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Front Burner Transcript for October 25, 2024

Host: Jayme Poisson

JAYME POISSON: Hey, everybody. It's Jayme. So we've got a bit of a change of pace for you today. For the last little while, some of us here have been working on a different podcast feed called Understood. You should follow it. It's really great. It's like a deep dive miniseries feed. You might have heard our seasons on Pornhub, Narendra Modi, Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. Well, we've got a brand new season about a true icon, Céline Dion. It's more than just a bio, though. It looks at a wild range of factors -- business, culture, raw talent, of course, politics -- that all combine to create Céline. So we have episode one of that for you today. If you like it, episode two is already out, so you can go over to the Understood feed, follow it and listen to that episode right away. We have also got links in our show notes. Okay, that's it. Have a great weekend.

Céline: Understood, Episode 1

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[dance music]

LADY GAGA: Bonsoir. Bienvenue à Paris!

THOMAS LEBLANC: It was close to midnight in Paris.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Oh, wow. People are coming down the stairs...

THOMAS LEBLANC: And millions of people like me, around the world, were glued to the Olympic opening ceremonies on TV.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: That was a beautiful number. This is a party. It's a party.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It was a spectacle, with coloured smoke and dancers swinging from scaffolding around Notre Dame Cathedral.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Oh, I think she's... Oh, Céline is coming. I think Céline is coming... Oh, no. Okay.

THOMAS LEBLANC: I'd been watching for hours...

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THOMAS LEBLANC: They're zooming in on the logo. Is Céline there?

THOMAS LEBLANC: ...wondering if the rumours were true.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Will Céline perform? That's what everybody's asking.

THOMAS LEBLANC: In 2022, Céline had been diagnosed with a rare neurological condition, and there were doubts about whether she could ever sing again.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Oh, Céline will be at the Louvre? And they're getting to Concorde. Where is this? They're giving us the whole damn tour. Well, maybe she'll sing at the Arc de Triomphe, though.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Then, through heavy drops of rain, the cameras panned to the Eiffel Tower.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Holy shit.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Céline Dion.

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[Céline Dion singing opening lines of "Hymne à l'amour"]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Wow...

THOMAS LEBLANC: At first, she seemed so small. This tiny figure up on the glistening deck of the Tour D'Eiffel. But she looked so confident in her white beaded gown. And sounded so strong.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: This is incredible.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It was surprisingly emotional. It had been years since we'd seen her like this. Her illness had kept her from the stage, and her absence felt like such a huge loss.

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[montage of television shows introducing Céline Dion]

FRENCH TV HOST 1: ...Céline Dion.

JAY LENO: My next guest, a very talented singer from Canada...

THOMAS LEBLANC: This is a star whose career has spanned more than 40 years, in French and English, and reaches nearly every corner of the globe.

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[clips from international tours]

CÉLINE DION: [speaking Japanese], Osaka.

CÉLINE DION: My very first time in the Philippines...

[crowd cheers]

CÉLINE DION: ...and it feels amazing! Thank you!

THOMAS LEBLANC: And yet, as a culture writer, I'm always struck by just how unlikely, how singular her path to superstardom really was.

[Music: Series Theme]

THOMAS LEBLANC: I'm Thomas LeBlanc. And this season of Understood, I want to piece together the cultural, political and economic circumstances that helped manufacture Céline Dion, the pop icon.

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CÉLINE DION: I love to sing.

HOST: No kidding!

COMMENTATOR 1: It was not by accident that things just sort of fell into place.

COMMENTATOR 2: As ubiquitous as Céline's glamorous success and popularity was, was this backlash and contempt for her.

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CBC JOURNALIST: You're going to be Americanized, you're going to be anglicized.

CÉLINE DION: Well, I'm always going to stay a francophone Quebecer all my life.

ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD: Could it happen again? Could Céline Dion happen again?

THOMAS LEBLANC: But to understand all that, we'll have to go back to the beginning, because it all started very far away from the sparkling lights of Paris. This is Céline: Understood. Episode One: Conquering Québec.

