When Rolling Stone published their 200 Best Singers of All Time list at the top of the year, one thing became abundantly clear straight away: Celine Dion was robbed.
"Leaving her off ... has to be an honest and regrettable mistake… because doing it intentionally would be criminal," one fan wrote on Twitter. Another called the omission "borderline treasonous"; the decision even led to a small group of fans picketing the magazine's office.
While Rolling Stone had their reasons for the decision, there's no denying that Dion is one of music's all-time greats. Alongside fellow divas Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, she essentially shaped a generation of performers with her octave-spanning technique.
The Queen of Adult Contemporary (21 Top 10 hits and 11 No.1s on Billboard's AC chart) has also won everything from the Eurovision Song Contest to the Album of the Year GRAMMY during her decades-spanning career. Then there's the multiple blockbuster themes (she even recently appeared on the big screen herself), diamond certifications, and record-breaking Vegas residencies. And let's not forget the fact she's enjoyed unprecedented success with material in both English and her native French.
Dion has sadly been absent from the music scene since being diagnosed with the neurological disease known as stiff-person syndrome in 2022. But as her international breakthrough album, The Colour of My Love, turns 30 on Nov. 9, what better time to remind everyone of her remarkable back catalog?
From titanic ballads to Gallic rockers, here's a look at 15 songs that best encapsulate her talents.
"Where Does My Heart Beat Now?" Unison (1990)
Though Dion had enjoyed success in her Canadian homeland from the age of just 13, she had to wait until her early twenties to break stateside. The third single from her English-language debut Unison, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now?" became Dion's first U.S. Top 10 hit in the spring of 1991 and essentially set the template for her international chart career.
The track has all the makings of a Celine classic: Soft rock-tinged production, melodramatic lyrics, and the kind of powerhouse vocals that could shatter an entire mirror showroom. First performed during her victory lap at the Eurovision Song Contest, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now?" served as the perfect introduction to her talents on a global scale.
"The Power of Love," The Colour of My Love (1993)
"The Power of Love" had already charted three times over in the mid-1980s, with covers by Air Supply and Laura Branigan alongside Jennifer Rush's original all enjoying middling Billboard Hot 100 success. It was Dion's faithful 1994 rendition, however, that truly put the karaoke favorite into the American consciousness.
The GRAMMY-nominated single became the first of her four U.S. No. 1s and ultimately powered parent album The Colour of My Love to blockbuster sales of over 20 million copies, firmly establishing Dion as a global power ballad icon.
"Think Twice," The Colour of My Love (1994)
"Think Twice" barely made a ripple in the States (No. 97), but remains one of Dion's signature hits across the other side of the Atlantic. The song reigned for seven weeks on the Top 40 singles chart CHART, becoming one of the U.K.'s biggest-selling solo female songs of all time.
Co-written by Peter Sinfield, the founder of prog rock pioneers King Crimson, The Colour of My Love cut is something of a slow burner. But its lovelorn first third — with ghostly synths, occasional twangy guitars, and unusually restrained vocals — gradually builds up to a steamrolling finale, where Dion essentially battles with a soft rock wall of sound. It's all enjoyably overblown, with her speaker-blasting "NO NO NO NO" a particularly impressive feat in vocal histrionics.
"To Love You More," The Colour of My Love (1995)
"To Love You More" could be described as something of a nomad. It first appeared on the Japanese reissue of The Colour of My Love, then the Asian release of Falling Into You, and then finally the Stateside version of Let's Talk About Love.
The Colour of My Love can perhaps lay claim to being its true home — Dion specifically recorded the track for Japanese drama Koibito yo in 1995, while the synths and sweeping strings are provided by Tokyo-based outfit Kryzler and Kompany. But whichever album you hear "To Love You More" on, the soaring power ballad is sure to be a highlight, as it's arguably one of the most impassioned vocal performances of her career.
"Pour que tu m'aimes encore," D'eux (1995)
Dion had become such a sensation by the mid-1990s that even her French-sung material started to make waves in countries typically averse to the true language of love. Penned by one of Paris' most celebrated troubadours, Jean-Jacques Goldman, "Pour que tu m'aimes" remains the crowning glory in her native tongue.
Lifted from the record-breaking D'eux, the 1995 single allows Dion to show her more sensual side with an opening verse that harks back to the chansons of yesteryear. But even when the beats kick in, the star keeps things relatively calm and collected. "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" was given the English treatment on 1996's Falling Into You, but it's undeniably the original that remains the most magnifique.
"Because You Loved Me," Falling Into You (1996)
With two power-ballad titans at the helm — producer David Foster and songwriter Diane Warren — "Because You Loved Me" was perhaps always destined to become Dion's second U.S. chart-topper. Even more so considering it also served as the theme to Up, Close and Personal at a time when an intergenerational romantic drama could make $100 million at the box office.
Like most of Dion's biggest hits, this emotional tour-de-force starts small before reaching the kind of vocal crescendo you could imagine breaking the cinema speakers. Though "Because You Loved Me" didn't win any of the three awards for which it was nominated at the 1997 GRAMMYs, The song was undoubtedly instrumental in parent LP Falling Into You's wins for the Best Pop Album and the coveted Album Of The Year.
"It's All Coming Back To Me Now," Falling Into You (1996)
"Heathcliff digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight." That's how songwriter Jim Steinman vividly described the Wuthering Heights-inspired mini-rock opera that is "It's All Coming Back To Me Now." And its backstory is almost as dramatic.
