Posted September 30, 200816 yr SOURCE Dion’s romantic glitz wows crowd Singer’s excesses don’t deserve critical bashing By DAVE TIANEN dtianen@journalsentinel.com Posted: Sept. 30, 2008 The two most influential singers in the world today are Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Anyone who is inclined to dispute that has probably never seen “American Idol.” Tose two ladies have set the stage for a whole generation of baby divas with big pipes, flamboyant phrasing and blow-off-the-roof romantic balladry. The odd thing is that, as she demonstrated again Monday night when her Taking Chances World Tour visited the Bradley Center, while Dion may be in a significant way the architect of modern pop styling, she is also in many ways a very old-school kind of girl. The two influences that come readily to mind are Barbra Streisand and Cher. Like Streisand, Dion has a big and remarkable instrument and a love for addressing any given ballad with maximum megatons. From Cher, she borrows a love of old-style glam and Vegas glitz, though perhaps without the same touch of camp irony. Taking Chances is Dion’s world trek in which she is reconnecting with the audience that missed her while she was camped for five years in Las Vegas. In doing so, she has not so much left Vegas as taken it on the road with her. Taking Chances actually doesn’t take many. It’s a sprawling in-the-round stage set up with hydraulics that allow the entire band, as well as the star, to sink out of sight and reappear, beneath a double tier of giant video screens. There are eight dancers, and about a half-dozen costume changes and video duets with the likes of Andrea Bocelli. For all her massive success, Dion may be the most critically reviled performer on the contemporary scene. A lot of that is critical gang-tackling and absurd overkill. Yes, she sings big, florid romantic ballads for a substantial fan base of women. Yes, vocally, she never uses a peashooter if a howitzer will do. But she doesn’t over-sing any more than Whitney Houston or Patti LaBelle, and neither of them has ever come in for a fraction of the scorn. As was evident Monday, it’s precisely when she goes full throttle that Dion’s audience loves her best. Songs such as “The Power of Love,” “I’m Alive,” “Shadow of Love” and “The Prayer” may be sentimental and even melodramatic, but they also at their core have simple, robust melodies, which immediately puts them ahead of most of Carey’s songbook. “My Heart Will Go On” has become a cliché, but it got there by dint of being one of the few truly massive hits of the past 20 years, the kind of old-fashioned movie love song as majestic as the blockbuster that inspired it. As you might expect, with a performer so given to the grand statement, there are times when Dion overdoes it. She has always seemed determined to channel Tina Turner. On Monday, it was an encore of “River Deep, Mountain High.” It just doesn’t work. Turner is about grit and grease and slippery earth-mother sexuality. It’s just not something that willowy, Caucasian French-Canadian ladies can do.
September 30, 200816 yr hopefully someone will post some vids and pics Edited September 30, 200816 yr by xnataliex
October 1, 200816 yr Author Pics: http://www.celinedionforum.com/index.php?s...t&p=1189502 Some sad news: a woman in the audience collapsed and rumours say she died. the paramedics were working on her giving chest compressions etc. She wasnt breathing either. Intro-IDAN clip BYLM Finale ohmy.gif ABMS clip Alone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqa0P3Xr6H4 TSMGO Clip MHWGO Clip " " Finale Edited October 1, 200816 yr by SuuS
October 1, 200816 yr hopefully someone will post some more vids and pics Edited October 1, 200816 yr by xnataliex
October 1, 200816 yr Author :o my god, how awful, that must of shaken Celine and the audience quite a bit dont think she knew. she was prob told after the show. a lot of people didnt know about it as it was on one side of the stadium and it was dark.
October 2, 200816 yr OMG I only clicked on the video, that could be a bit scary :o Any news on the woman?
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