[Music: Series Theme]

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THOMAS LEBLANC: I believe we're actually on Boulevard Céline-Dion. I believe we are. I believe we're on Boulevard Céline-Dion in Charlemagne.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It's a hot Thursday morning in June. I'm driving around the town of Charlemagne, Québec, with my producer, Cristal Duhaime.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: On Céline-Dion Boulevard, you can see a Dollarama. The famous Québec chicken rotisserie, St-Hubert. That's Québec culture...

THOMAS LEBLANC: Charlemagne is about 30 minutes outside of Montreal.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: It's really cute. Like, older houses...

CRISTAL DUHAIME: And nice little porches.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It's where Céline grew up.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: She has talked about and sang about walking on the side of the street in Charlemagne when she was a kid. So we can actually-- we're on St-Denis here. I'm going to show you, Cristal. This is not Graceland.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Growing up in Montreal in the '90s, Céline was just always around. I never knew a world without her. It all started when I was six years old. That year for Christmas, my grandmother gave me a tape player. It came with two cassettes: one was of Céline's French album, Dion Chante Plamondon, and the other one was Unison, her first album in English. So in my family's living room, I danced to her pop tracks in English. And then I'd sway along to her tender French ballads like “Ziggy (Un garçon pas comme les autres)” -- "A boy not like the others." To me, as a francophone kid, there was nothing weird about this. I loved English Céline as much as I loved French Céline.

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CRISTAL DUHAIME: Why do you say sometimes Celine and sometime Céline?

THOMAS LEBLANC: Uh. I think in English I just pronounce it the American way, Celine. So there's Celine and Céline. But in French, we would say a hard 'D' -- Dion. Dion. Céline Dion.

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FRENCH TV HOST 2: ...Céline Dion.

[audience cheers]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Now, all these years with her in my life, I consider myself something of a Céline scholar.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: This is where Céline's family home was located. Édifice St. Jude. Yeah, that would be it. That would be the building where she went to school... Crossing Daniel Street. She has a brother named Daniel... Could you imagine this is your elementary school and Céline Dion came here? And you can really tell they don't have extra budget even if Céline came here. The fence is broken... Like, these people have probably nothing to do with Céline Dion and we're right by their window.

CRISTAL DUHAIME: Yeah, is it kind of creepy that we're just sitting in the car...

THOMAS LEBLANC: It's absolutely creepy.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Looking around Charlemagne...

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THOMAS LEBLANC: A pole fitness gym, a tattoo shop, a Chinese restaurant...

THOMAS LEBLANC: I wonder if Céline, this bilingual superstar, really came to her identity so easily.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: ...and finally, Pizza Céline.

THOMAS LEBLANC: After all, she comes from a place that's so idiosyncratic. Somehow, Québec is the place that gave birth to Leonard Cohen and Cirque du Soleil.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Oh, funny. The cross street of the school is Trudeau. And obviously Pierre Trudeau was prime minister when Céline was young. Oh, wow.

THOMAS LEBLANC: There are so many layers here, so many tensions. Colonial histories, the grip of the Catholic Church, clashes between French and English, a powerful independence movement. And if you look hard enough, you can see how all these layers shape Céline.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Shall we go to Starbucks? [chuckles]

CRISTAL DUHAIME: What does Starbucks have to do with Céline?

THOMAS LEBLANC: In a way, you can't escape Starbucks in the same way that you cannot escape Céline Dion, so...

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[archival clip of a young Céline Dion singing with her family in French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: This is Céline singing with her family in a Radio-Canada segment from 1983. She would have been about 15.

[Céline and family singing continues, with Céline belting out a solo]

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GHISLAINE DION: [speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Ghislaine Dion is one of Céline's big sisters. She goes by Gigi, for short. She says when Céline was born, she was like Gigi's poupée, her doll.

[Céline and family speaking in French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Before Céline came along, there was: Denise, Clément, then Claudette, Liette, Michel, Louise, Jacques, Daniel, Gigi, Linda, Manon, and twins, Paul and Pauline.

