After revealing that she had a rare disease, Celine Dion often fell into the whirlpool of public opinion. Not only was he caricatured like a "skeleton" at Fashion Week because he was too thin, but rumors of his death were also common. But in addition to being used as a talking point, does anyone know the real life plight of this 56-year-old "pop diva"?
Now, with the release of the documentary "I Am: Celine Dion", people have finally discovered how brave and strong she is in the fight against "stiff man syndrome".
"Miracle" is how many people describe Celine Dion's voice. In 1998, a critic said: "Celine's voice is so good, if she were a mountain, then there is hardly a higher mountain in the world that can surpass her." ”
But it is such a natural sound that has been destroyed by the rare disease "stiff-person syndrome", which has an incidence of only one in a million. In the latest documentary, in order to record a new song, Celine entered the recording studio for the first time after two years, struggling between broken sounds, looking lonely, and silent for a long time.
In December 2022, Celine Dion announced that due to her "stiff person syndrome", which affects the nervous system, she will have muscle stiffness and pain cramps from time to time, resulting in difficulty in moving, and there is still no reliable cure.
So in the most heart-wrenching 10 minutes of the film, we see that she collapsed on the bed after the onset of pain, her whole body stiff, her mouth spasmed, and helpless tears slowly slid down in the moans.
What's even more heartbreaking is that her seizure was triggered by the excitement of recording the song. "If I'm doing something I'm passionate about, I'm going to be stimulated and I'm going to have a flare-up, so what should I do when I'm on stage?" The helplessness and despair behind the problem are unbearable.
In the documentary, Celine has a seizure of pain
Once upon a time, Celine was a perfectionist through and through. "Who is Celine Dion? Celine Dion is the singer who has ever sung the highest note of all time, and she should be the best. ”
Before she got sick, her voice was the "commander-in-chief" of her life. "It leads me, and I follow it. When your voice brings you joy, you're at the top of your game. ”
But now, she has to face her imperfect self and endure the fear of being "betrayed" by the voice, "I'm so sad that I don't want people to hear about it." In an unknown corner, this fear has been hidden by her for nearly 20 years.
I miss the stage so much, I miss the audience.
If I can't run anymore,
Then I'll use walking instead,
If I can't even walk,
那我就趴着前行。
I'm not going to stop, I'm never going to stop.
——Celine Dion
For a long time before, medicine was her lifesaver, but its effect was always limited.
"When your adrenaline starts to rush and your heart beats, when you hear the curtain behind the crowd shouting 'Celine! Celine! I thought, 'Tonight my dream has come true again, I love this feeling so much', and then I felt a spasm in my throat, my voice got sharper, and the effect was over. ”
"Whenever something goes wrong with my instrument, we have to increase the dosage." At the time, she would take 80 or 90 milligrams of diazepam a day, "and it was just one of the drugs, and I don't want to exaggerate it, but I probably died from it." ”
One, two, five, "I have to take medicine because then I can walk, I can swallow, I can go to my normal life." But when the situation was so serious that she had to cancel the show, she had to explain for other reasons, "I have to lie." ”
The excuses she has given include sinus infections, ear infections, etc., and sometimes she has no choice but to point the microphone at the audience, or pat the microphone, pretending that it is a device problem, and when it is the hardest, she has to interrupt the performance, "saying that she will change her costume, but she never returns to the stage".
"This secret is too heavy for me to bear." So, in this spring, she revealed her truest self to the public. With the release of the documentary, we have finally been able to see the courage of a woman who dares to reveal her pain, the tenacity of a patient who struggles to survive, and the love of an artist for singing.
No one will fail to admire Celine Dion's spirit in battling her illness, and no one will forget her place in the pop music industry.
As we all know, she is not only a five-time Grammy winner, but also one of the five "pop divas" along with Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Madonna, and Jenny Jackson.
Celine Dion at the 2024 Grammy Awards
As one of the "world's best-selling female singers", Celine has sold more than 200 million records worldwide. Six years ago, she was worth $700 million, making her the second most expensive Canadian after James Cameron.
In the Spring Festival of 2013, she also crossed the ocean and sang "Jasmine" with Song Zuying at the Spring Festival Gala, which also has a strong influence in China.
