most Nashville country stars sing fantastically, but many people can’t hear that through their genre prejudices. It may be nostalgic, but it also seems restorative once in a while to put on a recording for no reason other than to hear a human being sing."

 

I think it's a very valid point and it gives me hope that some of the people who so readily dismissed Celine back in the day might give her another listen.

 

Adele's universal, cross-generational appeal is really something to behold, and I find it heartening. Good for her, and good for "grown up music" as some of these articles call it.

 

 

 

P.S. Have you seen the video of Sir David Attenborough narrating Hello? Priceless.

 

Edited by scielle
  • Like 4
Posted

Carl Wilson is obsessed with Celine

 

I am a pretty cynical person. I'm actually kind of ruthless with my everyday humor. But I love me some Celine. I think I missed the self-conscious phase. Couldn't give a rats arse if people think Celine is cool or uncool. And if anyone comes at me making fun of my taste then well...I'd knock their teeth out. :)

 

I'm still sick of Adele. She's talented and beautiful but...zzzzzzzzzzz. She just stands there at the mic and sprinkles her pixie dust she stole from 90s Mariah. I need more.

  • Like 6
Posted

i find Celine more interesting. And she can sing a lot of different genre. She takes risks, Adele would never sing You shook me all night long. Celine doesn't care about being cool , Adele is afraid to say she loves Celine in public, end of story . :giggle:

 

Yes i remember reading somewhere that Adele considers Celine her "guilty pleasure" or something... just couldnt find the article anymore...

  • Like 1
Posted

Adele has some Celine's influence on her, but idk she seems 'doesn't want to talk about it'.

 

Posters on other big music forums says Adele is the 2010s Celine because she is singing ballad and sells millions albums from it.

Some of them compare their vocal, but I'm not gonna go there yet, since Adele still needs to showcase her vocal ability more.

They also said:

Falling Into You = 21, in terms of sales, peak, musical, etc.

Let's Talk About Love = 25, because they had bigger first week sales than previous albums but failed to outsold it, but still a huge success.

 

I am a lil bit pressed that 25 broke LTAL's opening week record in Canada...

5d9c2029085cea0011cb49a6.jpg

Posted
Adele has influences of Celine yes, is such that in an old interview saw her win a poster of Celine, but I do not know what's wrong with Adele, because she seems to overlook the Celine, even after the declarations of Celine claiming to be his fan, she says nothing, talks about Britney and Madonna and other less Celine. Adele what's with you, I think it would be some hurt by the episode with his friend, I forgot the name, the writer of Water and a Flame, what's going on with you Adele?
Posted
Homestly I think they are really different ,also adele never talked about influence of celine on her
Posted (edited)

I can understand why Adele gets compared to Celine. But she's not on Celine's level vocally.

I think it's amazing it's taken 17/18 years for someone to beat LTAL opening week sales record. Someone was gonna do it at some point. Sadly.

Personally I think Adele is overrated. I like a few of her songs. Love RITD (and yes, before Celine sang it lol. Was so pleased that she chose this Adele song!).

Also very pleased with the fact that I don't have any Adele albums.

But people love a power ballad. They always will. Look at Aerosmith. Not a group you would associate with a power ballad really. That's more Bon Jovi! Ballads can be cool and they can easily be the bestselling singles. Adele has this market because, like others have said, she hasn't much competition really. Back in the 90's you had Celine, Mariah, Whitney, but also Gloria, Barbra, Tina Arena, LeAnn Rimes, Shania etc. To be successful and stand alongside these you had to be unique to a certain extent, and be brilliant at what you do. Does make me wonder how Adele would fair had she had more competition?! But we'll never know.

One thing that does annoy me is when it's said that it is cool to like Adele but it wasn't to like Celine etc. But then, it always annoyed me! Long before Adele started her career! 😂

It's nice to see another Brit doing well worldwide. The 90's had Celine, Mariah, and Whitney. The 10's has Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Sam Smith! 😄

Edited by celine4evauk
  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

Homestly I think they are really different ,also adele never talked about influence of celine on her

 

She actually did mention in a past interview that she used to listen to Celine's music :-)

Edited by marc-02
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

I think it's amazing it's taken 17/18 years for someone to beat LTAL opening week sales record. Someone was gonna do it at some point. Sadly.