[Members of Dion family speaking in French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: At the head of this family, there was Adhemar, the patriarch, and Therese, or 'Maman Dion.' It wasn't uncommon in the '40s, '50s and '60s for French-Canadian families to have a dozen or so kids -- my own dad was one of 11. Back then, the Catholic Church ran pretty much everything in Québec, from education to health care. And priests mandated, or at least heavily encouraged people to have large families. Still, after 13 kids, Maman Dion felt she'd had enough. At one point, she even went to her priest to ask if she might be permitted to stop having children, essentially to go on birth control. But the priest said no. It would go against God's will.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Knowing now who Céline would become, it's hard to imagine that she was an accident. But when she was born in 1968, she was just one more mouth to feed in the Dion home.

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ERIN HURLEY: You know, I mean, in the traditionalist French-Canadian narrative of who French-Canadians are -- all in quotes, right? -- there's a sense of them being “né pour un petit pain.” Right? Born for something very small, for the small role, for the little bread. That they're not going to go very far, and that's fine.

THOMAS LEBLANC: This is Erin Hurley. She's a professor at McGill University in Montreal. And she spent a lot of time thinking about the phenomenon of Céline Dion and how her story fits within Québec's larger history.

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ERIN HURLEY: This was part of the Catholic narrative. Just stay in your home with your many children, and that is enough. Just stay where you are and God will take care of you.

GHISLAINE DION: [speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Gigi says her family was poor, but the kids were fed, and their mom kept them dressed by sewing clothes for them. At times, kids were four to a room. The house was so packed, that as a baby, Céline slept in the drawer of a dresser. The Dions didn't have much money, but they did, of course, have music.

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ERIN HURLEY: They all play instruments, and they routinely sang and made music together as a family.

[Ghislaine speaking French]

[accordion music fades up]

THOMAS LEBLANC: [translating] Their dad played the accordion. One of the brothers would dance a jig. Or la claquette.

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GHISLAINE DION: Certainement magnifique.

ERIN HURLEY: And so it's no wonder that the youngest of this large family turns to music at a very young age.

[accordion music plays, singing fades up and out]

THOMAS LEBLANC: In the '70s, the musical traditions in the Dion home carry over into a little piano bar that their dad buys.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Le Vieux Baril. Okay.

CRISTAL DUHAIME: What are you looking for?

THOMAS LEBLANC: The Vieux Baril.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Or "The Old Barrel."

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THOMAS LEBLANC: Like, this is the equivalent of the bar where the Beatles started. This is the birthplace.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It's at Le Vieux Baril that Céline, at the age of eight or nine, first starts to sing publicly.

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ERIN HURLEY: She's standing on the tables, singing to the customers.

GHISLAINE DION: [speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: [translating] People start calling up Maman Dion to find out when "La Petite Céline" will be singing next.

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ERIN HURLEY: So in this very musical, traditional, large Québec family, she is nonetheless identified as the one who's going places musically. As the one with a particularly special gift.

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[Céline Dion singing “Ce N’était Qu’un Rêve”]

THOMAS LEBLANC: This is the first song Céline ever recorded. “Ce N’était Qu’un Rêve.” The lyrics are by Maman Dion, and the music by Céline and her brother Jacques. She's around 12 here, but she doesn't sound like it.

[Céline singing “Ce N’était Qu’un Rêve” fades back up]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Céline sings about an enchanted garden with angels smiling down from heaven.

[Céline singing “Ce N’était Qu’un Rêve” fades back up]

THOMAS LEBLANC: The chorus goes: It was only a dream. It was only a dream. But so beautiful that it was real.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: It's crazy. To me, every-- goosebumps every time. It's wild. To me, this is, this song is wild. It's one of the wildest moments of her life.

PRODUCER: Really?

THOMAS LEBLANC: Yeah. It's like a premonition of everything.

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ERIN HURLEY: So they write this song, and they bring it to René Angélil, who's a producer in Montreal.

RENÉ ANGÉLIL: [speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: René was kind of a big deal. He'd been the manager of two major Québec music stars. The demo cassette gets them an invite to René's office.

