Céline Dion

She represents the ultimate Québécois dream — Céline Dion is the small-town girl (the youngest in a family of 14) whose talent would ultimately shift records by the hundreds of millions; an artist whose voice holds that priceless, perfect tension between ethereal innocence and smoldering desire. From early hits like “The Power of Love” through to her Titanic aria “My Heart Will Go On” and her Las Vegas show, A New Day, she’s retained the fire that made her a local phenomenon in home-town Charlemagne at 13. Whatever the language, no one can sing of love like Céline, especially on the signature track that opens her Essentials, 1996’s “Because You Loved Me.”

Céline takes songs of maternal wonderment to a new level, in Next Steps.

By the age of 18, Céline Dion had become a pop icon in her native Canada. She found that her passion and vulnerability as a singer transcended all borders, and she speaks the language of love with utter conviction, from heartbreak to the maternal bond she explores on the 2004 concept album Miracle, a collaboration with Australian-born photographer Anne Geddes. The title track was written for the birth of her son, René-Charles, several years earlier, and she invests the timeless Ewan MacColl track “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (a pop hit for Roberta Flack in ’72) with so much delicacy, you can palpably sense the wondrous fragility of a newborn.

For Céline at her French-language finest, head for Deep Cuts.

Since the ’80s, Céline Dion has released songs in both French and English, working with top-flight composers and producers from around the world to achieve her vibrant, bilingual sound. Here, we’ve included a couple of her most outstanding Francophone recordings, and pay homage to her rich and powerful Québécois musical heritage: on 1991’s Dion chante Plamondon, featuring the lyrics of French-Canadian wordsmith Luc Plamondon, Céline gives us hints of the global superstar she was to become (her English-language debut had arrived just a year earlier), as she rocks passionately through “Des mots qui sonnent” and funks out on “Je danse dans ma tête.”

There’s something undeniably larger-than-life about Céline Dion. The commanding power of her voice and the scale of her international popularity set her head and shoulders above the closest competition. But behind the Vegas-conquering legend is the Cinderella story of a working-class Quebec girl who beat the odds through sheer talent, sincere passion, and irresistible star power. The grand theme of her career has been the human experience of love, in all its ecstasy and heartbreak. No one can belt out an amorous standard quite like the fabulous Céline, whether she’s living every emotional undercurrent of a timeless power ballad (“Where Does My Heart Beat Now,” “All By Myself”) or pulling us through clubland by the heartstrings (“I Drove All Night”). Bask in her regal glow . . . for Céline is queen.