Celine Dion once spun on the highway while returning from filming “Flowers on the Snow.” Their wedding cake cost $10,000, and “handing someone a tree” means “ripping them off.” Here is some information from Dis-moi Céline, a new unofficial biography whose birth sparked controversy.
Published at 12:53 am. Updated at 06:00.
This biography was particularly expected since, in early 2023, Hachette Canada, distributor of City Éditions in Quebec, promised confidences from Céline Dion that Laurence Catinot-Crost, a French writer from Juvisy-sur-Orge, had collected over “several months”. in the suburbs of Paris. The information circulated until the European publisher issued a press release last August that contained “certain important details.” He confirmed that it was an “unauthorized work” that was “not created or written in collaboration with the Quebec artist.”
Author Laurence Catinot-Crost, reached by email, says she “never claimed to have obtained Madame Céline Dion’s confidential information.” And yet, in an interview with French media group La Dépêche last February, she seemed to claim the opposite. “The mistakes that some have made cannot be attributed to me,” she replies.
Smooth arrival
Tell me Celine is sneaking into Quebec. Without fanfare. That’s the least we can say. Hachette Canada has never been able to provide journalists with a physical or PDF copy of the book. The head of the company’s press service, Fabienne Corriveau, states 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.
In an email, Laurence Catinot-Crost emphasizes that she wrote this biography “with the greatest respect for the artist,” while also stating that she worked with “rigor” and preferred “historical truth.” The 64-year-old author reports that he “dedicated two years of research” to write the work.
After going through the 577 pages (in electronic version) of Dis-moi Céline, we understand where the numerous orphaned quotes from Céline Dion, René Angélil, Maman Dion and Co. are located, based on the bibliographic information grouped in the very last part the chapters distributed. In total, the author relied on 42 works published on both sides of the Atlantic and signed by Denise Bombardier, Claudette Dion, Jean Beaunoyer and several others.
Because all of the information contained in Dis-moi Céline comes from previously published biographies, collections, and newspaper articles, superfans of the artist won’t learn much new by browsing through this book. But that doesn’t stop it from being rich in information, listed in chronological order, like a long Wikipedia entry, from Charlemagne’s beginnings to the special care protocol she followed since last winter in Minnesota, to alleviate his neurological disorder.
In detail
Laurence Catinot-Crost’s style is certainly clear, but the author sometimes goes into 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 offered in a medley. Speaking about her 1991 Diet Coke commercial with Obelix and Dogmatix, she transcribes its entire jingle, including vocal acrobatics: “It’s crazy how extinct it is, it’s crazy how popular it is… But most of all , but above all -tou-tou-tou-tou-tou…” And as she remembers her wedding in Montreal in December 1994, she copies the entire menu, which – note to the curious – “ravioles with duck confit from Brome and his Sorrel” contained velouté” as well as a “small salmon tartare and thin strips smoked with five peppers with caviar quenelle”.
Do we need so many details? Maybe not. On the other hand, this escalation of information also reveals that Céline Dion needed twelve hours of sleep at the beginning of her career, that she was once the lover of a cat named Isis and that she had her hair cut short in 1993. She wore a wig for a few months, so as not to upset her audience, who loved her long mane.
Another anecdote worth mentioning: During a private concert at Mar-a-Lago in 1996, Donald Trump presented her as one of the greatest talents in the United States. It shows that the maneuvers of the former President of the United States are not new.
As for the spin she made in 1990 after trying to overtake René Angélil’s nephew, she escaped unhurt. However, the same cannot be said for his car, which was apparently “very damaged.”
Intended for the French public
Dis-moi Céline risks upsetting Quebec readers on some points, especially when the author deviates from history (Céline Dion begins her incognito tour in Rouyn-Noranda) to recall the little story of Abitibi-Témiscamingue , a “vast region of Canada, sparsely populated, with many lakes, “scene of commercial rivalries” and “first French fur trading post, founded in 1720.” The Laurentians are subjected to the same treatment a few pages later.
The French public will undoubtedly receive this additional information with greater enthusiasm.
Footnotes should also cause eye-rolling in Quebec, especially those that explain each local term. Therefore, we emphasize that “to butter thickly” means “to overdo it, to do too much”, that “to work hard en titi” means “a lot, in large quantities”, and that “to fart on the waistband” means “to fart” to die, “to fall from exhaustion” , that “to have eyes in the fat of rushes” means “to get up tired” and that a “melody” is synonymous with “song”.
A word about the foreword to the book “Dis-moi Céline”: It is signed by the French singer-songwriter Hugues Aufray, as the Las Vegas diva is named after her big hit “Céline” from 1966.
Tell me, Celine
City Éditions, distributed in Quebec by Hachette Canada