Celine Dion

She married her manager, Rene Angelil, on 17 December 1994. She had known him for a long time, having first met him in 1980 when she was a 12 year old girl and he, a 38 year old man. The couple has three children.

She was born on 30 March 1968 in Quebec, Canada, as the youngest of 14 children into a poor family. Her father Adhemar Dion was a butcher while her mother Therese Tanguay was a homemaker. Her childhood, though spent in poverty, was generally happy one.

Her family had always been musically inclined and her parents even ran a small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril. Naturally talented in music from an early age, she made her first public appearance in 1973 at the age of five, singing at her brother’s wedding.

Eventually she started performing with her siblings at her parents’ bar and nurtured a dream of making it big one day as a famous singer.

When she was 12, Celine composed a song, ‘Ce n'était qu'un rêve’ in collaboration with her mother and brother. This demo tape was sent to music manager Rene Angelil who immediately recognized the young girl’s potential and mortgaged his own home to finance her debut album, ‘La Voix du bon Dieu’ (The Voice of God). It was an instant hit and Celine became a star in Quebec.

She competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, where she won the award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song". Following this, her popularity began to spread to other parts of the world as well.

Over the next few years she participated in competitions all over the world in countries in Europe, Australia and Asia, cementing her popularity as a teen sensation.

After having sung only in French all this while, she learned English and released her English-language debut album, ‘Unison’ in 1990 in North America; the album was released the next year in the rest of the world.

She released the album ‘The Colour of My Love’ in 1993 which showcased romantic ballads including ‘When I Fall in Love’ and ‘The Power of Love’, the latter of which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1997, she brought out the album, ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ which included the romantic ballad, ‘My Heart Will Go On’, which also served as the love theme for the film ‘Titanic’, and went on to become Dion’s signature song.

She is the proud recipient of five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for ‘Falling Into You’ and Record of the Year for ‘My Heart Will Go On’.

She had surpassed 175 million in album sales worldwide by 2004 and was presented with the Chopard Diamond Award at the World Music Awards for becoming the best-selling female artist of all time.

Dion has also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year".