Celine Dion

Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, 24 kilometres (15 mi) northeast of Montreal, the youngest of 14 children of Thérèse (née Tanguay, 1927–2020), a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion (1923–2003), a butcher, both of French-Canadian descent. She was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor, but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne. Music had always been a major part of the Dion family, and she was named after the song "Céline", which French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded two years before her birth. On 13 August 1973, at the age of five, the young Céline made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song "Du fil des aiguilles et du coton". She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril, "The Old Barrel". From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer. In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she recalled, "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."

Dion first met René Angélil, her future husband and manager, in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38, after her brother, Michel Dondalinger Dion, had sent him a demonstration recording of "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream/Nothing But A Dream"), a song she, her mother Thérèse, and her brother Jacques Dion had jointly written. Over subsequent years, Angélil guided her to stardom in francophone territories.

At age 12, she collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream". Her brother Michel sent the recording to music manager René Angélil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album. Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star. In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu, which later became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi".

By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitié" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Félix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year". Further success came when she represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won the contest by a close margin in Dublin, Ireland.

Their professional relationship eventually turned romantic after Dion's win at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1988; she was 20. The romance was only known to family and friends for five years, though Dion nearly revealed all in a tearful 1992 interview with journalist Lise Payette. Many years later, Payette penned the song "Je cherche l'ombre" for Dion's 2007 album D'elles.

At age eighteen, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Dion told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like Jackson. Though confident in her talent, Angélil realized that her image needed to be changed for her to be marketed worldwide. She receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the École Berlitz in 1989 to polish her English.

In 1989, during a concert on the Incognito tournée, she injured her voice. She consulted the otorhinolaryngologist William Gould, who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her vocal cords or do not utilize them at all for three weeks. Dion chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.

Dion became an entrepreneur with the establishment of her franchise restaurant Nickels in 1990. She has since divested her interests in the chain and is no longer affiliated with Nickels, as of 1997. In 2003, Dion signed a deal with Coty, Inc. to release Celine Dion Parfums. Her latest fragrance, Signature, was released in September 2011 with an advertising campaign by New York agency Kraftworks NYC. Since its inception, Celine Dion Parfums has grossed over $850 million in retail sales. In October 2004, Air Canada hired Dion as part of their promotional campaign to unveil new service products and an updated livery. "You and I", the theme song sung by Dion, was written by advertising executives working for Air Canada.

Two years after she learned English, Dion made her debut into the Anglophone market with Unison (1990), the lead single having originally been recorded by Laura Branigan. She incorporated the help of many established musicians, including Vito Luprano and Canadian producer David Foster. The album was largely influenced by 1980s soft rock music that quickly found a niche within the adult contemporary radio format. Unison also hit the right notes with critics: Jim Faber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that her vocals were "tastefully unadorned", and that she never attempted to "bring off styles that are beyond her". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic declared it "a fine, sophisticated American debut". Singles from the album included "(If There Was) Any Other Way", "The Last to Know", "Unison", and "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", a mid-tempo soft-rock ballad that made prominent use of the electric guitar. The latter became her first top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. In 1991, Dion was a featured soloist on "Voices That Care", a tribute to American troops fighting in Operation Desert Storm.

By 1992, Unison, Céline Dion, and numerous high-profile media appearances had propelled Dion to superstardom in North America. She had achieved one of her main objectives: wedging her way into the Anglophone market and achieving fame. However, while she was experiencing rising success in the US, her French fans in Canada criticized her for neglecting them. She would later rebuff these criticisms at the 1991 Félix Awards show, where, after winning "English Artist of the Year", she openly refused to accept the award. She asserted that she was—and would always be—a French, not an English, artist. Apart from her commercial success, there were also changes in her personal life, as Angélil, who was twenty-six years her senior, transitioned from manager to lover. However, the relationship was kept a secret as they both feared that the public would find their relations inappropriate.

In 1993, Dion announced her feelings for her manager by declaring him "the colour of [her] love" in the dedication section of her third English-language album The Colour of My Love. However, instead of criticizing their relationship as she had feared, fans embraced the couple. Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.

