Front Burner - Front Burner Presents Céline: Understood, Episode 2

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

Céline Dion is having a moment. It’s not her first. And millions of fans are hoping it won’t be her last. While Céline’s international stardom seems obvious now, it was all so unlikely. This is the second episode of the four-part series from Understood, the anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Hosted by Thomas Leblanc. More episodes of Understood are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/EnVXBB

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi everybody, Jamie here. Hope you guys are all having a lovely holiday season. With that in mind, we've got something a little lighter for you today. It's the second episode of a series that some of us on the show worked on for our sister feed, Understood. This is the feed where we brought you the stories of Sam Bankman-Fried, Pornhub, and Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi. The most recent season is about Celine Dion. We played episode one a few months back when the series dropped. So here is episode two. We'll run the third episode tomorrow. And if you missed ep one, you can find it by searching Celine Understood. Give the Understood feed a follow while you're at it

because you've got some new seasons in the works. The Celine show is more than just a bio. It looks at the wild range of factors, business, culture, raw talent, politics, that all combined to create Celine Dion. One of my brother and me wrote the music at home, just with a guitar and a tape cassette. And he said, we're going to go to a cheap studio and we're going to record that song. And one of my brother decided to send this cassette to a famous manager in Quebec.

And he called home and he said, well, I would like to see Celine. And I went at the office with my mother. Celine was 12 years old. And he said, well, I'll give you my pen. Just imagine, pretend it's a microphone. And he says, when you... René Angélil was 39.

The voice came out, she had so much spark in her. And the story of their first encounter is one the pair would tell again. And with that voice that comes from here, and it made me cry actually. And he started to cry. And again. Her eyes became incredible. And again, over the years.

As part of the mythology they would build together, as manager and protege. When you see it live in front of you in an office, it's very impressive. And I was very proud of it, because I think I have done the job. At the end of that first meeting in René's office, he made a promise to Céline's mom

that in just five years, he could make Céline a very big star in Quebec. And then he did it. In only three. It was one thing to make Céline famous in her home province. It was one thing to make Celine famous in her home province. It was something entirely different to cross over into the U.S. and hit le big time, as René called it. René believed that they had the talent, the ambition,

and the business savvy to achieve their dreams. But soon, they'd also have a secret. A secret that could put everything they were building at risk. I'm Thomas LeBlanc, and this is Celine Understood. Episode 2. The U.S. Gamble. How are you feeling, Celine? Okay, I think so. Nervous, but okay. Just can't wait now.

I'm very nervous about 5 or 10 minutes before the show. And just 2 or 3 minutes just before to be on stage, I just can't wait now. Just a bit of powder and I'll be ready to go. There's this footage we dug up in the CBC's archives. Some B-roll of Celine preparing for a concert on her Unison tour. It's 1991. Early enough in her career that she's still doing her own makeup.

She's about 23 years old. I'm so hot. Two minutes, Rene. Okay. Behind her, watching her in the dressing room mirror, stands her manager, Rene Angelil. Just before you go on, there's a contest. One is right outside the door here. Celine is brimming with nervous energy, and Rene is so calm.

You're shaking. Shaking? A little bit. You never know what to expect, you never know. No time to eat my carrots. Okay, I'm just going to eat this once. When you get out... She has to give me this.

Don't worry. Okay. Rene stays with Celine as she weaves backstage, greeting fans. Celine turns to Rene, kisses his cheeks. Celine turns to Rene, kisses his cheeks, and the two do this secret handshake, like a pre-show ritual. She clasps his hand, turns it, and then clasps it again. Her fingers seem to lightly tap his palm, almost like a Morse code. As she heads to the stage,

she turns back to kiss Renée's cheeks one more time. This footage is an early window into their dynamic. The whole time, Renée's there, just behind her. Well, Renée Angélil was a star in it himself.

