May 22, 2008, Canadian singer Céline Dion has just received the insignia of knight of the Legion of Honor from President Nicolas Sarkozy. It’s “a very important honor,” she said. “For a little Quebecer from Charlemagne like me, this takes on proportions and a meaning that is difficult to express.”
The key to the tender relationship she maintains with France, where she chose to make her return to the stage after six years of absence, is found there, in her Quebec roots which make her a pure French speaker.
In 1990, the year of release of her first album in English produced by the brilliant Canadian composer David Foster, she refused the title of best English-speaking artist when it was awarded to her by the Association québécoise de l'industrie du record, du spectacle et de la video (Adisq) and created controversy in English Canada.
The singer even suggests that the distinction be renamed to preserve the fact that the awarded artists are above all Quebecers and that it is their performance in another language that is praised. Adisq will follow its advice. To be Quebecois is to love France de facto, Céline Dion could respond when we talk about her relationship with France where she starts her series of concerts on Saturdays.
In the name of his French-speaking roots
“I remember”, the motto of Quebec, could be Céline Dion's leitmotif when it comes to her links with the country of Molière. The singer would say that she remembers her first name inspired by the song Céline by Hugues Aufray, her first major television appearance with Michel Drucker in 1983, the release in 1995 of the album D'eux composed and written by Jean-Jacques Goldman and which made her the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world. In 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy thanked Céline Dion for “making our language [French] shine beyond our borders”.
The Canadian singer could also remember her numerous trips to Paris to attend fashion shows, she who is a great fashionista, of the Stade de France which she was the first female artist to fill in 1999 as part of her Let's Talk About Love world tour. Beyond the performance, there is also the emotion of seeing her fans greet her husband and manager René Angélil who was unable to make the trip because he had cancer.
Celine Dion could finally remember her memorable performance at the end of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, on July 26, 2024, while illness, for several years, has prevented her from performing.
“I have the impression that when I come to France, I am a little bit at home, another at home,” confides Céline Dion with a lump in her throat in the documentary Céline Dion tells D'eux by Nicolas Perge broadcast on M6 in 2025. The TV film then celebrates the thirty years of the album given to her by Jean-Jacques Goldman, “a monument” of French song and “a brother” for the Quebecer.
Celine Dion had already expressed this strong feeling of belonging on many occasions. Particularly in 1984, a year after being officially presented to the French by Michel Drucker in his essential show “Champs Elysées”. “Remember the name of this young girl!”, he said at the time before the 15-year-old sang about Love or Friendship. This is the first time that she has participated in a prime time show on French territory. Children his age had already discovered him in 1982 on the show “Croque Vacances”. That year, she also posed in front of The Iron Lady, which she would meet again decades later.
Of Love and Friendship written by a Frenchman, the lyricist Eddy Marnay, illustrates what will be a constant for Céline Dion. Many French people adopt it.
It was Eddy Marnay who advised his manager, René Angélil, to get him an invitation to the set of Drucker, a necessary step towards notoriety. Céline Dion and René Angélil will maintain a special relationship with the French host who devotes several programs to the singer throughout her career.
Marnay, Drucker, Goldman... fruitful collaborations with the French
Celine Dion's first appearance on French television is not the first day of the rest of her history with France. She had already started, in music, when she was in her mother's womb. Born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, in the province of Quebec, the singer owes her name to Céline, the song by Hugues Aufray that her mother listened to during the pregnancy of her 14th child, which she had not wanted.
The song Céline "helped her a lot", confided the Canadian artist who, once again, could not hold back her tears on Michel Drucker's set in 2002 when Hugues Aufray performed the title in "Vivement Dimanche".
Céline Dion, the youngest, grew up in a family where everyone made music. His mother, who spotted his talent, composed his first song, “It was only a dream”. It’s the one that her future manager René Angélil discovered when the mother and her 12-year-old daughter arrived in his office in 1981.
The former musician, now impresario, spots the child's raw talent. It's a great opportunity for him who has just been abandoned by his only artist, the great Canadian singer Ginette Reno. The teenager benefits from the contacts, particularly French, of René Angélil.
Recognition in France is essential to launch your career. “I knew that she dreamed of France as we dream of America because for Quebecers, France was America. Succeeding in France was very important,” underlines Michel Drucker in Nicolas Perge’s documentary.
After France, Céline Dion is targeting the European market. This was what her participation in Eurovision under the colors of Switzerland in 1988 allowed her to do. She won the competition with a song... in French: Don't leave without me.
