The story of an encounter between two great figures of variety. First, Jean-Jacques Goldman, a hitmaker at his peak in the 1980s. On the other, Celine Dion, a powerful voice from Quebec who won Eurovision 1988 (defending Switzerland with the title Ne partez pas without me).
In the early 1990s, the Quebec singer made a name for herself between America and France with the song Ziggy, a cover of the musical Starmania. A tube appeared on his opus Des mots qui sonnet, thus holding the attention of the interpreter of Fly me. From this musical love at first sight, the songwriter wants at all costs to meet the companion of René Angélil. “I had asked someone who knew her to tell her that I wanted to meet her,” he explains in this video interview for Vivement Dimanche in March 2002.
During this issue dedicated to Celine Dion, guest on Michel Drucker’s show, Jean-Jacques Goldman revealed the underside of their first meeting in Paris. “In a restaurant near the Opera, near her hotel”, with the singer and her manager. It is also an opportunity for the friend of Michael Jones to discover the vocal palette of the singer.
In the studio, the two artists collaborate hand in hand, and the author gives him valuable advice. “I had 2-3 details that I wanted to change in her voice. I thought it was going to take a month of work. But it took 35 seconds for her to understand”, remembers the father of Michael Goldman who wrote all the songs from the Canadian’s album, entitled D’eux, released in 1995.
An incredible success on its release since this opus by Celine Dion will be certified diamond disc with more than 4 million copies. Either the best-selling French-language album of his career in France. But the collaboration didn’t stop there: Goldman would write other songs for the Quebec star on the albums S’il suffisait d’aimer (1998), Une fille et quatre types (2002), and Encore un soir (2016). ).
From a meeting was born a great professional friendship according to Jean-Jacques Goldman. “It’s a chance because it was my wish, I wanted to work for a very great singer, and her in particular”, he declared before recognizing, with humor. “It was bad luck because since then, I don’t really want to work with others.”
Among the twenty songs composed by the French author for the Quebec singer, here is a selection of the most popular hits today. Warm up your voice, prepare the karaoke and discover our 10 songs in the slideshow.