This is Sonia Benizra. She's a music journalist and talk show host from Quebec. And she spent a ton of time with Renée over the years while covering Celine. I mean, he was part of a group called Les Baronets, so he had show business in his blood. Les Baronets is a boy band René started with two friends in high school in the late 50s. They're singing Twist and Chante, Twist and Sing in French. Les Baronets was René's way of translating

his love of English pop music back to French-speaking Quebecers. And Les Baronnets got pretty popular. But like a lot of bands that start in high school, they didn't last. Still, René stays on the music scene another way. He starts managing and promoting performers. He was in love with American show business. The Frank Sinatras, the Bob Hopes, the Elvis Presleys.

And he modeled himself as a manager on The Colonel. The Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis Presley's famously powerful manager. And like The Colonel, Rene is a gambler. Rene was a player. He loved gambling. He treated it as a sport. That's Barry Carper. He was Celine's touring agent in the 90s, and Rene was his mentor. It's like Rene had his own rat pack.

You know, he had his gang of boys that he would go to Vegas with, and they would play, and they would go to see shows. And the best feature of him being a gambler is just no fear, no fear of taking chances. So when Rene heard 12-year-old Celine sing, he went all in. And he was a gambler because he had mortgaged his home initially to make Celine Dion's first album. So he envisioned an international career for this young girl way before she even thought about it. He really had a vision. It was not by accident that things just sort of fell into place. This man had a vision. A little over five years after their first meeting, Rene gets Celine's song to CBS Records, now known as Sony Music Entertainment.

But he knew he wanted more than just a record deal. He wanted the label to truly invest in Celine, to push her beyond Canada's borders. Back when Celine was doing only French albums, he got a clause added to her contract, stating that Sony would pay $30,000 to record English versions of her albums. Then, after Celine sings at this music convention, he convinces them to raise that amount to $100,000.

The art of the deal was also as much fun for him as actually making that deal. After another successful performance, he pushes them up to $300,000. He had almost like a mafiosi-type voice. You know, you just listen to him and you'd lead into him. He was a big personality and yet the most soft spoken man that I've ever known. Rene could say something in very few

words, could command the attention of a room with just his look. And when Rene goes out and convinces David Foster, a big deal producer, to work with Celine, he gets the president of Sony to agree to an unlimited recording budget. This man is so unbelievable because I feel like he's the heart of my career.

I'm the singer, I do the best that I can when I sing a song, but everything before singing and after singing, he's the responsible of that. He's so great. The 90s were a magical time for music. Music was a big deal. These were the days when people had towers of CDs at home, binders of them in their cars, and there were record stores in every mall. I mean, people were investing in music. There was big money put into music. René was doing all that he could to get that money flowing to Celine. But up until then, a Quebecois singer had never really made a dent in the U.S. market. She came out at a time also when there was the Whitney Houston's, the Mariah Carey's. I mean, this was a very competitive time with great vocalists.

Renee knew that to cross over, they'd have to do something big, to raise Celine's profile. And a good way to do that was by tapping into yet another booming industry in this era, Hollywood blockbusters. What's the story of how you got Beauty and the Beast? What's the story of how you got Beauty and the Beast? You know, the stories and the offers and all, it never comes to me right away. Like, they always call Sony Music people or my manager, René Angelo, directly.

This is Celine with CBC's Peter Zosky back in 92. And during the movie, I just cried three times. And they're talking about her duet with Peebo Bryson for Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. It sounds very Disney, with Celine and Peebo singing over a shimmery synthetic orchestra. You know, Walt Disney people, they listened to it, and they liked it, so we're part of it, and I'm so proud. But they tried out hundreds of other people or something. I don't know. I don't know.