Dion has actively supported many charity organizations, worldwide. She has promoted the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) since 1982, and became the foundation's National Celebrity Patron in 1993. She has an emotional attachment to the foundation; her niece Karine succumbed to the disease at the age of sixteen, in Dion's arms. In 2003, she joined a number of other celebrities, athletes, and politicians, including Josh Groban and Yolanda Adams to support "World Children's Day", a global fundraising effort sponsored by McDonald's. The effort raised money from more than 100 nations and benefited orphanages and children's health organizations. In addition, she has been a major supporter of the T. J. Martell Foundation, the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, and many health and educational campaigns. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she donated $1 million to the victims of the storm, and held a fund-raising event for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which subsequently raised more than $1 million. After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, she donated $100,000 to China Children & Teenagers' Fund and sent a letter showing her consolation and support. Since 2004, she is involved, alongside husband René Angelil, with the Québec gay community by supporting the publication of health and HIV prevention materials in Gay Globe Magazine, owned by journalist Roger-Luc Chayer. She is also a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism. In November 2018, she launched a gender-neutral clothing line for kids, Celinununu.

Dion and Angélil became engaged in 1993, on Dion's 25th birthday, and made their relationship public in the liner notes of her 1993 album The Colour of My Love. They married on 17 December 1994, at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec. On 5 January 2000, Dion and Angélil renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas.

Also during this time, Dion released the Francophone album Dion chante Plamondon. The album consisted mostly of covers, but featured four new songs: "Des mots qui sonnent", "Je danse dans ma tête", "Quelqu'un que j'aime, quelqu'un qui m'aime" and "L'amour existe encore". It was originally released in Canada and France during the 1991–1992 period, then later received an international release in 1994, the first French Celine Dion album to do so. "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" became a smash hit in France, reaching No. 2 and being certified gold. In Quebec, the album was certified Gold the day it was released.

Dion kept to her French roots and continued to release many Francophone recordings between each English record. Generally, they achieved more credibility than her English-language works. She released À l'Olympia, a live album that was recorded during one of her concerts at the Paris Olympia in 1994. It had one promotional single, a live version of "Calling You", which peaked at seventy-five on the French Singles Chart. She also recorded a bilingual version of "Petit Papa Noël" with Alvin and the Chipmunks for the 1994 holiday album A Very Merry Chipmunk. D'eux (also known as The French Album in the United States), was released in 1995, and it would go on to become the best-selling French-language album of all time. The album was mostly written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman, and amassed huge success with the singles "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" and "Je sais pas". "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" reached No. 1 in France and stayed at the top position for twelve weeks. It was later certified Platinum in France. The single reached the top ten in the UK and Ireland, a rare accomplishment for a French song. The second single off the album, "Je sais pas", reached No. 1 on the French Singles Chart as well and was certified Silver there. These songs later became "If That's What It Takes" and "I Don't Know" on her next English album, Falling into You.

During the mid-1990s and onward, Dion's albums were generally constructed on the basis of melodramatic soft rock ballads, with sprinklings of up-tempo pop and rare forays into other genres. She collaborated with many renowned writers and producers such as Jim Steinman and David Foster, who helped her to develop a signature sound. While critical reviews fluctuated, her releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and in 1996, she won the World Music Award for "World's Best-selling Female Recording Artist of the Year" for the third time. By the mid-1990s, she had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world.

Dion was asked to perform "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In March 1996, she launched the Falling into You Tour in support of her new album, performing concerts around the world for over a year.

Dion ended the 1990s with three more extremely successful albums: the Christmas album These Are Special Times (1998), the French-language album, S'il suffisait d'aimer, and the compilation album All the Way... A Decade of Song (1999). On These Are Special Times, she co-wrote the song "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day" along with Ric Wake and Peter Zizzo. The album was her most classically influenced yet, with orchestral arrangements found on virtually every track. The album featured the single "I'm Your Angel" (a duet with R. Kelly), which became her fourth US No. 1 single, and a smash hit across the world. The album's second single "The Prayer" (a duet with Andrea Bocelli) served as the soundtrack of the 1998 film Quest for Camelot and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. All the Way... A Decade of Song drew together her most successful hits coupled with seven new songs, including the lead-off single "That's the Way It Is", a cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and "All the Way", a duet with Frank Sinatra. All the Way became one of the best-selling compilation albums of all time, reaching No. 1 in the United States for three weeks. The album was later certified 7x Platinum in the US for 7 million copies shipped. It also topped the charts in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Her last French-language studio album of the 1990s, S'il suffisait d'aimer, was very successful as well, topping the charts in every major French-speaking country, including France, Switzerland, the Wallonia region of Belgium, and Canada. In France, the album was certified diamond, selling 1.5 million copies. By the end of the 1990s, Dion had sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards. Her status as one of the music industry's biggest pop divas was further solidified when she was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special in 1998, with superstars Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey. That year, she also received two of the highest Canadian honours: "Officer of the Order of Canada for Outstanding Contribution to the World of Contemporary Music" and "Officer of the National Order of Quebec". A year later, she was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, and was honoured with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