Two years later, the English-speaking world welcomed with open arms the young woman who took a break in the mid-1980s to learn English. She cannot say the same about the French welcome. And yet, notes Céline Dion in the work dedicated to her by Nicolas Perge, "it was natural for me to leave Quebec and come and sing for you". “It’s my first language,” she continues. “I speak French.” English, for her, is “a plus”.
“There was something almost dramatic that happened in Céline Dion's career when she exploded on a global level,” analyzed Didier Varrod, musical director of Radio France, in March. “She was the first French-speaking star to explode in the United States, England and throughout Europe. And, from that moment on, it no longer worked in France.”
"And as a result, the French record company, which is Sony, is required to ensure that Celine Dion finds her audience in France. And René, who was her husband and manager, had this obsession. He said: 'Until you have conquered the hearts of the French, you will not be able to consider that you are an international star.'
In 1995, D’eux definitely changed the situation. In France, Céline Dion holds a record listed in the Guinness Book, that of sales of singles and albums in France. Pour que tu m'aime encore, the first single taken from D'eux, sold "2.1 million copies" and the album "4.4 million copies", according to the record book.
The success of this opus is due to the meeting of two major artists of the French-speaking world. In the mid-1990s, Céline Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman did not really know each other. They briefly crossed paths at the International Record and Musical Publishing Market in 1983 in Cannes. It was the French composer who asked to work with Céline Dion. “I was interested in his voice.” She is one of the "rare" vocal singers of the time, according to the composer. For her part, the Quebec performer explained, in 1984, that it was an artist she appreciated before singing At the End of My Dreams.
Goldman researched her, read all her interviews over a decade and Céline Dion's natural frankness meant that he "knew a lot" about the young woman when he worked on D'eux. He also listens to her songs and realizes that she is not just a "classical" singer, who can sing Piaf among other things.
It can go into other musical areas, notably rhythm and blues. D'eux is a "tailor-made" opus and Goldman knows how to make it an album that the French public could love. “Musically, I built it entirely around his voice. Words-wise, I built it entirely around his personality,” he summarizes. He hits his target right on target: Céline Dion and René Angélil are in tears when they discover the composed titles.
Of them there must initially be ten titles. In the end, the opus is made up of twelve titles, each more sublime than the last, including the anthem to Céline Dion's personal love, Pour que tu m'aimes encore. It is on these notes that the funeral mass of René Angélil will end, who died in 2016 following his cancer.
“The chance to be welcome in France”
Of this album, Céline Dion says in the documentary dedicated to it on M6 that it is “a gift”. “I always wanted to be loved in France. And it was always a little difficult (...) Jean-Jacques gave me the chance to be welcome, at home, in France. And that, for me, was worth a lot,” confides Céline Dion, her throat tight with emotion in Céline Dion tells Of them. This album, she adds, gave me the chance to have another big family in France.
For René Angelil, Jean-Jacques Goldman is "the genius", who "changed" the career of Céline Dion in France. But even more: “He changed his career. Period", he declares again in Nicolas Perge's TV film. "When I am no longer here, I sincerely think [that this album] will still be young, still sung", confides for her part Céline Dion.
Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote a second album for him, S'il suffisait d'aimer (1998). He collaborated with her on 1 fille & 4 types (2003), another album in French, alongside Erick Benzi, Gildas Arzel and Jacques Veneruso.
In France, she also collaborates with Maxime Le Forestier. He writes Me to her when I cry, which often happens to Céline Dion. La Candienne sings with Johnny Hallyday or even Alain Delon, to whom she confided in a Michel Drucker show in 2012 that she wants to make films. That day, Serge Lama confessed to her how happy he would be if she did an English cover of his hit, I'm sick.
Words that she will unfortunately say, in real life, more than a decade later when she reveals, in 2022, that she suffers from Stiff Person Syndrome. This illness further kept him away from the stage after his tour was interrupted in 2020 due to the Covid epidemic.
The special relationship that Céline Dion maintains with France will manifest itself once again at a crucial moment in her life. Paris asks her for an exercise that she had already done in Atlanta: to sing for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games. The organizers know she is ill, but they did not think of anyone else to sing L'Hymne à l'amour by Edith Piaf, a song which embodies and is the "anthem" of France, recalls Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies. "Who could sing L'Hymne à l'amour? Celine Dion.
Singing again is a challenge that she wants to take on, insists the Quebecer on the American channel NBC before the ceremony without revealing anything about this great comeback that she is orchestrating. “My voice will be heard for the first time because I want it to be.” She intends to sing, as planned, on the first floor of this Eiffel Tower where Edith Piaf also sang.
With her next 16 dates, Celine Dion will not only rejoice the hearts of the French, but also give a little color to the French economy, many of which are currently in the red.
