Celine Dion was born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada and is the youngest of 14 children.  She started singing at the age of 8 in her parents night club.  While only at the age 12, her mother and one of her brothers helped to create a demo tape, which was given to promoter Rene Angelil.  He mortgaged his home so Celine could record her first album.  Celine and Rene were later married in 1994, despite their 26-year age difference.

When Celine was 14, she decided to drop out of school so she could concentrate on her music.  She was only 13 when she had her first number one hit song in Canada.  The picture at the right shows Celine with her niece Karine, who died in her arms when she was 16 of Custic Fibrosis.  The track "Fly" on the album "Falling Into You" was made for Karine.

All of her songs before 1990 were all in French.  She released her first English-language CD in 1990, only one year after learning the language.  Her true breakthrough was in 1991 with the title track from Beauty and the Beast, a duet with Peabo Bryson.  This topped the US pop charts and won an Academy Award.

Celine Dion was a huge success from 1992 to 1994, having close to 7 major hits.  Then in 1994, Dion released a live album and then returned to her French roots.  The album "Falling Inot You" topped both UK abd US charts in 1994 and 1996.  Celine then took a break from music in the late 90's to give birth to a child Rene Charles in January 2001.  She then returned to music in March 2002 with "A New Day Has Come".  The album went straight to the top of the US charts.