Céline Marie Claudette Dion CC OQ (/seɪˌliːn diˈɒn/,[1] also UK: /- ˈdiːɒn/,[2] French: [selin maʁi klodɛt djɔ̃], Quebec French: [- d͡zjɔ̃]; born 30 March 1968)[3] is a Canadian singer. She is renowned for her powerful, technically skilled vocals,[4][5] and remains the best-selling Canadian recording artist and one of the best-selling artists of all time with record sales of over 200 million worldwide.[6][7] Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, she emerged as a teen star in her home country with a series of French-language albums during the 1980s. She first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Switzerland. After learning to speak English, she signed on to Epic Records in the United States. In 1990, Dion released her debut English-language album, Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world. She followed Falling into You with Let's Talk About Love (1997), which was publicized as its sequel.[54] The recording process took place in London, New York City, and Los Angeles, and featured a host of special guests, such as Barbra Streisand on "Tell Him"; the Bee Gees on "Immortality"; and tenor Luciano Pavarotti on "I Hate You Then I Love You".[31][55] Other musicians included Carole King, Sir George Martin, Bryan Adams and Jamaican singer Diana King, who added a reggae tinge to "Treat Her Like a Lady
By the end of the 1990s, Dion had sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, and had won a slew of industry awards.[79] Her status as one of the music industry's biggest pop divas was further solidified when she was asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live special in 1998, with superstars Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey.