Editing Celine Dion (section)

=== 1968–1989: Early life and career beginnings ===
[[File:Céline Dion 1986.jpg|thumb|Dion in 1986]]
Dion was born in [[Charlemagne, Quebec]], {{convert|15|mi|km|order=flip}} northeast of Montreal, the youngest of 14 children of [[Thérèse Dion|Thérèse]] ({{nee|Tanguay}}, 1927–2020), a homemaker, and Adhémar Dion (1923–2003), a butcher, both of French descent.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Celine Dion: From the Perche (France) to Las Vegas |url=http://www.perche-quebec.com/files/celine/individus/celine_en.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513183630/http://www.perche-quebec.com/files/celine/individus/celine_en.htm |archive-date=13 May 2011 |access-date=23 January 2016 |website=perche-quebec.com}}</ref> As the youngest of 14 children, Dion grew up wearing hand-me-downs and sharing a bed with several sisters.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bullock |first=Maggie |date=5 September 2019 |title=Vanity Fair 2019 Best Dressed List |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/09/best-dressed-list-2019 |access-date=17 September 2019 |magazine=Vanity Fair |archive-date=23 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023000608/https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/09/best-dressed-list-2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Helligar |first=Jeremy |date=1999 |title=Family Matters |url=https://people.com/archive/cover-story-family-matters-vol-51-no-8/ |access-date=17 September 2019 |website=People |archive-date=27 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827234101/https://people.com/archive/cover-story-family-matters-vol-51-no-8/ |url-status=live }}</ref> As a baby, she slept in a drawer instead of a crib to save money.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Heilpern |first=John |date=14 December 2011 |title=Caesars Princess |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/01/celine-dion-201201 |access-date=17 September 2019 |magazine=Vanity Fair |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922225605/https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/01/celine-dion-201201 |url-status=live }}</ref> She was bullied at school and called "Vampire" due to her teeth and skinny frame.<ref name=":4" /> Local tabloids even dubbed her "Canine Dion" in the teenage years of her career.<ref name=":3" /> She often spoke of running home from school to play music in the basement with her brothers and sisters. "I detested school", she would later write in her autobiography. "I had always lived surrounded by adults and children a lot older than me. I learned everything I needed to know from them. As far as I was concerned, real life existed around them."<ref name=":2" /> Dion's eldest sister was already in her twenties, married, and pregnant with her first child at the time that Dion's mother, [[Thérèse Dion|Thérèse]], was pregnant with Dion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Germain |first=Georges-Hébert |url=https://archive.org/details/theresedionlavie0000germ |title=Thérèse Dion : La Vie Est un Beau Voyage |publisher=Libre Expression |year=2006 |isbn=2764802978 |location=Montreal |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Dion was raised a [[Roman Catholic]] in a poor but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne.<ref name="CNNN">{{Cite news |date=22 October 2002 |title=The 'ultimate diva' |work=[[People in the News]] |publisher=CNN |url=https://edition.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/dion/profile.html |access-date=25 September 2013 |archive-date=25 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925123935/http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/dion/profile.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="autogenerated12">"Profiles of Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias, Moby". Paula Zahn, Charles Molineaux, Gail O'Neill. ''[[People in the News]]'', 18 May 2002. Transcript.</ref> Music had always been a major part of the Dion family, and she was named after the song "[[Céline (song)|Céline]]", which French singer [[Hugues Aufray]] had recorded two years before her birth.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Germain |first=Georges-Herbert |url= https://archive.org/details/celineauthorized0000germ/page/16 |title=Céline: The Authorized Biography |publisher=[[Dundurn Press]] |others= translated by David Homel and Fred Reed |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-55002-318-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/celineauthorized0000germ/page/16 16]}}</ref> On 13 August 1973, she performed publicly for the first time at her brother Michel's wedding, singing [[Christine Charbonneau]]'s "Du fil, des aiguilles et du coton".<ref>{{Cite web |last=jmaster |title=Céline Dion Biography |url=http://www.portrait-star.fr/st-celine-dion.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405132148/http://www.portrait-star.fr/st-celine-dion.html |archive-date=5 April 2012 |publisher= | website= portrait-star.fr |access-date=18 April 2014}}</ref> She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small [[piano bar]] called ''Le Vieux Baril'', "The Old Barrel".

