Celine Dion - Loved Me Back To Life

[Music Head]

enters the Billboard chart this week at #2

allmusic gives it a 2.1 of 3.0
Spotify online listen
didn't care for the Stevie Wonder duet
decent cover of At Seventeen seems out of place
potential singles all
I like it



Bio - from allmusic

Rising from humble beginnings in the small town of Charlemagne, Quebec, Celine Dion became one of the biggest international stars in pop music
history, selling more than 100 million albums worldwide. The youngest in Adhemar and Therese Dion's family of 14 children, Dion grew up in an
environment full of the inherent chaos and material austerity that comes with such a large working-class family. However, the Dion household was
also one filled with love for children and music, and her parents and siblings were important figures in the early development of her singing
career. Celine began singing in her parents' piano bar when she was just five years old. By the age of 12 she had written one of her first
songs, "Ce N'etait Qu'un Rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream"), which she recorded with the help of her mother and brother and shipped off to a manager
named René Angélil, whose name they found on the back of an album by Ginette Reno, a popular Francophone singer. After weeks with no response
from Angélil, Celine's brother Michel phoned him and said, "I know you haven't listened to the tape, because if you had, you would've called
right away." Angélil dug up the tape and called the family back the same day to set up a meeting with Celine. When the 12-year-old performed in
his office in Montreal, Angélil cried and set in motion the process of making her a Québécois, and later, an international, star. He mortgaged
his house to pay for her first two albums, producing a local number one single. In 1983 she became the first Canadian to have a gold record in
France and she won a gold medal at the Yamaha songwriting competition in Japan. Her worldwide reputation was in the making, but success in the
United States was not yet forthcoming.

When she was 18, Dion saw Michael Jackson performing on television and told Angélil that she wanted to be a star like him. Angélil's response
was to order her to take 18 months off to remake her image. Dion underwent a physical transformation, cutting her hair, plucking her eyebrows,
and having her teeth capped to cover up the incisors that had caused a Quebec humor magazine to dub her "Canine Dion." She was also sent off to
English school to polish the language that would help her to break into the American market. When she emerged from this process, she had made an
amazing transformation from teen star to adult chanteuse. The payoff came almost immediately. Her 1990 breakthrough album, Unison, was released
in the U.S. by Epic Records and produced several hit songs, but it was her duet with Peabo Bryson on the theme song of Disney's Beauty & the
Beast that was her true breakthrough.

"Beauty & the Beast" reached number one on the pop charts and won both a Grammy and Academy award. The song was also featured on her second
English album, 1992's Celine Dion, which launched another Top Ten American hit with "If You Asked Me To," while spawning two additional Top 40
singles, "Nothing Broken But My Heart" and "Love Can Move Mountains." During this time there were also important developments in Dion's personal
life. In 1988, Angélil crossed the line from manager to romantic partner when he kissed Dion one night after a show in Dublin. Fearful that fans
would find the 26-year difference in their ages unsettling, the couple kept their relationship a secret for several years. But their 1994
wedding in Montreal's Notre Dame Basilica was celebrated not only by the 250 invited guests, but by millions of fans worldwide.

One of the hardest-working stars in show business, Dion continued to record and perform on a schedule that would kill most people. She recorded
six albums between 1992 and 1996, when her album Falling Into You took her to a new level of stardom. The recording was a runaway hit, winning
Grammys for both Album of the Year and Best Pop Album. 1996 also brought her another honor; she was asked to perform at the opening ceremonies
of the Atlanta Olympics. Dion's longest tenure on the pop charts would come the following year, however, when she recorded "My Heart Will Go
On," the theme song for James Cameron's blockbuster movie Titanic. "My Heart Will Go On" became omnipresent on the radio as Titanic fever swept
the world, and when it was featured on her album Let's Talk About Love, it helped propel that recording to the top of the charts. By then, Dion
had the power to gather a supporting cast of stars, and the album contained an amazing collection of artists, including Barbra Streisand,
Luciano Pavarotti, and the Bee Gees. The album would win a host of awards and bring Dion a whole new world of fans.

Her appearance on VH1's Divas Live special with Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan, Mariah Carey, and Shania Twain proved popular as well and
helped solidify Dion's position, not only among contemporary female pop singers but historical greats like Franklin. The continuing popularity
of her recordings and live performances made her 1999 sabbatical seem like a tragedy to her fans, but Dion needed a break after more than a
decade and a half at a breakneck pace. In 1999, her husband Angélil was diagnosed with throat cancer. While the disease responded well to
treatment and went into remission, the illness was a wake-up call for Dion, who decided to put a new emphasis on her family life and announced a
temporary retirement so that she could spend more time at home and have a child. After undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to a son
in January 2001. The Collector's Series, Vol. 1 was released during Dion's hiatus; it featured many of her best-loved songs, as well as a
Spanish-language version of "All by Myself."

