Celine Dion begins 15th year as Caesars Palace headliner
When superstar singer Celine Dion stepped back onstage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Tuesday night, it marked the start of what will become her 15th year headlining on the Strip. It’s a true rags-to-riches story of global proportion, and it’s time to look at some of the most memorable moments of her life in Las Vegas.
The remarkable Las Vegas achievements began March 25, 2003, with her debut residency “A New Day.” It was a singing and dancing music spectacular created by former Cirque du Soleil partner Franco Dragone. What began as a three-year, 600-show contract was to become the most successful residency show of all time in Las Vegas, grossing $385 million.
It’s incredible to realize that last October, Celine made show-business history here and passed the 1,000th show mark. Her career reach a global breakthrough with the title track to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” in the 1991 duet with Peabo Bryson. Now she has recorded “How Does a Moment Last Forever,” a new song for this year’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
For now, Celine, who celebrated her 49th birthday March 30, is under contract at The Colosseum through 2019, and it is generally acknowledged around her camp that her stay in Las Vegas will be extended for two additional years and maybe into a second decade.
Her producers at AEG have indicated that Celine can stay as long as she wishes and perform as many shows as she desires. There is no question that she has become reigning royalty of our city and brought in more box office revenue than Elvis Presley and Liberace combined. “A New Day” ended its run Dec. 15, 2007, with 3 million people watching her 717 shows.
It was then that she began IVF treatments to have another child. She delivered her first born, son Rene-Charles, on Jan. 25, 2001. This time, she suffered a miscarriage, but on her sixth attempt, she conceived twins Nelson and Eddy in October 2010 five months before she was due to return to the Strip and perform again.
During the years Celine has been our shining star, she took a four-year break from our city that included a world tour of “A New Day” and “Taking Chances.” After 132 dates across five continents, she returned March 15, 2011, with the spectacular “Celine’s Back.”
Her documentary concert movie “Through the Eyes of the World” filmed during the 2008-09 world tour showing her global trek for “Taking Chances” won even more raves.
Over the years, there were dozens of hits, but the two monster hits that will always be hers are the Oscar-winning “My Heart Will Go On,” the love theme from 1997’s Oscar-winning “Titanic,” and the 1993 hit “The Power of Love.” Both songs dominated the charts worldwide.
By her side throughout her extraordinary journey to the top was her longtime husband and manager, Rene Angelil, who had battled throat cancer. On Aug. 13, 2014, she indefinitely postponed her show-business work because of his worsening condition. She put her Asian tour and Caesars residency on hold, then returned here in August 2015.
Rene and one of her brothers died in January 2016 from cancer, and she canceled all of that month’s shows. The last goodbye took place in the Notre-Dame Basilica cathedral that they had married in Montreal on Dec. 17, 1994.
We will never forget the tribute to his life that we presented on the Colosseum stage Feb. 3, 2016. Celine proved that the impossible is possible Feb. 23 when she returned to her show and sang Queen’s “The Show Must Go On.” At The Billboard Music Awards last May, she received The Icon Award from Rene-Charles in recognition of her three-decade career.
My interview with Celine where she talked about the 1,000th show and the start of her Las Vegas engagements was posted here Oct. 7.
We’re thrilled that Celine is back at Caesars this week through April 22, then May 9 through June 3. Her impact on this city and her generosity to charity and community involvement have been immeasurable and will never be forgotten.
We salute Celine with this look at memorable moments of an extraordinary run, which began all over again this week and shows no sign of slowing down.