The Canadian comedy music group, The Arrogant Worms, released an album called Dirt in 1999 which contained a song called "Celine Dion", about the singers' stalker-like affection for her. In 1999, Dion received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2004, one which she dedicated to her father, who had died the month prior. In May 2003, she placed at No. 10 on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era". She was ranked at No. 64 on their list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". Dion's album Falling into You is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list.

After releasing and promoting thirteen albums during the 1990s, Dion stated that she needed to settle down, and announced on her latest album All the Way... A Decade of Song, that she needed to take a step back from the spotlight and enjoy life. Angélil's diagnosis with esophageal cancer also prompted her to hiatus. While on break, she was unable to escape the spotlight. In 2000, the National Enquirer published a false story about the singer. Brandishing a picture of Dion and her husband, the magazine misquoted her, printing the headline, "Celine — 'I'm Pregnant With Twins!'" She later sued the magazine for more than $20 million. The editors of the Enquirer printed an apology and a full retraction to her in the next issue, and donated money to the American Cancer Society in honour of her and her husband. A year after the incident, after undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son, René-Charles Dion Angélil, on 25 January 2001, in Florida.

After the dissolution of Angélil's second marriage, he and Dion took a professional break and he spent the major part of the year in Las Vegas, while Dion was learning English and taking dance and singing lessons in Montreal. Upon his return, "he avoided being alone with me for too long a time", she said in her 2000 autobiography My Story, My Dream. Meanwhile, she kept a photo of Angélil under her pillow, writing, "Before I fell asleep, I slipped it under the pillow, out of fear that my mother, who always shared a room with me, would find it." She also wrote "Less and less could I hide from myself the fact that I was in love with Rene; I had all the symptoms," and "I was in love with a man I couldn't love, who didn't want me to love him, who didn't want to love me." Dion's mother, who traveled everywhere with the singer until she was 19, was initially wary of her daughter's growing infatuation with a much older and twice-divorced Angélil, but Dion was insistent, telling her mother "I'm not a minor. This is a free country. No one has the right to prevent me from loving whoever I want to."

In May 2000, Dion had two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York to improve her chances of conceiving, after deciding to use in-vitro fertilization because of years of failed attempts to conceive. Their first son, René-Charles Angélil, was born on 25 January 2001. Dion suffered a miscarriage in 2009. In May 2010, Angélil announced that Dion was 14 weeks pregnant with twins after a sixth treatment of in-vitro fertilization. On Saturday, 23 October 2010, at 11:11 and 11:12 am respectively, Dion gave birth to fraternal twins by Caesarean section at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, The twins were named Eddy, after Dion's favourite French songwriter, Eddy Marnay, who had also produced her first five albums, and Nelson, after former South African President Nelson Mandela. She appeared with her newborn sons on the cover of 9 December 2010 issue of the Canadian edition of Hello! magazine.

Dion ended her three-year sabbatical from the music industry with the aptly titled album A New Day Has Come, released in March 2002. The album was her most personal yet, with songs focusing on her motherhood and maturation as a woman such as "A New Day Has Come", and "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)". She stated: "becoming a mother makes you a grown-up." She stated, "A New Day Has Come, for Rene, for me, is the baby. It has everything to do with the baby ... That song "A New Day Has Come" represents very well the mood I'm feeling right now. It represents the whole album." A New Day Has Come debuted at No. 1 in more than 17 countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. In the United States, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 527,000 copies; marking her first No. 1 debut on the chart, as well as the highest debut sales week of her career in the US. It was eventually certified 3× Platinum in the United States, and 6× Platinum in Canada.