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RENÉ ANGÉLIL: [speaking French]

ERIN HURLEY: And he hands her a pencil in the meeting and says, Pretend this is your microphone and sing something for me. And she does. She belts it out, and he signs her on the spot. So that's where the commercial musical story begins, is in René's office.

THOMAS LEBLANC: René, who's 39 at the time, starts dedicating all of his energy to 12-year-old Céline Dion.

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RENÉ ANGÉLIL: [speaking to Céline] Superb. C'est exactement ça.

THOMAS LEBLANC: He has big plans for her. Plans that could only work in Québec.

THOMAS LEBLANC: In the ‘60s, when Céline was born, a societal shift had started taking place in Québec. It was called La Révolution Tranquille, or the Quiet Revolution. Because it wasn't a big, loud, American-style revolution. It was more gradual and, well, quiet. Québecers wanted to shrug off the Catholic Church. Like, for example, they didn't want priests sticking their nose into women's reproductive choices. And La Révolution Tranquille was also about standing up for French culture. While English is the majority language of Canada, French is very firmly the majority language in Québec. This may seem obvious now, but back then, it wasn't so simple.

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ERIN HURLEY: There's a long history of the imposition of English as a public language, especially in Québec, on French-speaking people.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Erin Hurley again, the prof from McGill.

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ERIN HURLEY: Because the language of class power, of economic power, was English. So the power of English led to the need for a quiet revolution that Frenchifies -- that was a franciser, right -- that Frenchifies Québec and anchors the right of speaking French to allow people to fully thrive in their mother tongue of French.

THOMAS LEBLANC: And this collective project of Frenchifying meant creating cultural infrastructures.

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ERIN HURLEY: And so what this means is that Québec, at the provincial level, invests heavily in culture. So for example, radio stations, TV stations and movies and musical production -- again in French -- on Radio-Canada, for example, right. On TVA, on various television stations. So it's a, it's a space in which there are mechanisms for generating and then disseminating Québécois French language voices.

THOMAS LEBLANC: And this space grows into an extensive network of local Québécois talent, and bolsters a small but thriving celebrity scene.

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ERIN HURLEY: The Québec star system, or vedetteriat, as we say in French.

THOMAS LEBLANC: The Québec star system. And it's this niche cultural setting that nurtures Céline's emergence.

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ERIN HURLEY: There are some really early moments in which we see how Céline Dion's career trajectory is really supported by these French language infrastructures. She comes out with her first album, La Voix du Bon Dieu, the voice of the good Lord, right? [laughs]

THOMAS LEBLANC: It starts to play on the radio. And then at the age of 13, on June 19th, 1981, Céline makes her first television appearance.

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[archival clip of Michel Jasmin's opening theme]

ERIN HURLEY: She goes on Michel Jasmin's TV show.

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[applause from audience]

MICHEL JASMIN: Bonsoir, tous le monde.

ERIN HURLEY: It's a talk show, it's a major cultural event. Everyone watches the Michel Jasmin Show.

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MICHEL JASMIN: Elle a une voix magnifique. [speaking French]. C'est Céline Dion.

[applause from audience]

[Céline begins singing "Ce N’etait qu’un Reve"]

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SONIA BENEZRA: She came onto the scene, you know, this tall, thin type girl with this long hair and the thick eyebrows and wearing these outfits that, you know, it wasn't haute couture, let's just say. And she wasn't cool.

THOMAS LEBLANC: That's Sonia Benezra. Sonia is a music journalist and talk show host. René Angélil once called her the Oprah of Québec.

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SONIA BENEZRA: You know, nobody really wants to be famous during those adolescent years. You know, when you're 13 and everything. If I show you pictures of me, it's like they're scary. I mean, you're changing. Your face is changing, the features are sort of, like, weird.

