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The youngest of 14 children in a poor part of French-speaking Quebec, Céline Dion shook off her humble beginnings to become one of the world's most successful singers. The one thing her family did have was music, and all she ever wanted to do was perform. She wrote her first song at the age of 12 and when her brother sent a recording of her to music manager René Angélil, he mortgaged his house in order to finance her debut record - 'La Voix Du Bon Dieu' (1981). It made her an overnight success in Quebec and she went on to make her name in Europe when she won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland with 'Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi'. She finally released her first English-language record, 'Unison', in 1990 and found international fame with her duet performance of the title track to the 1991 Disney animation 'Beauty and the Beast', which featured on her self-titled debut album released the following year. Her emotional voice, allied to an elegant soft-rock style, conquered the international pop market, scoring hits with 'The Power of Love' and 'My Heart Will Go On', the theme from the movie 'Titanic' (1997) which became one of the bestselling singles of all time. It also won Dion the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song and two Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year. In 2000, Dion announced that she was taking a step back from her career to spend time with her now husband Angélil who had been diagnosed with cancer. She returned to the studio after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America, performing 'God Bless America' live on TV. An album of new material came out in 2002 titled 'A New Day Has Come' and focused on her experiences of being a mother. Following her record-breaking 'A New Day...' Las Vegas residency and the 'Taking Chances' world tour, in 2009 she was named the 20th bestselling recording artist of the decade selling an estimated 17 million records since 2000. At the start of 2016, Dion lost both her brother and her husband to cancer and cancelled her upcoming shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas where she was again in residency. She returned later to a sold-out theatre and announced work on a brand new album, 'Encore Un Soir'. Following the end of her residency at Caesars Palace, in 2019 she released the album 'Courage' and announced plans to embark on a world tour in support of the record.
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