In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day..., at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. This move was generally seen as risky, but journalist Miriam Nunzio wrote that it was "one of the smartest business decisions in years by any major recording artist". Dion conceived the show after seeing O by Franco Dragone during her break from recording, and it premiered on 25 March 2003, in a 4,000-seat arena specifically designed for her show and modelled after the Roman Colosseum. Many stars attended the opening night including Dick Clark, Alan Thicke, Kathy Griffin, Lance Bass, and Justin Timberlake, who hosted the television special. The show, directed by Dragone and choreographed by the renowned Mia Michaels, was a combination of dance, music, and visual effects. It included Dion performing her biggest hits against an array of dancers and special effects. Reviewer Mike Weatherford felt that, at first, Dion was not as relaxed as she should be, and at times, it was hard to find the singer among the excessive stage ornamentation and dancers. However, he noted that the show had become more enjoyable over the course of its run, because of her improved stage-presence and simplified costumes.

Following the 11 September attacks, Dion returned to the music scene, and in a televised performance sang "God Bless America" at the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Chuck Taylor of Billboard wrote, "the performance ... brings to mind what has made her one of the celebrated vocalists of our time: the ability to render emotion that shakes the soul. Affecting, meaningful, and filled with grace, this is a musical reflection to share with all of us still searching for ways to cope." She performed it again in 2003 during pregame festivities for Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego. In December 2001, she published her autobiography My Story, My Dream which chronicled her rags-to-riches story.

The francophone album 1 fille & 4 types (1 Girl & 4 Guys), released in October 2003, fared better than her previous two releases and showed her trying to distance herself from the "diva" image. She recruited Jean-Jacques Goldman, Gildas Arzel, Eric Benzi, and Jacques Veneruso, with whom she had previously worked on two of her best-selling French albums S'il suffisait d'aimer and D'eux. Labeled "the album of pleasure" by Dion herself, the album cover showed her in a simple and relaxed manner, contrary to the choreographed poses usually found on her album covers. The album achieved widespread commercial success in France, Canada, and Belgium where it reached No. 1. In France, the album debuted at No. 1 and was later certified 2× platinum after selling over 700,000 copies. Critic Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Dion's vocals were "back at top of their game" and that she was "getting back to pop basics and performing at a level unheard in a while".

She is often the subject of media ridicule and parody and is frequently impersonated on shows such as MADtv, Saturday Night Live, South Park, Royal Canadian Air Farce, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes for her strong accent and onstage gesticulations. However, she has stated that she is unaffected by the comments, and is flattered that people take the time to impersonate her. She even invited Ana Gasteyer, who parodied her on SNL, to appear onstage during one of her performances in New York City. While she is rarely politically outspoken, in 2005 following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Dion appeared on Larry King Live and tearfully criticized the US government's slow response in aiding the victims of the hurricane: "There's people still there waiting to be rescued. To me that is not acceptable ... How can it be so easy to send planes in another country to kill everybody in a second and destroy lives. We need to serve our country." After her interview, she stated, "When I do interviews with Larry King or the big TV shows like that, they put you on the spot, which is very difficult. I do have an opinion, but I'm a singer. I'm not a politician."

The show was well-received by audiences, despite the complaints of expensive tickets; it routinely sold out until its end in late 2007. Ticket prices averaged $135.33. According to Pollstar, Dion sold 322,000 tickets and grossed US$43.9 million in the first half of 2005, and by July 2005, she had sold out 315 out of 384 shows. By the end of 2005, she grossed more than US$76 million, placing sixth on Billboard's Money Makers list for 2005. A New Day... was the 6th biggest-selling tour in the US in 2006. Because of the show's success, her contract was extended into 2007 for an undisclosed sum. On 5 January 2007, it was announced that the show would end on 15 December 2007, with tickets for the period after October 2007 having gone on sale from 1 March. According to Billboard, A New Day... is the most successful residency of all time, grossing over US$385 million ($474.72 million in 2019 dollars) and drawing nearly three million people to 717 shows. The Live in Las Vegas: A New Day... DVD was released on 10 December 2007, in Europe and the following day in North America.

