59°F
weather icon Clear

5 things you didn’t know about Celine Dion — VIDEO

After a year-long absence from show business, Celine Dion returns to the Las Vegas stage on Thursday. The Canadian singer returns after a leave of absence to tend to her husband and manager Rene Angelil’s battle with throat cancer

Dion will be appearing at The Colosseum throughout September. Here are five things you may not have known about the singer:

Her first album was an instant success in Quebec

Angelil, who became her manager and later her husband, mortgaged his house to finance the album, “La voix du bon Dieu” (“The Voice of the Good God”). It was released in 1981 when Dion was only 12 years old.

An arena was built just for her in Las Vegas

Dion appeared in the show, “A New Day…,” five times a week at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, beginning in March 2003. The contract called for 600 shows in total. The arena, which seated 4,000 people, was designed to look like the Roman Colosseum. With ticket prices close to $150, the shows sold out almost every night.

She didn’t write “My Heart Will Go On”

… also known as the “Theme from Titanic,” but her performance of the song went to No. 1 around the world in 1997, leading it to become Dion’s “signature” song. The song won an Academy Award, a few Grammys and a Golden Globe. It’s also one of the best-selling singles ever. The lyrics were written by Will Jennings, who also wrote “Tears in Heaven” with Eric Clapton. 

She did respond to the guy who made that airport video

After a video of a man “all by himself” in an empty McCarran International Airport received 11 million views in four days, Dion responded on YouTube inviting the man, Richard Dunn, to use her restroom. The Canadian later traveled back to Las Vegas with his family to meet Dion. 

“[Dion] didn’t rush the time, it was so conversational and so warm and inviting. She is as personable as you would think she would be,” Dunn told CBC News last summer.

Dion lives with her family in Lake Las Vegas

She and Angelil put their Montreal and Florida homes up for sale a few years ago and expanded their home in Lake Las Vegas, east of the central valley. Dion’s family includes her husband and their three sons, 14-year-old Rene-Charles and 5-year-old twins, Eddy and Nelson. 

Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com.  Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST