The upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in Malmö, Sweden following the major victory set forth by track Euphoria performed by Loreen by virtue of ranking in the top position in both public and jury voting. The editorial board at escflashmalta.com is currently gearing up in anticipation for the national finals season noting that the month of December is going to be particularly busy with no less than six countries announcing their respective entries and representatives alike. In the meantime, singer/songwriter Jean Claude Vancell is definitely going to be one of the key individuals during the upcoming months continuously providing you, the readers with the latest album reviews whilst also coming in as a special guest to analyze a couple of selection formats during the evenings. In recent days, Heal by Loreen was given a thumbs up but today, we feature a different kind of review in terms of genre as the latest album by Celine Dion entitled Sans Attendre has just been released to generally positive reviews yet what does Vancell think about it? Keep reading this post and find out.

Artist: Celine Dion

Celine Dion is a French-Canadian artist from Quebec. Born in 1968, she became a teenage pop sensation in the French-speaking world. She represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 and won. After that she decided to take on the American market, after a few years out of the limelight to improve her image and her English. Dion took the American music market by storm during most of the nineties and noughties performed sell-out shows at the Caeser’s Palace in Las Vegas. She performed five nights a week to an audience of 4,000 people at one of the most luxurious hotels in Vegas.

She grossed a total of $400 million from this concert alone (A New Day…) during a 5-year run making her one of the most successful money-making women in the world. She announced a second residency tour at the Caeser’s Palace in 2010 and is performing the three-year, seventy show a year tour, entitled Celine presently. Celine is also releases perfumes under the Celine Dion Parfums collection. She has released her 14th perfume, called Signature, last September. This generally means that such an artist has also become a prominent business women thanks to various advisers.

Album Title: Sans Attendre

Released: 2nd November (Europe)

The album production is of very high quality (I wasn't expecting anything less from Celine Dion!) and uses very little synths on the album. It’s clear that the album can be taken on tour and played exactly as is with an 8-piece band easily. This does not lessen the beauty of the musical arrangements in the album. I did find that most of the songs were mid-tempo, making the album very consistent. I don’t particularly like this, since Qui Peut Vivre Sans Amour (a more up-tempo track – emphasis on the more) stands out like a sore thumb. 

The album was released internationally on November 2, 2012. It peaked the charts in Canada and France, reached number 2 in Switzerland (the country she represented at the ESC) and did very well in French-speaking countries. This is Dion’s 12th French album and 24th album overall. N.B. The deluxe edition included two bonus tracks (Ne Me Quitte Pas and Les Jours Comme ça) which were reviewed with the rest of the album.

Tracks to look out for:

Qui Peut Vivre Sans Amour? – The most striking refrain in the album. Dion’s strong vocals compliment the up-tempo rock feel of the song. The lyrics might sound trivial at first, but they pose some good questions once you think about them. As I previously stated, the track stands out effortlessly from the rest of the songs due it being faster-paced.

Une Chance Qu'on S'a – For the romantics out there, the lyrics are truly a beauty. This is a duet between Dion and Jean-Pierre Ferland.

Final Verdict:

I found the album very tiring to listen to, not only because it is in French, so I had to make that extra effort to understand it, but also because every track feels like the previous one. I prepared myself for Celine’s dramatic vocals, but nothing can prepare you for the roller-coaster that Dion’s vocal take on every song.

Ranting apart, the album is well-produced and well-written (I would hope so with that many song-writers). It’s good. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. Will I listen to it again? Definitely not. Would I urge people to buy it? Yes, only if you love Celine Dion or if you understand French. If you don’t you’ll probably be weeping by mid-album – either because every song sounds sad (even if it might talk about the happiest things) or because you can’t stand Celine.  If you like Celine Dion and can understand French, then you’re in for a treat!

At one point in time, the music industry was all about vocal prowess with live performances bearing the most important factor for commercial success so much so that a particular generation not too long ago used to be in love with the likes of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Gloria Esterfan, Aretha Franklin and Celine Dion. The latter was actually a contestant in the 1988 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest having managed to seal victory with just one point over the United Kingdom with the song Go following a flawless rendition of the track Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi which she performed for the small nation of Switzerland after going through a national final which was also very close-knit. The Canadian born performer has achieved success all over the globe but following the release of her English and French albums in 2007, she took a break from recording signing a Las Vegas Residency contract before having to stop for a vocal surgery which turned out to be a huge success.