On 21 May 2007, Dion released the French-language album D'elles (About Them), which debuted at the top of the Canadian album charts, selling 72,200 copies in its first week. It marked her tenth No. 1 album in the SoundScan era, and her eighth to debut at the top position. In Canada, the album has been certified 2× platinum, and within the first month had already shipped half a million units worldwide. D'Elles also reached No. 1 in France and Belgium. The first single "Et s'il n'en restait qu'une (je serais celle-là)" (meaning "And If There Was Only One Woman Left (I Would Be That One)") debuted at the top of the French singles chart a month earlier. Later that same year, she released the English album Taking Chances on 12 November in Europe, and 13 November in North America. Her first English studio album since 2003's One Heart, it featured pop, R&B, and rock inspired music. For this album, she collaborated with John Shanks and ex-Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody, as well as Kristian Lundin, Peer Åström, Linda Perry, Japanese singer Yuna Ito, and R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. Dion stated, "I think this album represents a positive evolution in my career ... I'm feeling strong, maybe a little gutsier than in the past, and just as passionate about music and life as I ever was." She launched her year-long worldwide Taking Chances Tour on 14 February 2008, in South Africa, performing 132 dates in stadiums and arenas across five continents.

"My Heart Will Go On" was included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, Dion was ranked by Forbes as the fifth richest woman in entertainment with an estimated net worth of US$250 million, though the ranking omitted non-working or retired celebrities. In August 2008, she received an honorary doctorate in music from the Université Laval in Quebec City.

The Taking Chances Tour was a great success in the United States, reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Boxscore, having sold out every concert in the US and Canada. In addition, she appeared on Idol Gives Back for a second year in a row. Dion was nominated for six Juno Awards in 2008, adding to her 53 previous nominations (an all-time record). Her nominations included Artist of the Year, Pop Album of the Year (for Taking Chances), Francophone Album of the Year (for D'elles) and Album of the Year (for both Taking Chances and D'elles). The following year, she was nominated for 3 Juno Awards including the Fan Choice Award, Song of the Year (for Taking Chances), and Music DVD of the Year (for Live in Las Vegas — A New Day...)

On 22 August 2008, Dion presented a free outdoor concert, mostly in French, on the Plains of Abraham, in Québec City, Canada, for the 400th anniversary of Québec City. The celebration gathered approximately 490,000 people. The concert, called Céline sur les Plaines, was released on DVD on 11 November 2008, in Québec and was released on 20 May 2009, in France. Late October 2008 saw the worldwide release of a comprehensive English-language greatest hits album, My Love: Essential Collection.

On a cultural level, Dion is credited for introducing francophone music to many non-francophone countries around the globe. Her albums D'eux and S'il suffisait d'aimer remain the best selling francophone albums in history, gaining unprecedented success in non-Francophone markets such as the United Kingdom, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Japan, and New Zealand. According to RFI Musique, she "has done her bit for French music over the years, assuring the success of French songs which would probably never have got beyond Francophone borders without her ... Without Celine, French record sales would be dramatically lower!" In May 2008, she received France's highest award, the Legion of Honour, from President of France Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy praised Dion and stated: "France thanks you because your talent and success have contributed to the influence of the French language outside our borders".

In May 2009, Dion was named the 20th best-selling artist of the decade and the second-best-selling female artist of the decade in the United States, selling an estimated 17.57 million copies of her albums there since 2000. In June 2009, Forbes reported that she earned $100 million during 2008. In December 2009, Pollstar announced that she was the best-selling solo touring act of the decade and the second-best-selling touring act of the decade, behind only the Dave Matthews Band. she grossed $522.2 million during the decade, a large portion of that sum coming from her five-year residency at Caesars Palace.

On 17 February 2010, Dion released into theatres a documentary film about her Taking Chances Tour, titled, Celine: Through the Eyes of the World. The documentary shows behind-the-scenes footage of her both onstage and offstage, along with footage of her with her family as they travelled the world with her. The distributor is the Sony Pictures subsidiary, Hot Ticket. The film was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on 4 May 2010, along with the CD/DVD, Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert. At the 52nd Grammy Awards in February 2010, Dion joined Carrie Underwood, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, and Smokey Robinson to perform the song "Earth Song" during the 3-D Michael Jackson tribute.