 

It's even more amazing that she's done it in a day and age when nobody buys records anymore. Partially, I suppose, but keeping it off of streaming services. But still. To sell that many copies in a post-Napster world... it's pretty stunning. Good for her. I wonder if this new record will ever fall.

 

 

P.S. I also hope this spurs Aldo to action a little bit! If this genre is back on top again... well perhaps more reason to strike when the iron's hot and bring that intended 2017 English album forward a little? Give Adele some competition? ;)

Probably a long shot, but still.

Edited by scielle
Posted

 

 

It's even more amazing that she's done it in a day and age when nobody buys records anymore. Partially, I suppose, but keeping it off of streaming services. But still. To sell that many copies in a post-Napster world... it's pretty stunning. Good for her. I wonder if this new record will ever fall.

 

 

P.S. I also hope this spurs Aldo to action a little bit! If this genre is back on top again... well perhaps more reason to strike when the iron's hot and bring that intended 2017 English album forward a little? Give Adele some competition? ;)

Probably a long shot, but still.

 

Well I buy records. Never downloaded a song in my life lol. Know I'm a minority though 😂

 

It definitely helped Adele's sales not streaming the album!

Posted

I used to be the biggest Céline fan. For much of my youth I only listened to her music and I still enjoy it a lot and will buy the next two albums and I loved her performance at the AMA's, but I have to defend Adele here as there are several things that have made her my favorite artist. She has taken Celine's place with Sam Smith very close behind. Here are the reasons:

 

1. Adele writes her own songs.

There is just this sincerity in her music that makes me believe every note she sings. She really opens herself up and talks about stuff that I also deal with. The same is true for Sam Smith. On a lyrical level, when I hear Sam's lyrics it's like he is singing about my life and most of Adele's songs are the same. Celine sings beautifully, but at the end of the day she chooses the best sounding songs for an album. Very often there is not real concept sometimes the sentiments of songs are completely contradictory. She acts as someone else which makes her music a bit more distant to me.

(May have to do with the fact that Adele and Sam are my age and have similar problems etc.)

2. Adele is genuine to me.

When Adele cries after singing Someone Like you at the Brits I believe her. I believe her much more and I can feel her pain and her suffering than when Celine starts crying during Alone. I'm not saying Celine is fake and playing it, but she doesn't reach my soul the way Adele does. There is very often an element that makes me think it is all planned from the very beginning.

3. Personality

Adele is soo funny, she swears, she doesn't really care that her career doesn't take off in Japan because she doesn't wanna fly. She takes years off to have time for her kid. She hasn't changed from the girl from Tottenham. She is real! I can't imgine Celine doing something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkGpsvRA80A. Adele doesn't lose weight, she doesn't try to speak more posh and she doesn't do what she doesn't want to do. Celine changed her teeth, tried to sound less quebecois in France and she basically does what Rene tells her to do (or has for a long time). She comes off as fake a lot of the time. Reiterating the same old sentences to interview questions.

4. Artistry

Celine covers Water and a flame, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't really get the feeling of the song and she doesn't even know its not an Adele song. That screams "I do what other people tell me to do" to me unfortunately.

 

I think in general, over the last few years it has become important for me that singers want to convey feelings, realizations etc. through their songs and for me it is important that they have actually lived what they sing about. Adele and Sam Smith are such artists but also Philipp Poisel, James Bay...

 

However, I have a feeling that the current situation with Rene and her new management may make her more "real" in the coming years. Her performance at AMA was not at all perfect but she really transmitted the emotions and I really believe her that she meant what she sang even though it was not her song.