Celine Dion performed at the Spring Festival Gala
Fame at a young age is Celine's earliest label. She was born in Quebec, Canada, and is the eldest of 14 children. At the age of five, Celine stood on the kitchen table and sang to the family, imagining herself standing on the stage, "There was a light on the ceiling, and it felt like I could almost touch the light and the stars." ”
When her brother got married, she also confidently performed at the ceremony, "Every time the guitarist played a wrong note, I would turn my head and stare at him. ”
Celine as a young man
When she was 12 years old, Celine's brother sent her first single "It's Just a Dream" to music agent Rennie Angeli, who immediately decided to help her debut. For Celine's first album, he even mortgaged his house, and this album did make Celine a "genius girl" in Quebec.
Before the age of 20, Celine had already made her mark in many world-class competitions, including the Eurovision Song Contest, and became a hot star in the Francophone music scene.
In order to become a world superstar like Michael Jackson, Celine Dion continued to study English diligently, and vigorously marched into the mainstream English pop world. Finally, after singing the theme song of the same name from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast, she became completely popular.
In 1998, with the movie "Titanic" coming out, the song "My Heart is Eternal" became a sensation all over the world. As one of the best-selling singles in the world, it not only won the Oscar for "Best Movie Song" that year, but also Celine won the Grammy title of "Best Female Pop Singer".
Tours and awards are coming. At the turn of the millennium, "Rolling Stone" named Celine, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston "the three most important singers of the 90s in the United States", and the pop music scene also ushered in her era.
Fame gave Celine Dion the long-awaited starlight. In the documentary, Celine showed her collection of Dior heels to the camera: "Every time I take a fancy to a pair of shoes, and I hear the clerk ask, 'Ma'am, what size are you wearing?' I'm going to find a way to put them in, because I'm wearing shoes, not shoes, even if my toes are curled up in them, just give them to me, because I love them to death. ”
And this is a portrayal of Celine's attitude towards life: she is willing to give everything for her love.
Her love story is very representative. In 1994, despite the strong opposition of the whole family, Celine decided to marry her long-cherished agent Rennie, although the two have a 26-year age difference, the other party has been married twice and has three children. In December of that year, the two held a grand wedding in Quebec, which was also broadcast live by Canadian television.
Five years later, because her husband was diagnosed with throat cancer, she resolutely decided to retire at the peak of her career. During this period, she also gave birth to the first love crystallization of the two through artificial insemination.
Celine Dion married her husband Rene
Three years later, as her husband's condition improved, Celine decided to make a comeback. This time, she signed a staggering five-year contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
This has been called "the biggest bet in the history of the music industry", because no singer has ever started such a long residency in the same city, and in the end, the big gamble still ended in Celine's victory.
In five years, 732 performances were almost sold out, and Celine managed to earn nearly $400 million at the box office, becoming the second place in the "highest-grossing women's concert in history", and her childhood idol Michael Jackson also cheered for her in the audience.
After years of residency singing requires maintaining excellent condition and physical function, it is hard to imagine how much effort Celine has put in.
As she revealed in the documentary: "I've always envied people who can smoke and drink, stay up all night, indulge in partying, those 'cool' rock singers, and I can't drink, I can only drink water, and I have to get 12 hours of sleep a day." ”
But it is this kind of self-discipline that makes Celine never flinch in high-intensity performances. After ending her residency in 2008, she embarked on a two-year world tour. In 2010, she took a short break and gave birth to twins, and the following year returned to Las Vegas with an extraordinary comeback speed, starting a new residency called "The Celine Show", which she sang until 2019. In total, the 16-year residency has set a new record of 1,141 performances with more than 4.55 million people, and no one has come since.
At the age of 50, Celine received the "Icon Award" from Billboard in the United States. At that time, she had just experienced the pain of her husband's death from cancer, and in order to surprise Celine, the organizers invited her eldest son Charles as a special guest.
The moment she saw her son, even though Celine swore that she had to be the strongest mother in the eyes of her children, she couldn't hold back her tears. She lifted the trophy above her head and let out a touching cry: "The Show Must Go On!" ”
Celine, who has been strong all her life, has always been defeated and defeated. Although she announced at the end of 2022 that her world tour would be postponed indefinitely due to her illness, we have reason to believe that this is not the end of her journey, and the show of her life will continue.
After falling ill, Celine, who left the stage, often felt that she owed a debt to her fans.
She compares herself to an apple tree: "People line up to see me, and I give them the best, shiniest apples." Then my branches started drooping and crooked, and there were fewer apples, but there were still so many people in line. I feel like I don't want to keep them waiting in line if I don't have apples for them. ”
And not long after, a fan message may have expressed the hearts of many people: "We are not here for Apple, we are here for this tree." ”
编辑/Freya 设计/CChen
*The picture comes from the Internet