In January 2010, The Los Angeles Times presented its annual list of the top ten largest earners of the year, revealing that Dion took the top spot for the entire decade, with $US747.9 million in total revenue from 2000–2009. The largest haul came from ticket sales, totalling $522.2 million. Additionally, she was named "Artist of the Decade" in her native Canadian province of Québec, announced by the Montréal-based newspaper, Le Journal de Québec in 2009 December. A public online survey asked responders to vote for whom they believe deserved the above-mentioned accolade.

In September 2010, she released the single "Voler", a duet with French singer Michel Sardou. The song was later included on Sardou's album. In addition, it was announced in October 2010 that Dion wrote and composed a new song for Canadian singer, Marc Dupré entitled "Entre deux mondes".

In an interview with People magazine published in February 2010, Dion announced that she would be returning to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for Celine, a three-year residency for seventy shows a year, beginning 15 March 2011. She stated that the show will feature, "all the songs from my repertoire that people want to hear" and will contain a selection of music from classic Hollywood films. To promote her return to Las Vegas, Dion made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 21 February, during the show's final season, marking her record twenty-seventh appearance. In 2018, Billboard stated her residency Celine is the second most successful residency of all time.

In October 2010, Dion was named a Goodwill Ambassador, a program created by the UN in 1999, sharing this accolade with Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon. She also received several state decorations. In 2004, she was awarded the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award.

For a record sixth time, she performed at the 83rd Academy Awards, where she sang the song "Smile", as part of the ceremony's "In Memoriam" segment. On 4 September, she appeared on the 2011 MDA Labor Telethon Event and presented a prerecorded performance of "Open Arms" from her new Las Vegas show. On 1 October 2011, the OWN Network premiered a documentary on Dion's life, detailing the months before, during and after her pregnancy, to the makings of her new Las Vegas Show, called, "Celine: 3 Boys and a New Show". The documentary became the second highest rated show on TV OWN Canada. In October, FlightNetwork.com conducted a poll asking 780 participants which celebrity they would most like to sit next to on an airplane. Dion was the top favourite, with 23.7% of the vote. Also, in September, she released the 14th perfume from her Celine Dion Parfums Collection, called "Signature". On 15 September, she made an appearance at the free concert of world-famous tenor, Andrea Bocelli, in Central Park in New York. In 2012, she performed at the 16th Jazz and Blues Festival in Jamaica.

In October 2012, Sony Music Entertainment released The Best of Celine Dion & David Foster in Asia. She began recording songs for her next English and French albums during April and May 2012. The French-language album, Sans attendre was released on 2 November 2012, and was a smash success in all French-speaking territories, especially in France where it achieved diamond status. The English-language album was postponed to 1 November 2013. Titled Loved Me Back to Life, it included collaborations with an exceptional team of songwriters and producers, including duets with Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder. The lead single, "Loved Me Back to Life" was released on 3 September 2013. Dion embarked on the Sans attendre Tour in November 2013 and performed in Belgium and France. "Breakaway", "Incredible" and "Water and a Flame" were chosen as next singles. The music video for "Incredible" was uploaded onto her official Vevo channel in early June 2014.

In 2013, CBC Music ranked Falling into You 33rd in their list of the 100 greatest Canadian albums ever. In the United States, the album reached No. 1, and was later certified 11× Platinum for over 11 million copies shipped. In Canada, the album was certified diamond for over one million copies shipped. The IFPI certified Falling into You 9× Platinum, an accolade that has been given to only two other albums in history, with one of the two being Dion's own album, Let's Talk About Love. The album also won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album and the academy's highest honour, Album of the Year.

On 26 July 2013, she was awarded the highest rank of the Order of Canada, the Companion of the Order of Canada, by the Governor General of Canada and the investiture ceremony was held at Citadelle of Quebec, in which they said: "An incomparable artist, she is equally known for her compassion, generosity and commitment to a number of social and humanitarian causes. She is notably the national celebrity patron for Cystic Fibrosis Canada and honorary patron of the CHU Sainte-Justine. In addition, through her foundation, she also helps children in need and their families here in Canada and abroad."

On 16 May 2014, Dion released a three-disc set (2CD/DVD and 2CD/Blu-ray) titled Céline une seule fois / Live 2013, which reached top ten on the album charts in France, Canada and Belgium Wallonia.