ERIN HURLEY: She has long, frizzy hair in the '80s, right. Like everyone else did. [laughs] She has some crisscrossed teeth. There's some awkwardness, especially in those early moments when she's learning the trade. There are lots of points of familiarity or resemblance between a young Céline Dion and everyone's cousin, right? Or everyone's younger sister. She gets adopted almost by Québec society as... well, as I say, as a kind of cousin or a little sister who's enormously talented. She had a certain innocence and joy in singing; kind of lovely, almost naiveté about the goodness in people and the joy in song and what music can do and how it connects us to something bigger.

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[Céline singing final note of "Ce N’etait qu’un Reve" on Michel Jasmin show. Audience applauds, cheers]

THOMAS LEBLANC: The Michel Jasmin appearance is a total hit.

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ERIN HURLEY: It reaches a whole new public, and really solidifies the fact that she is becoming a Québec star.

MICHEL JASMIN: [speaking French] Céline Dion, qui chante pour nous.

[applause from audience]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Soon, René’s got her touring the province...

[Céline speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Singing at amusement parks...

[Céline speaking French]

THOMAS LEBLANC: She's on TV, on the radio. She sings the national anthem at an Expos' baseball game.

[Céline singing the Canadian national anthem]

THOMAS LEBLANC: She drops out of high school to focus on singing full time.

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CELINE DION: Uhm, my dream is to be international star.

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THOMAS LEBLANC: There was negative press about her looks, [SONIA: Yes.] but also about her ambition.

SONIA BENEZRA: Not just ambition, it's the dream. I mean, this is a girl dreaming, not sure that it's going to happen, but daring to say it out loud. But somehow that just didn't-- Well, she's like Teflon. All of those comments sort of just almost pushed her further.

[brief clip of French TV appearance where Céline laughs and host is speaking]

THOMAS LEBLANC: She puts out seven albums within four years. She's getting awards at home and in France, where at the age of 15, she's the first Canadian to get a gold record.

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[clip of French TV appearance with host and Céline in conversation]

[music]

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SONIA BENEZRA: When did she sing for the Pope? What year was it?

THOMAS LEBLANC: '84.

SONIA BENEZRA: Okay. So 1984, when Céline gets to sing for the Pope, I think the entire world somehow hears her name. And she awakens everybody here in Québec. I mean, obviously, there are those that have already seen her on Michel Jasmin a few years ago, and you knew that this was an extraordinary talent, but as soon as the Pope comes into it, then all the English press starts to cover it as well.

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ERIN HURLEY: This is part of her sort of juvenile period, right? The tweens and teens, in which she is almost exclusively clothed in white. There is this sense of innocence and purity, which has to do with gender and Catholicism. And so she then becomes this kind of tribute to the Pope.

[Céline Dion singing "Une Colombe"]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Céline is singing "Une Colombe." A colombe is a dove. And as Céline sings, the field at Montreal's Olympic Stadium fills with hundreds of dancers, all in white.

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SONIA BENEZRA: It awakened my interest in this girl as well, who performed without looking nervous, with such assurance that it was really quite mind boggling. I mean, everybody commented on the majestic performance of this young girl who came out of nowhere. I mean, I don't care if you're religious or not. The Pope is so symbolic. It's a big deal. It symbolizes something bigger than us.

THOMAS LEBLANC: The performance for the Pope anoints Céline as a bright light in the Québec star system. And Céline's dreams just keep getting bigger.

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[archival clip]

CBC JOURNALIST 2: Céline is taking a crash course in English with a private tutor because she wants to record in English.

TUTOR: What language does he speak at home?

CELINE DION: At home, Mr. Duval speak French.

TUTOR: Speaks.

CELINE DION: Speaks.

CBC JOURNALIST 2: She's already mastered several key phrases.

CELINE DION: Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.

THOMAS LEBLANC: With the help of René, she's about to cross over -- onto an even larger stage outside Québec's borders.

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[archival clip continues]

CELINE DION: Don't be hangry.

[Tutor laughs]

CELINE DION: Um. I'm sorry, sir, my manager is not here now.

THOMAS LEBLANC: But first, she'll need a makeover.

