Something I’ve never quite understood on various message boards (not only the Straight Dope). Why does the “I hate Celine” meme have such staying power?
OK, she’s not the greatest singer (far from it) but she’s hardly the worst warbler I’ve heard on top 40. I agree that My Heart Will Go On was played a few thousand times too many but that’s par for the course with radio these days. I know she had one of the earliest copy-protected CDs but I doubt many internet-savvy people can’t bypass that. I even hear plenty of Canadians making “sorry we inflicted her on you” comments, which I’ve always found odd. If I was Canadian I’d be more embarassed by having Tom Green as a countryman.
I can’t help but wonder if it’s a Simpsons or SNL/MadTV skit I’ve missed.
Well, by all indications, she is famous. Somebody must like her singing and overblown, production-number style. But you never meet anybody who will admit to it. I never have.
Why the dislike? There’s a big difference between singing a song and emoting one. She has done exactly what Michael Bolton did - go beyond merely covering a song and just sing the shit out of everything, whether it needs it or not, just to show off her pipes. And to try to infuse every last nuance of a lyric with “deep feeling” is just insane. Some people think that’s what singing is. Hence, her fan base.
She doesn’t even sing - she wails the songs. I had the misfortune to hear her live some years back when she was touring, and while the low bits weren’t bad, she pretty much screamed the high bits. Very loudly. (And yes, I do know that concerts are supposed to be loud, but dammit, I go to my share of rock concerts and the only thing I’ve ever heard that matches her screamwarbling was Jon Davis’s bagpipes.)
I LIKE Celine, all right, but I know she’s not for everyone. That being said, she at least seems like a genuinely NICE person, unlike a lot of similiar divas, like Streisand, or Houston.
I don’t really understand the hate either. I don’t exactly fit the mould of a celine dion fan but I love the woman what can I say…
She does have an attitude that I really can’t categorize. If you combine that with the fact that her music (at one point at least) was the most played music on the radio, it could be a recipe for hatred. Not for me though…like I said, I love her.
i have nothing against her but i’ll just like to note that, that song (which i initially found ok) is the only one i was forced to listen to more than ten times a day, and i don’t even have a radio! to top it off, after months of that wailing (well it felt like months) when you think it’s safe to switch on the radio again, they started with the remixes… shivers
I hate her work.
The over-emotive wailing - there’s the sublime - Madama Butterfly - and then there’s the ridiculous - My Heart Will Go On.
The music - personally I can’t stand the melodramatic, slow, dirge-like tunes she favours.
The saturation coverage during the mid-90’s - you couldn’t turn a radio on for a while there without having “Beee-caaawse yoo loo-oooo-oooved me, ohohohohoooo…” blaring out at you. Sick-making.
YMMV.
Speaking of “Mad TV”, they did do a Celine skit a few years ago. It was Celine performing a Martin Luther King Day concert (during which she stated, among other things, that the slaves in America were freed in 1986). Her guests were Dr. King’s widow and son (played by actors, of course):
Mrs. King: …my late husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celine: Late?! No one is late for Celine Dion! Mrs King: No, you don’t understand, my husband was killed. Celine: When did this happen? Mrs. King: In 1968. Celine: Oh, how sad. He did not live to see the freeing of the slaves.
…And…
Celine: To honor the memory of this great man, I will now show you pictures of my wedding.
Her music is trite, overblown, and generic… it just strikes me as music for soccer moms, housewives, and older people who are afraid to listen to anything with guitars. Her fans would also favor the vanilla blandness of Michael Bolton or (eeeurgh) Josh Groban. I don’t know if she writes any the songs herself, but I doubt it. Others have touched on the overemotive wailing and howling. Just because a singer has a wide range or can use vibrato doesn’t mean she SHOULD. Plus doesn’t she have her own amphitheatre in Vegas where she performs regularly? So she’s essentially a big, pompous lounge act.
“I think I got a crush on Celine Dion,
The way she beats her chest as she sings a love song.
There’s something about her,
makes me wanna feed her,
and I’d love to be Mr. Celine Dion.
She’ll sing a song in English.
Then she’ll sing en Francais.
Both the songs will suck, but I love her anyway.”
To come across as arrogant and provocative - which a truthful response to the OP pretty much demands if one chooses to be truthful (no slam at all on the OP, just making an observation and taking a deep breath before I launch):
Asking about Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Michael Bolton, etc. and “why the hate” means one of two things:
the asker simply isn’t musical in the truest sense of the word; in which case, trying to explain “why” is like trying to explain to someone why LeRoy Neiman is a bad artist or Three’s Company was a bad tv show. Regardless of the quality of execution - and Celine executes what is asked of her brilliantly, as do Neiman and John Ritter & Co. - what she is putting forth is complete, utter crap. Nobody executes better than McDonalds, but that doesn’t make it quality food.
the asker is at the very beginning of his/her musical education. If that is the case, do this: Buy Aretha Franklin’s greatest hits, At Last by Etta James and something by Billie Holiday, as long as it has Strange Fruit, Lover Man, Don’t Explain and God Bless the Child. Listen to these - listen to how the singers truly inhabit the character they are singing - they mean the words; it isn’t just operatic gymnastics. The vocal inflections and special effects come during words and phrases where the effect is genuinely used for emphasis, not just for masturbatory, clueless show-offy-ness. They are interpreting not just launching.
I know, I know - arrogant and dismissive; so be it. Stuff like this is difficult - art is subjective, and yet, deep in our heart of hearts, given the language of art built up over the centuries of civilization, there are clear levels of quality. True, every now and then the rules must be adjusted - the masses took a while to be open to modern art, modern music, rock n’ roll and other forms that broke old rules, but the quality of the art, once the new rules were understood and accepted, was not questioned. Celine Dion breaks NO new ground - there are no new rules one must be open to in order to understand her. She’s just crap.
You people obviously suffer from a lack of information. But its not your fault; you’ve only heard her English language albums (which I feel are utterly lacking compared to her French language albums). And make no mistake it was the success of her earlier French albums that put her on the radar screens in the first place. And those albums had guitars!
She was as big in the French speaking world as Madonna is in the English speaking world. This was all before 95% of you ever heard of her.
Her branching out into English came in the early 90’s.