Indeed, Steinman had to go to court to prevent the track falling into the hands of Meat Loaf, his regular collaborator who'd wanted it to be the centerpiece of Bat Out of Hell III. And it was offered to Bonnie Tyler, and then recorded by short-lived girl group Pandora's Box, before finally making its way to Dion in time for 1996's Falling Into You. As you'd expect, the Quebecer instantly puts her own stamp on the seven-minute Wagnerian epic Andrew Lloyd Webber hailed as the "greatest love song ever written."
"Tell Him," Let's Talk About Love (1997)
Having previously shared the mic with Billy Newton-Davis, Peabo Bryson, and Clive Griffin, Dion hit the duet jackpot in 1997 when she entered the studio with her musical idol. The French-Canadian had been a last-minute fill-in for the inimitable Barbra Streisand earlier that year at the Academy Awards, and her performance of The Mirror Has Two Faces' "I Finally Found Someone" was so impressive that Babs insisted on a collaboration. Dion certainly doesn't sound fazed, going toe to toe against the Broadway legend on a GRAMMY-nominated piece of romantic advice which, for fans of theatrical pop, is the diva dream.
"My Heart Will Go On," Let's Talk About Love (1997)
"My Heart Will Go On" is arguably just as pivotal to Titanic's monumental success (and endurance) as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's tear-jerking performances, the breathtaking special effects, and that age-old question, "Couldn't Jack just fit on the door?"
But like many of Dion's biggest hits, it had a tricky inception. James Cameron initially wanted the theme to be entirely instrumental. Norwegian soprano Sissel had been the first choice to lay the vocals once the director relented. And concerned at the number of soundtracks she'd previously graced, Dion needed some persuading to put herself in the frame.
Luckily, her trust in composer James Horner paid off. "My Heart Will Go On" not only won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, it picked up both Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record Of The Year at the GRAMMYs. And with nearly 500 million streams, it's by far her most-played track on Spotify, too.
"That's The Way It Is," All the Way… A Decade of Song (1999)
What's this? Celine Dion, the queen of uber-dramatic power ballads, taking on a breezy dance-pop anthem produced by the man who guided Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC to teenybopper dominance? The singer had occasionally flirted with the uptempo: see "Misled," "Treat Her Like A Lady," but "That's The Way It Is" was the first time she appeared to aim for the TRL crowd.
It's to her and producer Max Martin's credit that the lead single from retrospective All the Way is far from the bandwagon-jumping embarrassment you might expect. In fact, Dion sounds so at ease with such carefree, if still resolutely tasteful, material that you wish the pair had worked together more often.
"A New Day Has Come," A New Day Has Come (2002)
After a two-year break to welcome her first child with husband René Angélil, Dion returned in graceful style with a song dedicated to their son ("Where there was weakness I've found my strength/ All in the eyes of a boy"). The fact the star was now singing about maternal, instead of romantic, love is also reflected in how she keeps her usual vocal acrobatics at bay. The title track from 2002's A New Day Has Come isn't quite a lullaby, but its dreamy melodies, shuffling beats, and gentle acoustics provide the kind of calming backdrop that could sing anyone to sleep.
"Ne Bouge Pas," 1 Fille & 4 Types (2003)
Dion surprised everyone in 2003 when she joined forces with four veteran French singer/songwriters — including regular cohort Jean-Jacques Goldman — to form a short-lived supergroup that specialized in good, old-fashioned Gallic rock and roll. Fully committing herself to the project, the diva even rocked a spiky bleached blonde hairdo and sporty T-shirt for their album's front cover.
1 Fille & 4 Types (which translates as 1 girl & 4 guys) is packed with guitar-led ditties worlds away from Dion's usual polished sheen. But it's the stomping saloon sing-along of "Ne Bouge Pas" (which translates as "Don't Change") that best fits the back-to-basics brief.
"Taking Chances," Taking Chances (2007)
Following various French-language efforts, hits collections, and concept albums dedicated to the joys of babies, Dion rediscovered her adult contemporary pop mojo for 2007's Taking Chances. The title track — written by Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart and prolific hitmaker Kara DioGuardi for their meta side project Platinum Weird — is an uplifting soft rocker that eventually found its way to the French-Canadian who tackled it with her signature gusto.
"Taking Chances" the song is, remarkably, the last time Dion graced the Hot 100 (No. 54) on her own (2008's "The Prayer" was a duet with Josh Groban). But it proved she still had relevance nearly three decades into her international career.
"Loved Me Back to Life," Loved Me Back to Life (2013)
Dion proved that she still had one finger on the pop pulse in 2013 when she bagged a song from the era's most potent hitmaker. Arriving around the same time as Rihanna's "Diamonds," Ne-Yo's "Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)," and Beyoncé's "Pretty Hurts," "Loved Me Back to Life" was another example of how Sia's songwriting talents were as striking as her lampshade-styled hair.
While the song — the title track to Dion's 11th English-language studio effort — may have been in her power ballad wheelhouse, its flashes of dubstep and stuttering vocal hooks brought the superstar further to the cutting edge than ever before.
"Imperfections," Courage (2019)
The lead single from Dion's 27th studio effort, Courage, scored the icon her first Top 15 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in over a decade. But far from the traditional skyscraping ballads of her previous entries, "Imperfections" is a sleek, slickly-produced mid-tempo which showed that the French-Canadian didn't always need to belt things out to be emotionally affecting.
Beyond its chart and critical success, the tale of self-reflection ("I try to give all of myself to you/ But before I can get there/ I've got parts of me I'm trying to lose") was co-written by contemporary pop hitmakers Lauv, Michael Polachek and DallasK — proving that Dion’s voice is truly timeless.
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