And the Rest Is History (29 page)

 

 

 

 

 

 

F
rench Canada's most famous face, Céline Dion, made her American debut in
Beauty and the Beast
with her song “Tale as Old as Time”; she earned the moniker “the voice of the century” in
Titanic
with her song “My Heart Will Go On.” However, Celine had the wisdom to understand that the acclaim of the many was nothing compared to her relationship with René, the man whom she described as “the color of love.”

René Angélil was born in Montreal in 1942, a French-Canadian of Catholic Syrian-Lebanese ancestry. As a teenager, he developed two passions: playing cards and performing pop music. He, along with three friends, formed the group the Baronets (named after a hockey team) which catered to the short-lived Quebec market for translations of English-language pop hits from Britain and the United States. At age twenty-four he married Denyse Duquette, with whom he had one child, Patrick, in 1968; the marriage ended in 1973. After the dissolution of his group, he became a managing artist for singer Ginette Reno. However, a future client would introduce him to the international spotlight and a romance that is the stuff that dreams are made of.

René's destiny, Céline Marie Claudette Dion, was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, in 1968, to a mother who already felt overwhelmed with thirteen children. She received her name because of the Hugues Aufray song “Céline,” which was a huge success in her province. From a young age, Céline would perform on the kitchen table, a fork as her microphone. Her first public appearance was in her parents' small piano bar, where the family performed in a French-Canadian version of the Austrian von Trapps. Word spread that the little girl possessed a voice that would make even the angels weep.

When Céline was twelve, her mother decided that her daughter needed an original song to break into show business; the result was
“Ce n'était qu'un rêve”
(“It Was Only a Dream”). Her mother Thérèse and brother Jacques composed the lyrics, and Céline supplied the vocals. It then fell upon her brother Michel to find the agent, whom he discovered on a Ginette Reno album. The demo was sent off in a brown paper bag, tied with a red ribbon. After two weeks, when the desperately desired call never came, Michel contacted the agent and asked why he had not listened to his sister's tape. When the man asked him how he knew he hadn't, Michel replied that if he had done so, he would have called. An audition was arranged that very afternoon.

The first time René met Céline was when she and her mother entered René's office, where he asked her to sing. When she said she needed a mike, he handed her a pen. During the rendition, René had tears in his eyes.

René was so convinced that the girl was Canada's Judy Garland that he mortgaged the home he shared with his second wife, singer Manon Kirouac, and their two children, Jean-Pierre and Anne-Marie, to produce Céline's first album,
La Voix du bon Dieu
(
The Voice of God
). On the cover of the album she refused to smile because two of her teeth gave her a vampire look, which had made her classmates dub her “Dracula.” With her first paycheck she indulged in her first high-heeled black shoes.

At age eighteen she told René she wanted to be a star like Michael Jackson, which meant breaking into the American market. René arranged for her to disappear from the spotlight while she underwent dental work and learned English. She also used her hiatus to work on her sex appeal; the girl who always sang about the power of love had fallen hopelessly in love—with her manager. During her break she set herself a goal: “I was going to train myself in the art of seduction, like a top athlete, and snag René Angélil once and for all.”

When she returned and he got his first glimpse of his protégée, she noted with elation that “she could see him reeling.” She recalled, “For the first time, I felt him looking at me the way a man who desires a woman looks at her, not just looking at me the way an impresario looks at his artist.” Céline knew one day they would be intimate, and, in the words of her song, their love would go on.

When René's wife asked for a divorce, Céline saw a glimmer of hope, which her mother did not share. Thérèse wrote a furious letter to Angélil accusing him of betraying her trust and that she wanted a prince for her princess, not a twice-divorced man, the father of three, who was two and a half times her daughter's age.

In Dublin, on April 30, 1988, after Céline won the Eurovision Song Contest, René accompanied her back to her room, as he had after each performance since he had become her manager. While he was talking about her success, she was pleased to be alone in a hotel room (her mother was ill and had not accompanied her) with the man she loved. Picking up on her intent, René inched to the door and was about to exit when she kissed him on the lips. He fled. Céline immediately called him and said if he didn't return immediately she would go to his room. He stammered that he needed time. René called several minutes later from the lobby and said, “If you really want to, I'll be the first.” Her answer, “You'll be the first. And the only.”

René insisted on secrecy of their affair, fearing that fans would think of her as his Lolita, as they had met when he was thirty-eight and she was twelve. Although Céline wanted to sing of their love from the rooftops, she reluctantly agreed, until she no longer could. At the Academy Awards, on Céline's twenty-fourth birthday, she performed “Tale as Old as Time” from Disney's
Beauty and the Beast
, for which she had won an Oscar. That evening, even though she sang for an audience of a billion, she also sang for one man. René had tears in his eyes as he listened to his protégée, the woman he loved.

When René gave Celine an engagement ring, she knew she could finally break her vow of secrecy. On her album
The Color of My Love
, she wrote, “René, you're the color of my love.”

Celine and René were married on December 17, 1994, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal. Thousands of fans were massed along the bridal route in homage to French Canada's royal wedding. The bride walked down the aisle on her father's arm with her eight sisters carrying her twenty-foot train; during the procession the instrumental was “The Color of Love.” The royal wedding ceremony was broadcast live on Canadian television.

In 2003 Céline Dion signed a contract to perform at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas for a staggering sum: $100 million. She was a resounding sensation, though René found himself under unwelcome scrutiny. Angélil was accused of sexual assault. He eventually paid the woman $2 million to settle the case; he claimed the money was not an admission of wrongdoing, but rather to avoid negative publicity that might upset his wife. Another unwelcome spotlight was directed on him when the London-based newspaper
The Observer
wrote, “Céline Dion's husband is a big gambler. He probably gambles $1 million a week, but he can afford to.” Yet despite her fame and his infamy, the couple always maintained a united, and devoted, front.

At the end of 1999, Dion bid a farewell to the spotlight in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, where she planned on a hiatus, although she was a self-confessed stress junkie. She needed to concentrate on looking after the man who had spent his life looking after her: René had been diagnosed with neck cancer. His prayer was
“In Allah Rad”
(“By the grace of God”). Her final concert, dedicated to her husband, closed with her mother's song, “It Was Only a Dream.” At the stroke of midnight, René came onstage and the two kissed for a very long time.

Five days later, Caesar's Palace was transformed into Céline's Palace when the couple renewed their marriage vows in an over-the-top gala, whose Arabian-inspired theme (replete with camels) was in tribute to René. In her autobiography,
My Story, My Dream
, she wrote, “René was a resounding success in the role of Grand Vizier; I was Scheherazade.” Five months later, they received news that René's cancer was in remission and Céline was pregnant. René Charles, the baby for whom they had long prayed, was born in 2001. (Nine years and six fertility attempts later, Celine became pregnant with twins.)

Looking back at her Cinderella story, Celine must sometimes think
“Ce n'était qu'un rêve”
(“It Was Only a Dream”).

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