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SONIA BENEZRA: I remember her walking into the studio with René Angélil, and she was completely changed because they had kept her out of the spotlight for a couple of years, because they really wanted to work the image and bring her back as a young, sexy singer.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Sonia Benezra. She's talking about the late '80s when she worked as a VJ at MusiquePlus. It's where Sonia first met 19-year-old Céline.

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SONIA BENEZRA: And she walked in with, I believe it was a miniskirt with her new little short haircut and the perfect-teeth smile.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Gone are the virginal white dresses. And she's gotten dental surgery to correct the snaggle teeth that earned her the nickname [Fr. pronunciation:] "Canine Dion," or [Eng. pronunciation:] Canine Dion. Céline's makeover lined up with the release of her album Incognito in '87. Out of this record came her dance-pop single, "Lolita." It was a different musical style for Céline. A bit more like what Madonna was doing at the time.

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[Céline singing "Lolita"]

THOMAS LEBLANC: The song is about a teenage crush on an older man. Something we'll later learn Céline is all too familiar with.

["Lolita" fades up]

THOMAS LEBLANC: [singing the translation] You say I'm too young to live with a man... I say, I don't care, I don't care, I don't care. I love you...

THOMAS LEBLANC: Oh my God, this will require so much Auto-Tune.

["Lolita" fades up and out]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Back in '87, Céline's new album, The Makeover, it was all part of a broader attempt to shift her identity, taking her from child star to adult songstress and soon into a whole new market.

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SONIA BENEZRA: The first thing that people have to understand, especially if you're-- you know, the Anglophone markets and the francophone markets are like two worlds. You know, we say two solitudes. It's very different.

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[multiple archival clips]

HOST 2: Céline Dion is the undisputed pop diva in Québec. Since she was discovered at the age of 12, Céline...

REPORTER: She's only 21, but for years, Céline Dion has been a big star. A sellout in Québec, a sensation in France...

CELINE DION: I have to work hard because, you know, I'm very known here in Québec and I'm not-- I want to be known everywhere in the world. But I have to concentrate myself on Canada because I'm not known at all. You know, when I go to Toronto, Edmonton or Calgary or Vancouver, whatever, you know, I walk on the streets and nobody asked me my autograph.

[clip of Céline rehearsing]

REPORTER: After some English lessons, some voice lessons and dance lessons, her Québec fans think she's ready for the rest of North America.

THOMAS LEBLANC: In 1990, Céline releases her first English-language album called Unison.

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[Céline Dion singing "(If There Was) Any Other Way"]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Listening to Unison, I'm brought right back to the cassette I got as a kid.

[multiple musical samples from Unison].

THOMAS LEBLANC: There are synthesizers, basses being slapped, epic guitar solos. Even elements of house music. And this one song on the album, it still holds up.

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[Song: "Where Does My Heart Beat Now"]

CELINE DION: [singing] So much to believe in, we were lost in time...

THOMAS LEBLANC: "Where Does My Heart Beat Now." It's a slow-stepping, emotional ballad with a dramatic build-up...

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CELINE DION: [singing] But now, that seems so far away...

THOMAS LEBLANC: ...and early '90s electric guitar riffs. But it was not just the album's music that was getting noticed. On the cover of Unison, the French accent on Céline's name is gone.

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ERIN HURLEY: So when Céline makes the shift to singing in English, there are really mixed responses in Québec. So in that moment, English Canada is discovering Céline Dion. Québec has known Céline Dion since she was 12, right? So there's a kind of possessiveness, which I don't mean in a negative way, but possessiveness and pride in this homegrown girl who pulled herself up by her bootstraps kind of thing, coming from hardscrabble beginnings and really making it. But there's a concern in Québec that's expressed about a kind of betrayal. A sense of her getting too big for her britches. Are we not enough? Is it not big enough to be a star here?

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[Song: "I Want to Ponge" by Rock et Belles Oreilles fades up]

THOMAS LEBLANC: The comedy troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles puts out a song that seems to be about Céline. "I Want to Ponge." Ponge is slang. It basically means to sell out. [sings] "I do not want to speak in my tongue, I just want to ponge."

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SONIA BENEZRA: There's an expression in Québec: “tu es ne pour un petit pain.” Which means you're born for something small. So if you dare to dream too big, some people thought, like, how dare she? Like, she comes from Charlemagne. I mean, it's like, you know, why? Why her? That kind of a thing, that mentality.

ERIN HURLEY: What is that balance between loyalty, fidelity to one's roots, and the desire and the commercial need to expand markets, to expand horizons?

[music]

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FMR QUEBEC PREMIER BOURASSA: So far as Québec is concerned, that question has been settled.

THOMAS LEBLANC: 1990.

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FMR QUEBEC PREMIER BOURASSA: But I'm ready, I'm ready...

THOMAS LEBLANC: Just after Céline's debut English record drops, when the French accent on her name is struck from her album cover, Québec is delivered a blow.

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CBC HOST: The prime minister and the provincial premiers trying to find a way to pass the Meech Lake Accord.

THOMAS LEBLANC: A move to revise the Canadian constitution had been in the works. A revision that would officially recognized Québec as a culturally distinct society, its own special thing within Canada. But then it all unravelled...

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CBC JOURNALIST 3: How are you feeling tonight?

QUEBECER: Well, I must say, I feel betrayed.

THOMAS LEBLANC: ...further stoking the already passionate independence movement. The country was at risk of being torn apart, and tensions between English and French are flaring.

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QUEBECER: I'm pretty sad. For the country, and for Quebec.

THOMAS LEBLANC: That same year, on a Sunday night in October, a 22-year-old Céline finds herself caught up in the middle of these political forces at a gala in Montreal.

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SONIA BENEZRA: I mean, it's huge. You're dressed to the nines. You know, you showed up with a, on the red carpet. I mean, it was like a mini Hollywood version.

THOMAS LEBLANC: The ADISQ Gala is one of Québec's biggest music events of the year. Basically, Québec's Grammys.

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SONIA BENEZRA: People watched. If you knew L'ADISQ was on, you were not watching anything else.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Sonia was at the ADISQ that year. Unison had come out a few months earlier and the album had sold really well.

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SONIA BENEZRA: And she's nominated in Québec for Best Anglophone Artist.

THOMAS LEBLANC: "Anglophone Artist of the Year."

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SONIA BENEZRA: This was a big deal. The fact that she was nominated in that category was also a little bit of a dig. You know, here she goes, singing in English, the enemy language. You know, that sort of a thing.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Sonia's maybe making assumptions here, but it's hard to believe that the ADISQ establishment, essentially the gatekeepers of the Québec music industry, would not have known what they were doing when they put Céline in the Anglophone category. As Québec's sovereignty movement is so dialed up at the time, so is the protectiveness around Francophone culture. And it felt like Céline was getting put in her place; was being told not to ponge. But Céline and René couldn't just not show up to the biggest event of the year either.

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SONIA BENEZRA: So they did not want to ruffle feathers. You know, you have to play the game.

THOMAS LEBLANC: And so on the night of the gala, when they announced the winner of Anglophone Artist of the Year...

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[archival clip]

PRESENTER: Alors, les gagnant out les gagnantes... C’est Céline! Wooo!

[audience cheers, Céline Dion song plays]

THOMAS LEBLANC: The camera finds Céline sitting in the audience with René. He puts his head down for a moment and Céline looks over at him, as if to say, “Oh mon dieu. Here we go." It's not the look of someone who has just won an award. Céline pauses before standing up, then walks to the stage. She's wearing a body-hugging black miniskirt and a matching blazer with shoulder pads. A guy in a suit extends the golden statuette towards her, but she waves it off. And she takes the microphone.

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SONIA BENEZRA: She was defiant. She was not smiling.

THOMAS LEBLANC: And then Céline says...

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CELINE DION: Je ne peux pas accepter ce trophée là.

THOMAS LEBLANC: She can't accept the award.

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SONIA BENEZRA: People were shocked.

CELINE DION: C'est pas parce que j'suis pas fière de mon disque en anglais. Au contraire.