Dion returned to the public eye in a big way in March 2002 with A New Day Has Come. The album debuted at number one in over 17 countries, and
was accompanied by a full-scale media blitz. But Dion's greatest challenge was yet to come. Despite millions of albums sold, the adoration of
fans worldwide, and the validation of her peers, Dion's success was still hampered by image problems that had dogged her since the days of
"Canine Dion." While many Americans adored her, just as many snickered at her Québécois heritage and the relative unorthodoxy of her marriage.
There was also the issue of her relevancy to lucrative audiences existing outside of her pop vocal constituency. To combat these issues, Dion
and her management made a series of bold moves that attempted to solidify her career and ensure its continuity as she entered her mid-thirties.

In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza at Caesar's Palace,
Las Vegas, called A New Day. The production would take place in a custom-built, 4,000-seat theater and would feature Dion as the centerpiece of
a multimedia program designed and orchestrated by Franco Dragone, the Belgian theater impresario behind the modern circus phenomenon Cirque du
Soleil. The project united Dion, her label Sony Music, Dragone's production company Creations du Dragon, Caesar's parent Park Place
Entertainment, and promoter Concerts West in a landmark multi-million-dollar alliance that hinged on Dion's ability to put fans in seats five
nights a week for three years. In conjunction with the rollout of A New Day was an endorsement deal with German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG
worth additional millions. The campaign placed Dion in a series of black-and-white advertisements promoting the stylish allure of Chrysler's
line of upscale automobiles.

The performer also recorded a brand-new song to accompany the spots. Debuting in early 2003, the campaign dovetailed into the March release of
One Heart, Dion's first album since 2001's A New Day Has Come, which in turn heralded the opening of A New Day on March 25, 2003. That live Las
Vegas show was documented on the summer 2004 release New Day: Live in Las Vegas, which was followed a few months later by Miracle, a collection
of family songs designed as a tandem book/CD project between Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. The two-CD compilation On Ne Change Pas appeared
in 2005, featuring her most popular French-language songs and a new collaboration with the operatic pop vocal foursome Il Divo, "I Believe in
You (Je Crois en Toi)." A new French-language album, D'Elles, arrived in May 2007 and debuted at the top of the Canadian album chart. In
November of that same year, Dion released the English-language Taking Chances and announced a tour of South Africa and Europe scheduled for
2008. She released the CD/DVD Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert, as well as the documentary DVD Celine: Through the Eyes of the World. A
new French album, Sans Attendre, was released in 2012 and, the following year, her English-speaking fans' six-year wait was rewarded with the
announcement of the album Loved Me Back to Life. Heralded by its hip-hop-inflected title-track single, the album, released in November, featured
duets with Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder alongside a cover of Daniel Merriweather's "Water and a Flame."



Album Review - from loudwire

Loved Me Back to Life is Celine Dion's first English-language album in seven years, but even that long gap of time doesn't tell the whole story.
The last time Dion placed in the Billboard Top 40 was in 2002, when "A New Day Has Come" reached 22, and the last time she saw the Top 10 was in
1999, when "That's the Way It Is" reached number six. That's a roundabout way of saying that Dion's days as a formidable hitmaker are long gone,
but the interesting thing about Loved Me Back to Life is how the French-Canadian diva has seized this opportunity to try a little bit
everything, ranging from duets with neo-R&B stalwart Ne-Yo to covers of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen." Some of this piecemeal feel is due to the
album's convoluted creation, growing from a simple studio re-creation of her on-going Vegas revue Celine, but then expanding to something a
little more modern and something with a subtle but palpable R&B undercurrent. This soulful streak surfaces on the duets -- the aforementioned
Ne-Yo collaboration "Incredible," plus Stevie Wonder sings his "Overjoyed" on a Tricky Stewart production -- but also in the stuttering rhythms
of "Somebody Loves Somebody," the slow-burning "Didn't Know Love," and the lively, new jack swing of "Save Your Soul" (strangely, the two
Babyface productions -- "At Seventeen" and "Always Be Your Girl" -- are thoroughly colorless adult contemporary). Still, that suggests Loved Me
Back to Life is a livelier, riskier album than it actually is; despite these deeper grooves and sparkling surfaces, there's no question this is
a Celine Dion album, a record that flirts with new ideas but never hooks up. Yet, that flirtation counts for something: it means the album is
livelier, less self-conscious, less beholden to the expected, and quick-footed enough to not seem mired in show biz glitz. That doesn't mean
Loved Me Back to Life will reverse her Billboard chart trajectory -- there's nothing here that screams big hit –- but it's something better: the
work of a diva who is comfortable in her own skin.

lead single:

[video=youtube;cOown9q6YQU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOown9q6YQU[/video]

Track Listing

1. Loved Me Back to Life
2. Somebody Loves Somebody
3. Incredible
4. Water and a Flame
5. Breakaway
6. Save Your Soul
7. Didn't Know Love
8. Thank You
9. Overjoyed
10. Thankful
11. At Seventeen
12. Always Be Your Girl
13. Unfinished Songs

[SteveO]

My beloved Celine! Thanks for the review Music dude!