The only thing I know is, like, they asked Peebo and myself. And the beauty of René Angélil, too, with Celine, is that he actually allowed her to do just what she was supposed to do, which was sing, without the worry of everything else surrounding her. We sang it and it worked out. It worked. It really worked. The song earns Céline her first Grammy and scores her a performance at the Oscars. No words to express myself how nervous I was. I was able to hear my

knees. I was just nervous to see all those stars. You have the chance to say hi and nice to meet you and congratulations to Anthony Hopkins and you see Liza Minnelli and Tom Cruise and in the green room to eat a little shrimp with Patrick Swayze and it's just unbelievable. I mean, I was so impressed. Rene was always very strategic. Most of the time he was bang on with what needed to be done with Celine's career. You know, if it came to planning a tour, recording a song that maybe someone else didn't believe in, convincing Celine to record or perform a song. I saw those moments where they didn't always agree on the material. And it was always fun to see him say, no, no, no, no, you got to trust me. I know this is going to work. This is going to work.

Throughout the 90s, René would use their unlimited recording budget to hire a stable of powerhouse songwriters and producers that catered to Celine's sweeping romantic style. Rather than following any of the musical trends du jour, she sticks with these classic, soaring ballads, with catchy hooks and melodies that show off her impressive vocal range. You hear just a few notes of these songs, and you know it's Celine. Like Because You Loved Me, with its timeless melody. Or It's All Coming Back to Me Now, with its legendary key changes. legendary key changes. Or All By Myself, where she hits the career-defining note.

Celine and Rene would build a musical brand. And that brand was Epic Love. But Rene knows that a true star's brand is about more than just the songs. Rene wanted to make her accessible to the public. Yeah, that's the latest hit by our French-Canadian pop star guest who's coming out here next, Céline Dion. This was the golden age of the daytime talk show. I mean, Netflix didn't exist. You know, YouTube, all of that stuff was like,

we didn't even know what that meant. I mean, the internet didn't exist, so TV was really all we had, and it was really a very unifying thing for the world as a whole. I kind of missed that sensation of when you get up the next day and you knew that everybody watched the same thing the night before because that's what's on TV, right? Céline's got a great story. A whole rags-to-riches fairy tale.

She came from Charlemagne, a small town in Quebec with 13 brothers and sisters. I mean, you know, this is like the kind of story you'd see in a movie and you go, really? Is this really true? You know, you couldn't invent this. And U.S. talk shows eat it up. And you come from a musical family as well, huh? Yes, I have 13 brothers and sisters. All of them sing, play something? Everybody plays instruments.

This is Celine on the popular daytime talk show Live with Regis and Kathy Lee in 1991. I'm kind of the accident of the family. Celine starts repeating these details that Canadian audiences by then had become so familiar with. The big family, growing up poor. You bought your folks this new home, is that right? Yeah. I just had to make it feel so fabulous to be able to do that for them. Well, you know, my parents, they worked really, really, really hard.

So TV for her was a very important medium. It feels so fabulous to be able to do that for them. Well, you know, my parents, they worked really, really, really hard. So TV for her was a very important medium. It was used very, very wisely. I was 12 years old, very shy. 12? 12 years old. Celine became a regular on the American talk show circuit, both on daytime and late night.

There was a very interesting collaboration between Rene Angélil and journalists in general. So when somebody like an Oprah got the first interview, he knew that he could count on her when he'd need her for the next album. 50 million albums worldwide. Needless to say... Celine would be on Oprah 27 times, more than any other celebrity guest.

When you did a good interview with Celine Dion, he would leave you a voicemail. 27 times. More than any other celebrity guest. When you did a good interview with Celine Dion, he would leave you a voicemail. Oh my God, you were amazing last night. And you said, oh my God, Rene Angelina is leaving me a voicemail. The media loved Celine's origin story. They loved the bootstraps of it all.

But they wanted more. All this while Celine's been singing love songs. With lyrics like, All I know is I feel too much, too much baby. All I do is think about you night and day. She's obviously not talking about her mom. At the time, there were rumors about Celine. Maybe she's dating a hockey player. Maybe he plays for the Montreal Canadiens. And in interviews, she tries to dodge questions about her love life.

Someone told me that you worked so hard, that so much of your life has been being a star and singing and concerts and records, that you never had a date on a Saturday night. You know, I started my professional career, I was a baby, I was 12 years old. So it's the only thing I know. I mean, if you ask a little boy, do you like ice cream, if he never tastes ice cream of his life, he doesn't know how it tastes because he never tasted before. So he doesn't miss nothing.