On 13 August 2014, Dion announced the indefinite postponement of all her show business activities, including her concert residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and the cancellation of her Asia Tour, because of the worsening of her husband's health after he underwent the removal of a cancerous tumor in December 2013. However, on 20 March 2015, she announced that she would be returning to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in late August 2015. On 14 January 2016, she cancelled the rest of the January performances due to her husband's and her brother's death from cancer. Dion resumed the residency on 23 February to a sold-out crowd and rave reviews.

In October 2015, Dion announced on social media that she had begun working on a new French album, posting a photo by the side of Algerian singer Zaho. Dion's French single, "Encore un soir", was released on 24 May 2016. On 20 May, she released a cover of Queen's song "The Show Must Go On", featuring Lindsey Stirling on violin. She performed "The Show Must Go On" at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards on 22 May, and received the Billboard Icon Award (presented to her by her son, René-Charles Angélil) in recognition of her career spanning over three decades.

The singer's new French album, Encore un soir, was released on 26 August 2016. It features fifteen tracks performed in French and, according to the singer, has a personal choice of the songs – more uplifting lyrics were chosen. Encore un soir topped the charts in France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, and was certified Diamond in France, 2× Platinum in Canada and Platinum in Belgium and Switzerland. It has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In 2016 and 2017, Dion toured Europe and Canada with two sold-out concert tours. On 9 September 2016, she released "Recovering", a song written for her by Pink after Dion's husband René Angélil died in January 2016. Dion also recorded "How Does a Moment Last Forever" for the Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, released in March 2017. Her compilation, Un peu de nous topped the chart in France in July and August 2017.

On 14 January 2016, Angélil died from throat cancer. His funeral was held on 22 January 2016, in Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, where he and Dion wed 21 years earlier. The couple's eldest son, René-Charles, gave the eulogy just three days before his 15th birthday. Following Angélil's death, Dion became the sole owner and president of her management and production companies, including CDA Productions and Les Productions Feeling.

On 3 May 2018, she released the single "Ashes" from the film Deadpool 2. The remix version of the song topped the US Dance Club Songs chart in July 2018. From June to August 2018, she toured the Asia-Pacific region and grossed $56.5 million from 22 shows. On 24 September 2018, she announced the end of her Las Vegas residency Celine, with the final date set for 8 June 2019. She is working on a new English album. In January 2019, she performed "A Change Is Gonna Come" at the "Aretha! A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul" Franklin's tribute concert, to be broadcast in March 2019.

On 22 March 2018, Dion's management team announced that she had been dealing with hearing irregularities for the past 12–18 months due to patulous Eustachian tube and would undergo a minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct the problem after ear-drop medications appeared to be no longer working.

In March 2019, she was one of 11 singers from Quebec, alongside Ginette Reno, Diane Dufresne, Isabelle Boulay, Luce Dufault, Louise Forestier, Laurence Jalbert, Catherine Major, Ariane Moffatt, Marie Denise Pelletier and Marie-Élaine Thibert, who participated in a supergroup recording of Renée Claude's 1971 single "Tu trouveras la paix" after Claude's diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease was announced.

On 3 April 2019, during a Facebook Live event, Dion announced her 2019/2020 Courage World Tour, beginning in Quebec City on 18 September 2019. She also announced a new English language album of the same name, to be released later in November 2019.

On 18 September 2019, Dion released three songs, "Lying Down", "Courage", and "Imperfections" from her upcoming album, Courage.

On 26 February 2020, Dion released two songs as exclusive Spotify singles: an acoustic version of Imperfections, and a cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. Isaak joined Dion and sang vocals on the track.

On 10 June 2020, Dion announced that her Courage World Tour will kick off again in 2021, after the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dion further cemented her name in the fashion world by wearing the reverse tuxedo at 1999 Academy Awards, which became one of the most talked ensembles of that time. Vogue also listed her iconic 1999 reverse tuxedo as one of the most controversial looks of all time saying it was undeniably the Highlight of the Year. WMagazine also listed the iconic ensemble as one of the most memorable dresses of all time. As a matter of fact in Feb. 2020, Sergio Guadarrama (a contestant of Project Runway) copied the idea of reverse tuxedo and claimed it was his original idea and had even claimed that he had no idea about the iconic tuxedo, which left the fans of the show disappointed.