Montreal aug 15 & 16th

Posted August 16, 200816 yr

August 15th:

Instead of Ziggy Celine sang L'amour existe encore :thumbup: , Shadow of love WAS included

Luc Plamondon was in the audience :dance:

Et s'il n'en restaint qu'une is back on the list :w00t:

Official pics: http://www.celinedionforum.com/index.php?s...t&p=1127390

Celine Dion wows fans with opening of Canadian leg of 'Taking Chances' tour

MONTREAL — Celine Dion kicked off the Canadian leg of her "Taking Chances" world tour Friday night with the classic "I Drove All Night" and never left the driver's seat during the two-hour long show.

Hardcore Dionistas - 22,426 strong - packed Montreal's downtown Bell Centre and gave the singer her first thunderous standing ovation of the night before she even opened her mouth. The crowd went wild the moment she appeared on stage.

But despite the tour's title, the concert played it pretty safe.

The staples were there, including "Power of Love", and "My Heart Will Go On," which she did in two versions - a remix and the one from the soundtrack of the movie "Titanic" that sent audiences lunging for their handkerchiefs.

Dion's stock moves were also on ready display - the fist jabs in the air, the sweep of the arms which makes her look as though she's going to take flight, and the cantering across the stage.

However, the trademark chest-thumping move dubbed "the defibrillator" by comedians and critics wasn't as prominent.

The "Taking Chances World Tour" marks Dion's return to the road after a five-year gig in Las Vegas and Celineophiles were tingling with excitement as they lined up to get into the Bell Centre.

"I've been ready since I bought the tickets last autumn," said Lucette Pelletier of Montreal. "Celine is a great talent."

Pelletier said she admires the hard work that took Dion to megastardom, saying she holds a lot of family values and good judgment that are beloved by Quebecers.

"She talks about Quebec wherever she goes. She is the best ambassador that we have," she said.

Marie-Claudelle Leduc of Huntingdon, Que., said she knows all of the songs on Dion's new "Taking Chances" album by heart and had shivers at the prospect of seeing her live.

"I've known about her since I was small," Leduc said. "My mother listened to her, my grandmother. She's part of Quebec's culture, a legend."

Helene Langlais-Fortin has followed Dion since 1981, when she saw her sing in Quebec City when Dion was 13.

"I am an unconditional fan of Celine since the start," said Langlais-Fortin who plans to see Dion in Quebec City next week and will attend the "Taking Chances" show twice more.

Dion's mother was also front and centre in the audience as was former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

The show, which launched on Valentine's Day, has already played Dubai, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Boston - something that was noted in a video as Dion prepared to take the stage.

However, in the first tear-jerking moment of the evening - 15 minutes in - Dion allowed that Quebec was the place she most longed to be.

"There have been a lot of emotions since the start of this tour but the image I saw most in my head was this night when I came back to this town," she said, promising the 30-song show would "make up for lost time."

Although some people call Dion goofy and schmaltzy and mock her earnestness, there was no doubt that she intended to leave her fans Friday with smiles on their face.

There were only scant moments when she wasn't on the square stage, usually belting out a song with car alarm-triggering intensity in the high energy show.

She sprinkled in some ballads, including "My Love," which brought an extended ovation and another brimming of the tear ducts.

Dion had the crowd in the palm of her hand to the point that when she swaggered over to a corner of the stage during various songs, the crowd in that section rose as one as though on command and reached out.

The concert has several sections, with one focusing on rock and another dubbed passion, where Dion appears amid flamenco dancers sporting a flowing cape that would have Batman envious.

A segment dubbed "fashionista" almost looked Madonna-esque with an outbreak of voguing by Dion's dancers. But that's where the raciness stopped for the songbird of Charlemagne, Que.

There were few false notes in the show, which often had the audience up and dancing in the aisles.

Her interpretation of "Alone" didn't live up to the original and the song still belongs to Ann Wilson of Heart. "It's A Man's World" also seemed a little overdone.

After two encores, Dion had one final treat for fans, who she had readily touched hands with during the show as she worked the stage.

She shunned the disappearing act usually done by big acts and chose instead to leave the stage by walking through the audience and greeting fans - albeit with two mountainous bodyguards close by.

Dion has several shows on her Montreal bill and will appear in a free concert next week on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City to mark the provincial capital's 400th birthday.

The show's next Canadian stop will be in Toronto on Aug. 27.

Fans can't fight the feelin'

It was the opening night of Céline Dion's eight-night run at the Bell Centre yesterday and by 6 p.m., there were lineups everywhere you looked.

The queue at the adjacent St. Hubert Rotisserie snaked southward. The lineup for the nearby Baton Rouge stretched northward. A crowd pushed up against the arena's main doors waiting for the turnstiles to open. And a six-deep mass of humanity ran the length of the red carpet on the arena's east side.