Of course, I'm a normal girl of 22 years old, but I don't live a normal life because I don't have a boyfriend, because I don't have time. I don't go out on Saturday night. What Celine is saying in this interview is not exactly true. There is someone. Celine's been hiding a romantic relationship for years. With her manager, René Angélil. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem.

Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. I help you and your partner create a financial vision

together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Rene and Celine say they shared their first kiss in Dublin in 1988, when she was 20 and he was 46. But there are other reports that the romance started earlier, when she was 19, even 18. In Renée's biography, there are stories of everyone seeing a 17-year-old Celine following him around like a puppy dog, and her mom desperately hoping it was just a phase. puppy dog, and her mom desperately hoping it was just a face. René was twice divorced, twice Céline's age, and had kids of his own. Not exactly the prince charming Maman Dion had in mind for her daughter. But René wasn't just worried about her mother's approval.

He was also concerned about how their relationship would look to the rest of the world, and how it could hurt Celine's image and the career they were building. So they kept it a secret. Well, you might someday have a long-time boyfriend, right? Absolutely, absolutely. It doesn't... How long time is this long-time guy? Oh, that I have this boyfriend? Yeah.

Here's Celine in another Regis and Kathie Lee appearance, this one in 1992. I would say five, six years. Six years? She talks about having a boyfriend, but keeps things really vague. You haven't had so much the last six years. You have not had six full years with this person. I mean, we don't, sometimes he comes on tour with me, sometimes not. I mean, we don't see every day, that's for sure.

But maybe not. I mean, we don't see every day, that's for sure. And then, one night in 1992, Céline almost lets it slip. Céline is in a studio in Montreal for an interview on this talk show, Tête à Tête, Head to Head, with the host Lise Payette. Selene has just told Lise that she has a secret she's anxious to share. You have a hard time living with this secret. Lise says that she can see Selene is having a hard time living with this secret and asks if she wants to share it. Maybe next interview.

Celine sighs and says, showbiz is hard. At this point, Celine and René had been hiding their relationship for at least four years, maybe more. She starts crying, grabbing tissues. You know when you're in love, Céline says, and you just want to shout it from the rooftops? It's hard holding all of it in, Céline says. But why do you have to keep it a secret? For your career?

Yes. It's the only thing I have. The producers in the control room that night would say that when they looked over at Rene, he was crying too. But Celine was about to release her biggest album yet, and she couldn't keep the secret forever. couldn't keep the secret forever. 1993. Yeah, they had contacted me and asked me if I would host the launch of that particular album. Sonia's talking about the launch of Celine's third English album,

The Color of My Love. The launch is a live TV special for Music Plus, and it's happening at Metropolis, once an iconic venue here in Montreal. Rene and Celine wanted a hometown crowd, because this was more than just an album launch. The show opens with Celine on the top of an old car, wearing a lacy pirate shirt under a black coat. And then about 30 minutes in, after multiple wardrobe and set changes, Celine finishes with the song Only One Road. Celine closes her eyes and bows. Celine Dion, Mesdames et Messieurs, Celine! Then she walks over to René, who is now on stage with Sonia.

Of course, the goal of the album was also to announce publicly that they were together as a couple and that they intended to stay together. At this point, Celine is 25 and Rene is 51. He was petrified. I had to literally push him, push him on the stage. Now Celine was completely calm. She just couldn't wait to tell the whole world that she was a woman in love. Sonia says to Celine, the color of my love is more than just a title song. You chose it to publicly declare your love for Rene Angelil. Is that right? Celine looks at Rene, who has a big nervous smile on his face,

and leans towards him. C'est ça. Ça fait tout drôle. It's a funny feeling. And just like that, Céline and Renée's secret was out. The CBC caught up with fans after the show. I was not surprised. I was happy for her. My tender half is 15 years younger than me, and I don't care.

