Celine Dion has already spun on the highway, while returning from filming Flowers on the Snow. Her wedding cake cost $10,000, and “to pass someone a Christmas tree” means “to cheat them.” Here is some of the information found in Dis-moi Céline, a new unofficial biography, whose birth sparked controversy.
This biography was particularly awaited, since at the start of 2023, Hachette Canada, distributor of City Éditions in Quebec, promised confidences from Céline Dion collected over “several months” by Laurence Catinot-Crost, a French writer from Juvisy- sur-Orge, in the suburbs of Paris. The information circulated until the European publisher published a press release last August including “certain major details”. He confirmed that it was an “unauthorized work” which had “not been created or written” in collaboration with the Quebec artist.
Reached by email, author Laurence Catinot-Crost indicates that she “never claimed to have collected the confidences of Madame Céline Dion”. And yet, she seems to affirm the opposite in an interview given to the French media group La Dépêche last February. “The blunders committed by some cannot be attributed to me,” she replies.
Tell me Céline sneaks into Quebec. Without fanfare. It’s the least we can say. Hachette Canada was never able to provide a physical or PDF copy of the book to journalists. Head of the company’s press service, Fabienne Corriveau specifies that the work is only offered “on order”. In other words, your favorite bookseller won’t carry “tons of copies,” as a defunct VHS rental chain said at the turn of the century.
By email, Laurence Catinot-Crost insists that she wrote this biography “with the greatest respect for the artist”, while specifying that she had worked with “rigor”, favoring “historical truth”. The 64-year-old writer reports having “devoted two years of research” to writing the work.
After having gone through the 577 pages (in electronic version) of Dis-moi Céline, we understand, by consulting the bibliographical references, grouped in the very last part, where the numerous orphan quotations from Céline Dion, René Angélil, Maman Dion and company, scattered throughout the chapters. In total, the author relied on 42 works, published on both sides of the Atlantic, signed by Denise Bombardier, Claudette Dion, Jean Beaunoyer and several others.
Since all the information contained in Dis-moi Céline comes from biographies, collections and newspaper articles already published, super fans of the performer will not learn much new by leafing through this book. But that does not prevent it from being rich in information, which is listed in chronological order, like a long Wikipedia entry, from the very beginnings of Charlemagne to the protocol of special care that she followed since last winter in Minnesota to alleviate his neurological disorder.
Laurence Catinot-Crost’s style is certainly clear, but the author sometimes errs on the side of too much detail. When she mentions an appearance by Céline Dion on the television show Silence… on chante, in August 1986, she lists each of the songs she offers in a medley. When she talks about her 1991 Diet Coke commercial with Obelix and Dogmatix, she transcribes its entire jingle, vocal acrobatics included: “It’s crazy how quenching it is, it’s crazy how popular it is… But first of all, but before all-tou-tou-tou-tou-tou-tou…” And when she recalls her wedding in Montreal in December 1994, she copies the complete menu, which included – note to those who are curious – “ravioles with duck confit from Brome and its sorrel velouté”, as well as a “small salmon tartare and thin strips smoked with five peppers with caviar quenelle”.
Did we need so much detail? Maybe not. But on the other hand, this excess of information allows us to learn that Céline Dion needed 12 hours of sleep at the start of her career, that she was once the mistress of a cat named Isis, and that after cutting her hair short in 1993, she wore a wig for a few months to avoid upsetting her audience, who loved her long mane.
Another noteworthy anecdote: during a private concert at Mar-a-Lago in 1996, Donald Trump introduced her as one of America’s greatest talents. As it turns out, the spins of the former President of the United States are not new.
As for the spin she made by car in 1990, after trying to overtake René Angélil’s nephew, she escaped unscathed. The same can’t be said for his car, however, which was “very banged up,” apparently.
Dis-moi Céline risks annoying Quebec readers on a few points, notably when its author deviates from the story (Céline Dion begins her Incognito tour in Rouyn-Noranda) to recall the little history of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a “huge region of Canada, sparsely populated, with many lakes”, “theater of commercial rivalries” and “the first French fur trading post, established in 1720”. The Laurentians undergo the same treatment, a few pages later.
The French public will undoubtedly welcome this additional information with more enthusiasm.
Footnotes should also cause eye rolls in Quebec, more specifically those that explain each local expression. Thus, we emphasize that “to butter thickly” means “to exaggerate, to do too much”, that “to work hard en titi” means “a lot, in large quantities”, that “to fart at the fret” means “to die, to fall from exhaustion” , that “to have one’s eyes in grease of bines” means “to get up tired”, and that a “toune” is synonymous with “song”.
A word about the preface to the book Dis-moi Céline: it is signed by the French singer-songwriter Hugues Aufray, since the Las Vegas diva is named after her big 1966 hit, Céline.