THOMAS LEBLANC: It's not because she's not proud of her English album, she says. In fact, she's very proud of her album. She goes on to thank the record company for supporting her pursuits across the world as a Québécois artist. And then comes the kicker.

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CELINE DION: Et je tiens à remercier le public aussi.

THOMAS LEBLANC: [translating] And I thank the fans.

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CELINE DION: Parce que je pense qu’eux autres ont compris.

THOMAS LEBLANC: [translating] Because they understood...

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CELINE DION: ...que j'étais pas une artiste anglophone.

[audience cheers]

THOMAS LEBLANC: ...that I am not an anglophone artist.

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SONIA BENEZRA: Nobody was going to tell her who she is. You cannot define me. I know who I am.

THOMAS LEBLANC: She could be Celine and Céline.

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[CBC archival clip]

CÉLINE DION: They just disqualified me of the 45 categories because I sang in English. I was singled out because I sang in English, and I just didn't think it was fair.

CBC HOST 2: Do you ever worry of the fact that at this particular time, when people are very sensitive about anglophone or francophone, [CÉLINE: Yeah.] that your francophone audience, your original audience who supported you in Québec and so on, will think that you betrayed them because you're becoming an English-speaking star now and you're going to be Americanized, you're going to be anglicized...

CÉLINE DION: I'm always going to stay a francophone Québecer all my life. I'm proud of that. But I'm francophone who's able to sing in English today.

THOMAS LEBLANC: The day after the ADISQ Awards aired, public reaction is mixed. In one letter to the Montreal Gazette, an English newspaper, a reader accuses Céline of pulling a publicity stunt, and says, "Just one little piece of advice for Céline Dion: Don't bite the hand that feeds you, or you might find yourself without any English money to feed you in the future." In the same paper, Jacques Parizeau, the leader of Québec's Independence Party, he says, "I thought it was, for a girl like that, quite something to say. I was impressed. And I wrote her a small note to say so." At the ADISQ Gala the very next year, the name of the award is changed to a, [clears throat], "Québec Artist Most Illustrious in a Language Other Than French."

[Music: Series Theme]

THOMAS LEBLANC: Still, one gets the sense that Céline, as a woman trying to be a star to all of Canada -- English and French -- was never going to please everyone.

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ADRIENNE CLARKSON: You said, "I am Québécoise."

CÉLINE DION: I know. I know.

ADRIENNE CLARKSON: And the problem is...

CÉLINE DION: It's not because you--

ADRIENNE CLARKSON: ...are Quebecers only French-speaking?

CÉLINE DION: French-- No, I know.

ADRIENNE CLARKSON: Are they, Céline? Are Quebecers only French-speaking?

CÉLINE DION: No, absolutely not.

ADRIENNE CLARKSON: I'm glad to hear you say that.

CÉLINE DION: Absolutely not.

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CÉLINE DION: There's a small C right here. There's not a, a capital C, there's not a capital D here. Oh, my God, it's terrible. It doesn't change me! It doesn't change my personality. I think it's a great album, and it's not because there's not an accent.

THOMAS LEBLANC: But one thing's for sure: People were talking about Céline Dion in two different languages now.

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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: C’est une vraie Québécoise.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: A true Quebecer, he says.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Avec beaucoup d’ambition américaine qu’on pourrait meme dire.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: With lots of ambition. American ambition.

THOMAS LEBLANC: Céline was ready to cross over into the U.S., but she had a secret about all those love songs she was singing. And her manager, René, feared this secret could stop her career in its tracks.

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SONIA BENEZRA: I'll never forget the moment when they had to come out on stage. Where the album launch was taking place, there was an audience, people standing around. And he was petrified. I had to literally push him, push him on the stage.

THOMAS LEBLANC: That's next time on Céline: Understood.

[Music: Closing Series Theme]

JP: All right. I hope you liked this. If you did, search 'Understood' in whatever player you're using and hit follow. You'll find episode two, which is all about how Céline broke out of Québec and hit it big in America. We're going to put links in our show notes. Talk to you next week.

Front Burner Presents Céline: Understood, Episode 1 - Transcript

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