People have their own tastes and age and race, so it doesn't really matter, not to me anyway. He's old, 26 years old more. He's like, he's to be his father, you know? It bothers you, obviously. Why did you wait so long? I mean, you could have done it, you know, a long time ago. How many babies and when? Despite all of René's fears about how their relationship

would look to the rest of the world, about how it might hurt Celine's brand, the fans didn't really seem to mind. To the couple's relief. This is my fault. Celine wanted to tell everyone that she was absolutely right. And I was absolutely wrong. My life, the way I see it, is to please the audience. I want them to be happy. I want them to be proud of me.

They've been with me since I started. And when I was going to tell them, I said, maybe they want me to be with a guy of my age. Rene is 26 years older than Celine. There is just no denying it's a stark age difference. And that it raises unsettling questions. She was a kid when they met. And he held her whole career in his hands.

Let's be honest. It's hard to imagine such a welcoming reaction today. I still don't know how I feel about the relationship. But at a certain point, in the absence of any other information, what can you do but take people at their word? And Celine has always said, even now, years after Rene's death, that he was the great love of her life. The Color of My Love was a huge commercial success. To this day, it remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. And Celine and Rene, they continue to sell the public on their love story. Through the over-the-top ballads that she'd dedicate to him, like The Power of Love. Through friendly talk show

appearances. And through one really, really grand gesture. She's Quebec's pop queen, and for Céline Dion's fans, her wedding was a royal event. It was also a real media circus. Security stopped hundreds of reporters and cameras outside the door. A Quebec magazine spent $200,000 for an exclusive... December 17th, 1994. I will forever remember that date. This is the date when Celine and Rene Angélil got married here. To me, it's kind of, it's a spiritual place because it's a church, but it's also a place of pop culture. We are right in front of the Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal. Where the basilica is, is the center of power of Montreal, you know, for a really long time. So it's not a coincidence that they chose to do the wedding here.

The guest list was sort of mishmash of Quebec celebrities, popular TV hosts, hockey personalities, comedians. And obviously all the Dion siblings were here. Mamandion, Ademardion. Everyone was dressed to the nines. It was winter, so probably lots of fur coats. So this was a Saturday in December. It was pretty cold. Céline gets to the cathedral, and she's wearing this beautiful tiara

that's an iconic piece of her fashion history. The tiara was made with 2000 Swarovski crystals flaring out into a veil. I'm assuming it was probably 10-ish pounds, maybe more. So she's carrying all this weight, which is also kind of symbolic as, you know, she's the breadwinner of the family so she's carrying all this weight on down the aisle but she makes it look seamless which sitting always does even when she sings these notes after about a one hour ceremony and some seven hours since people started waiting the newlyweds finally came out. Her 1994 wedding was something both Princess Di and Walt Disney would have been proud of. The wedding firmly establishes Celine as a real diva.

And the 90s are the biggest decade of Celine's career. Celine is topping the charts, raking in album sales, awards. She's touring the world. But her career is about to reach a whole other stratosphere. Because in 1997, she returns to the Hollywood soundtrack with a fluty power ballad from a little movie called Titanic. Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you. Celine initially hated My Heart Will Go On, but Rene had a feeling it would be a hit.

Suddenly, this song is inescapable. Not just in North America, but seemingly all over the world. And this level of fame, it means the backlash is coming. I thought that Celine was one of the most egregious examples of a manufactured pop icon whose art didn't have any substance to back that up.

That's next time on Celine Understood. The show was produced by Crystal Duhaime and Zoe Tennant with showrunner Imogen Burchard. Sound design by Crystal Duhaime with sound engineering by Julia Whitman. Roshni Nair is our coordinating producer. Executive producers are Chris Oak and Nick McKay-Blocos. In order of appearance, audio from CBC and Radio-Canada Archives, CBS, ABC, Disque Mérite, Walt Disney Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Harpo Productions, TVA and Music Plus.

Celine Understood is a co-production of CBC Podcasts and CBC News. You can follow Understood and listen to previous seasons on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.