She suffered a number of accidents as a young child, including an incident at five years old when she was struck by a car as her father and brother Clément looked on. She was hospitalized briefly with a concussion.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gillis |first1=Barry |title=Celine Dion: A New Day Dawns, An Unauthorized Biography |last2=Brown |first2=Jim |publisher=Fox Music Books |year=2004 |isbn= 1-894997-05-0 |edition=1st |location= Kingston, Ontario |pages=32 |language= en}}</ref> From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer.<ref name="Time1">{{Cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Charles P. |date=7 March 2004 |title=The Power of Celine Dion |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980285,00.html |access-date=25 September 2013 |archive-date=7 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407180349/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980285,00.html |url-status=live }}{{registration required}}</ref> In a 1994 interview with ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'', she recalled, "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sanz |first=Cynthia |date=13 June 1994 |title= North Star |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20108321,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021042024/http://www.people.com/people/article/0%2C%2C20108321%2C00.html |archive-date=21 October 2012 |access-date=10 February 2012 |website=[[People (magazine)|People]]}}</ref> As a child in Quebec, Dion participated in Girl Guide programs as a member of [[Girl Guides of Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 December 2015 |title=Opinion {{!}} Celine Dion, Margaret Atwood among long list of Girl Guides |url=https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/opinion-story/6155448-celine-dion-margaret-atwood-among-long-list-of-girl-guides/ |access-date=23 April 2020 |website= CambridgeTimes.ca |language=en-CA |archive-date=29 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229003854/http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/opinion-story/6155448-celine-dion-margaret-atwood-among-long-list-of-girl-guides/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

At age 12, she collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "[[Ce n'était qu'un rêve]]", whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream". Michel sent the recording to music manager [[René Angélil]], whose name he discovered on the back of a [[Ginette Reno]] album.<ref name="Jam">{{Cite web |title=Dion, Celine |url=http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/D/Dion_Celine.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629041550/http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/D/Dion_Celine.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=29 June 2012 |access-date=25 September 2013 |website= [[Jam!]] |publisher=Canoe.ca}}</ref> Angélil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star.<ref name="autogenerated12" /> In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, ''[[La voix du bon Dieu]]'', which later became a local No. 1 hit and made her an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "[[Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi]]".<ref name="Jam" />

By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "[[D'amour ou d'amitié]]" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several [[Félix Award]]s, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year".<ref name="Jam" /><ref name="autogenerated20">[http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/celine-dion.html Celine Dion Biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927104806/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/celine-dion.html |date=27 September 2013 }}, [[The Biography Channel]]. 13 September 2007.</ref> Further success came when she represented [[Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest|Switzerland]] in the [[1988 Eurovision Song Contest]] with the song "[[Ne partez pas sans moi]]" and won the contest by a close margin in [[Dublin]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Connor |first=John Kennedy |title=The Eurovision Song Contest&nbsp;— The Official History |date=2 April 2007 |publisher=[[Carlton Books]] |isbn=978-1-84442-994-3 |location=UK |author-link=John Kennedy O'Connor}}</ref> At age 18, after seeing a [[Michael Jackson]] performance, Dion told Angélil she wanted to be a star like Jackson.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Céline Dion'' |url=http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/dion_celine/artist.jhtml#biographyEnd |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023034657/http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/dion_celine/artist.jhtml#biographyEnd |archive-date=23 October 2012 |access-date=27 September 2014 |website=MTV Artists}}</ref> Though confident in her talent, Angélil realized her image needed to be changed for her to be marketed worldwide.<ref name="autogenerated12" /> She withdrew from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the [[Berlitz Corporation|École Berlitz]] in 1989 to improve her English.<ref name="Enc">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Celine Dion |encyclopedia= The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Historica-Dominion]] |url= http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/celine-dion |access-date=25 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927173706/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/celine-dion |archive-date=27 September 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1989, during a concert on the [[Incognito tournée]], she injured her voice. She consulted the [[Otolaryngology|otorhinolaryngologist]] William Gould,<ref name="Bombardier 2009 172–173">{{Cite book |last=Bombardier |first=Denise |url= https://archive.org/details/lenigmatiqueceli0000bomb/page/172 |title= L'énigmatique Céline Dion |publisher=Albin Michel, XO éditions |year=2009 |isbn=978-2-84563-413-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lenigmatiqueceli0000bomb/page/172 172–73] |language=fr}}</ref><ref name= "Germain p. 279-280">Germain, Georges-Hébert (2010). ''René Angélil: Derrière le conte de fées'', Michel Lafon. pp. 279–280.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her [[vocal cords]] or do not utilize them at all for three weeks.<ref name="Bombardier 2009 172–173" /> Dion chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.<ref name="Bombardier 2009 172–173" /><ref name="Germain p. 279-280" />