Diane Baril and her 14-year-old god-daughter, Lysanne B. Roberge, had secured front row views of the red carpet. They had driven from Trois Rivières that morning and planned to drive home following the show.

"We Quebecers are proud of our Céline," Baril said. "She is a young girl from here who grew up to live her dream."

Baril gave her goddaughter a ticket for the concert as a Christmas present. She had the ticket framed and presented the gift as if it was a piece of art.

"I screamed," B. Roberge said. "I was so excited. She is a star, yet we feel close to her."

"The whole world knows her," Baril said. "I get goosebumps when I say that."

Scalpers nearby pushed to off-load tickets at rock bottom prices - one fellow was offering tickets in the white section for $40. A panhandler worked the crowd using his stained straw hat to collect coins.

Old and young, dressed to the nines and oozing excitement, the crowd sang along to piped Dion songs and waited for a glimpse of someone famous or, better yet, for a table to free up in a restaurant.

Celebrities including Gregory Charles, Mitsou and Corneille strolled the red carpet, pausing for fans to snap photos. (Luc Plamondon slipped through the crowd, unannounced.)

On the food front, St. Hubert general manager éric Plourde had his staff of six extra cooks (for a total of 20) and 40 servers ready for action at 3:30 p.m. - 90 minutes earlier than the usual shift begins at the restaurant when there is a show at the Bell Centre. They served two seatings of 500 tables each.

"Céline is special. It's not usually like this, not even on a hockey night," Plourde said.

Back outside, Quebec City native Yann Auclair waited to see his idol live for the third time. The first time he saw Dion sing live he was five years old.

"I've grown up following her career," the Grade 5 elementary school teacher said. "I saw her again when I was 18. It was magnificent. The power of her voice."

While Montrealers Louise Leclerc and Rita Greco mingled with the crowd, they spoke of their special memories.

Greco saw the Dion's concert at the Bell Centre on New Year's Eve eight years ago.

"I was sitting in the fifth row behind (Dion's) father," Greco said. "She was breathtaking."

Leclerc saw one of Dion's last shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in December.

"She came off the stage and gave a little girl a flower," Leclerc said. "She is so down to earth."

And then it happened. The doors opened and people surged toward the turnstiles. It was time to see Quebec's queen.

"We just want to feel her energy," Greco said.

Pop queen rules over Dionland - wailing voice, fist pumps and all

You've got to admire a diva who can poke fun at herself - or at least allow others to. Opening act Véronic DiCaire got the crowd laughing early last night at the Bell Centre, with a bang-on Céline Dion imitation - wailing voice, fist pumps and all.

Then Dion came out and gave us the real thing. But first, she took it all in.

Following a pre-show video montage listing several of the stops so far on her Taking Chances World Tour - including Johannesburg, Tokyo, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Dublin and Boston - Dion surfaced, centre stage, hand on her heart, and soaked up the love of 22,400 fans.

She waved, and yes, she pumped her fist, she smiled, her eyes sparkled, then she closed them. "Bonsoir tout le monde!" she shouted. "Vous êtes là? Vous êtes là?"

The answer was an unequivocal yes. This was the first of eight sold-out shows through Sept. 1. (A February 13 date has been added - tickets go on sale next Saturday.) It was the homecoming - with emphasis on "home" - of a Quebec music icon who just happens to be the biggest pop star on the planet.

The atmosphere was more than celebratory. It was familial, familiar, emotional and exuberant. This was a state-of-the-art concert experience with aspirations to be intimate.

Ramps, conveyer-belt floors, rising and falling platforms all served to facilitate Dion's movement about the spacious square stage at the centre of the room. Along with an array of big screens, it all served to get the singer as up close and personal with her fans as possible.

Costume changes come with the territory. And backed by a 10-piece band and eight backup dancers, she was well-surrounded; but there was no doubt as to who the star of the show was.

We were in Dionland, and she offered glimpses of all of her persona - from the Euro-dance opener I Drove All Night to the retro rock'n'roll of J'irai ou tu iras, the voice-showcasing ballad The Power of Love (and many others) and the manicured pop of the tour's title track, Taking Chances.

Extremes were everywhere. L'amour existe, from her 1991 album Dion chante Plamondon, provided requisite melodrama; and Dans un autre monde veered into grating modern rock territory. She sang operatic pop ballad The Prayer in a video duet with Andrea Bocelli; stomped around the stage in a rowdy rendition of Queen's We Will Rock You; did James Brown's It's a Man's World as a go-girl torch song; and, in the encore, delivered Ike & Tina's River Deep Mountain High like a '60s soul queen (or her approximation thereof).

A second encore provided the inevitable My Heart Will Go On, and come-down show-closer Pour que tu m'aimes encore. Then, rather than slip out backstage, she exited through the crowd, greeting fans along the way (followed by a glaring spotlight, of course).

The message? Céline Dion: global superstar, woman of the people, of her people, happy to be home.