  • Like 4
Posted (edited)

I used to be the biggest Céline fan. For much of my youth I only listened to her music and I still enjoy it a lot and will buy the next two albums and I loved her performance at the AMA's, but I have to defend Adele here as there are several things that have made her my favorite artist. She has taken Celine's place with Sam Smith very close behind. Here are the reasons:

 

1. Adele writes her own songs.

There is just this sincerity in her music that makes me believe every note she sings. She really opens herself up and talks about stuff that I also deal with. The same is true for Sam Smith. On a lyrical level, when I hear Sam's lyrics it's like he is singing about my life and most of Adele's songs are the same. Celine sings beautifully, but at the end of the day she chooses the best sounding songs for an album. Very often there is not real concept sometimes the sentiments of songs are completely contradictory. She acts as someone else which makes her music a bit more distant to me.

(May have to do with the fact that Adele and Sam are my age and have similar problems etc.)

2. Adele is genuine to me.

When Adele cries after singing Someone Like you at the Brits I believe her. I believe her much more and I can feel her pain and her suffering than when Celine starts crying during Alone. I'm not saying Celine is fake and playing it, but she doesn't reach my soul the way Adele does. There is very often an element that makes me think it is all planned from the very beginning.

3. Personality

Adele is soo funny, she swears, she doesn't really care that her career doesn't take off in Japan because she doesn't wanna fly. She takes years off to have time for her kid. She hasn't changed from the girl from Tottenham. She is real! I can't imgine Celine doing something like this: https://www.youtube....?v=JkGpsvRA80A. Adele doesn't lose weight, she doesn't try to speak more posh and she doesn't do what she doesn't want to do. Celine changed her teeth, tried to sound less quebecois in France and she basically does what Rene tells her to do (or has for a long time). She comes off as fake a lot of the time. Reiterating the same old sentences to interview questions.

4. Artistry

Celine covers Water and a flame, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't really get the feeling of the song and she doesn't even know its not an Adele song. That screams "I do what other people tell me to do" to me unfortunately.

 

I think in general, over the last few years it has become important for me that singers want to convey feelings, realizations etc. through their songs and for me it is important that they have actually lived what they sing about. Adele and Sam Smith are such artists but also Philipp Poisel, James Bay...

 

However, I have a feeling that the current situation with Rene and her new management may make her more "real" in the coming years. Her performance at AMA was not at all perfect but she really transmitted the emotions and I really believe her that she meant what she sang even though it was not her song.

 

you are totally right - everyones over looking the simple fact that adele is more acceptable because shes real. and writes her own songs. I dont think celine means to come off as fake i think its just her personality - she loves to be a chameleon, to immitate and to please others ie rene who has done amazing things for her yes but a lot of the time you hear her saying 'i didnt wanna do that...i thought it was cheesy/ pretentious" and shes right. but rene has a higher level of cheese i think.

Edited by Hilda
  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

Btw it still makes me so angry when people bad mouth MHWGO. Celine didn't ask the radio to play it sooooooooo much, nor did she ask people to request it sooooooooo much! :glare: What's the turning point that makes a person hate a song he or she initially loved? :confused:

 

And she wasn't even on her knees begging to get this song in the first place ^_^

Edited by Daysleeper
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

you are totally right - everyones over looking the simple fact that adele is more acceptable because shes real. and writes her own songs. I dont think celine means to come off as fake i think its just her personality - she loves to be a chameleon, to immitate and to please others ie rene who has done amazing things for her yes but a lot of the time you hear her saying 'i didnt wanna do that...i thought it was cheesy/ pretentious" and shes right. but rene has a higher level of cheese i think.

 

To me there's just no comparing 'French Celine' to 'English Celine', as emmo2007 said above.

 

French Celine will always be more real and more of an artist than just a performer. She clearly picks better material, interprets it with more nuance, and really feels what she's singing in her bones. And she can obviously express herself more freely and with more authenticity. She 'oversings' in English much more than she does in French. Louder, higher, 'bigger'. She has said as much herself, as has JJ Goldman, who had to actively push her to turn it down a notch for D'Eux... which is ultimately why I think she had such success in France with that sound.

 

Yeah, she sometimes comes off as overly rehearsed in English but I completely attribute that to it being her second language. She didn't really learn it until she was ~18 or so, and that's late. (I mean, I started learning English at 11, and though it's my primary language now I still don't understand it as instinctively as I do my first - Polish - even though I never use the latter anymore and can barely spell it properly!)

 

At the time Celine was first getting into the US market, she was still a gawky, awkward kid who spoke very basic English and probably did need some coaching from Rene & team - and I think she just carried that through. I don't think she needs it anymore, but it's just the way she's use to doing things. And partly, I think she just doesn't really trust herself as much in English. I remember reading somewhere - maybe For Keeps? - that she sometimes felt intimidated by journalists who had more formal education than she did, that she felt the pressure to sound 'smart'. So I think part of it just comes down to a certain lack of confidence when she's English Celine. But I don't think this is the case at all in French.

 

And I think you might have a point about Rene having a higher 'cheese quotient', so to speak. He came out of the 60s-70s school of quebecois entertainment which was much more of a variety act sensibility. It was about very rehearsed, larger-than-life entertainers, performers, interpreters. The whole confessional, ad-libbed singer songwriter thing was a pretty new concept - certainly for women (I mean, Joni Mitchell basically invented it in the late 60s).

 

Anyway, I wish more people really got to appreciate French Celine, because I really see her as completely different to English Celine. All things considered, it's pretty staggering what she managed to accomplish in English.

 

I hope if/ when she ever does any acting, that she does it in French, because I'm convinced she'd be infinitely more successful at it that way.

Edited by scielle
  • Like 7
Posted

I used to be the biggest Céline fan. For much of my youth I only listened to her music and I still enjoy it a lot and will buy the next two albums and I loved her performance at the AMA's, but I have to defend Adele here as there are several things that have made her my favorite artist. She has taken Celine's place with Sam Smith very close behind. Here are the reasons:

 

1. Adele writes her own songs.

There is just this sincerity in her music that makes me believe every note she sings. She really opens herself up and talks about stuff that I also deal with. The same is true for Sam Smith. On a lyrical level, when I hear Sam's lyrics it's like he is singing about my life and most of Adele's songs are the same. Celine sings beautifully, but at the end of the day she chooses the best sounding songs for an album. Very often there is not real concept sometimes the sentiments of songs are completely contradictory. She acts as someone else which makes her music a bit more distant to me.

(May have to do with the fact that Adele and Sam are my age and have similar problems etc.)

2. Adele is genuine to me.

When Adele cries after singing Someone Like you at the Brits I believe her. I believe her much more and I can feel her pain and her suffering than when Celine starts crying during Alone. I'm not saying Celine is fake and playing it, but she doesn't reach my soul the way Adele does. There is very often an element that makes me think it is all planned from the very beginning.

3. Personality

Adele is soo funny, she swears, she doesn't really care that her career doesn't take off in Japan because she doesn't wanna fly. She takes years off to have time for her kid. She hasn't changed from the girl from Tottenham. She is real! I can't imgine Celine doing something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkGpsvRA80A. Adele doesn't lose weight, she doesn't try to speak more posh and she doesn't do what she doesn't want to do. Celine changed her teeth, tried to sound less quebecois in France and she basically does what Rene tells her to do (or has for a long time). She comes off as fake a lot of the time. Reiterating the same old sentences to interview questions.

4. Artistry

Celine covers Water and a flame, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't really get the feeling of the song and she doesn't even know its not an Adele song. That screams "I do what other people tell me to do" to me unfortunately.

 

I think in general, over the last few years it has become important for me that singers want to convey feelings, realizations etc. through their songs and for me it is important that they have actually lived what they sing about. Adele and Sam Smith are such artists but also Philipp Poisel, James Bay...

 

However, I have a feeling that the current situation with Rene and her new management may make her more "real" in the coming years. Her performance at AMA was not at all perfect but she really transmitted the emotions and I really believe her that she meant what she sang even though it was not her song.

Move.

  • Like 1
Posted

When I hear Adele's name, the only word that comes to my mind is "overrated".

 

Same word as me lol

  • Like 1
Posted

Move.

 

Not cool.

 

I just moved from Tokyo to Berlin ;) Thank you for that long and honest response to my open and sincere post!

 

And thank you manilou. Agree or not, I'd like to think this is a place for thoughtful conversation not blind adulation.

  • Like 2
Posted
Don't worry, with huge success comes backlash... Adele will soon get that just like Céline did unfortunately...
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