Nevertheless, she has returned and already released her first comeback album in French bearing the title Sans Attendre. It is intriguing to note that despite the mixed reviews from the critics, the crowd do not seem to really matter going to buy the album as quickly as possible and vaulting it up to number #1 in France, Belgium and Canada whilst managing also number #2 in Switzerland. Other top twenty positions have also been attained in The Netherlands, Greece and Hungary where her upcoming English album Water and a Flame is definitely set to perform better due to the language issue. A french album does not really succeed outside the borders of non-French speaking countries but Celine Dion is always one to reverse the trend it seems. This has to be one of her most personal albums thus far and the editorial team are glad to see it succeed and that real music triumphs over the fresh material that is being produced by the modern generation of artist. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for more news about former winners in due course.

Source: Official Celine Dion Website

Switzerland have been represented by a host of performers from a multitude of countries throughout the years and this is due to the fact that the small nation does not have the most impressive music scene around with most of the gems moving to other countries such as Germany, France and Italy amongst others in hope of success. Celine Dion is one of the foreign performers to have done the deed on behalf of the nation have went to Dublin for the 1988 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest finishing at the top spot thanks to track Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi which managed to finish just one point ahead of Go by Scott Fitzgerald which represented by the United Kingdom. Since winning the competition, Celine has gone onto become a global superstar and many hail her to being one of the divas of our generation for a stunning vocal range and an amazing repertoire of songs which she has released. Following some issues in recent months where she had to have surgery to remove cancerous nodules, she is back with a brand new single entitled Parler à Mon Père to which she has just released an accompanying music video for promotional purposes.

At the moment, Celine Dion is performing a residency in Las Vegas, one which has broken all of the pre-existing record of sales set forth by some of the worlds' premier entertainers. Her latest venture in the music scene will definitely not be her last and she has decided to return to the studio almost immediately after successfully recovering from her surgery, by virtue of working on two brand new albums, one of them in French entitled Sans Attendre and the other in English bearing the title Water and a Flame. The brand new single off the former album is a tribute to her late father who passed away back in 2003. She believes that this is just the right time to honour him in one of her tracks and her songwriter; Jacques Vénéruso has done an exceptional job on the track which has already reached number #12 in Belgium, #1 in Quebec, #32 in France and #53 in Canada. There has been talk of making those numbers a little bit better actually and hence, a simple music video has been shot so that the song could go on rotation as much as possible even on television. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available and enjoy the song in the meantime.

Source: Official Website

There have been quite a number of participants who were clearly newcomers to the music industry when they first emerged on the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest and back in 1998 when the music competition took place in Dublin, Ireland there was a young lady by the name of Celine Dion from Canada who was representing Switzerland having won a national final where she had submitted the song Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. She gave an outstanding rendition of the track at the international event and managed to seal the victory with a mere one point, just ahead of Scott Fitzgerald for the United Kingdom who also gave a truly beautiful performance of his ballad, Go. Since then, Celine Dion has gone onto sign a major record deal with Sony Music and has sold millions of records around the world achieving the status of a true icon.

She has released twenty-three (23) albums thus far, in French and in English in order to support her respective markets in Canada and France apart from selling them worldwide. Her last studio albums came about five years ago noting that she has been busy with a residency in Las Vegas but her fans will be intriguing to know that she is recording two new albums, one which bears the name Water and a Flame and the other which is entitled Sans Attendre. They will be released onto the music market in October and November respectively. It is quite funny that the first single to come out is of the latter and it is a simple, sweet ballad dedicated to her father hence forth the title being Parler à Mon Père. In recent months, things have not been plain sailing for the performing, having been operated due to vocal issues, one which have also been dealt with by the likes of Adele but things were successful and indeed, at forty four (44) years of age, she sounds better than she has ever sounded. Have a listen to her brand new single below and let us know what you think. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for more information about icons from the world of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Source: Sony Music Canada

Switzerland do not boast one of the most successful records at the Eurovision Song Contest despite the fact that they have won the competition on two respective occasions, the first one being in 1956 thanks to Lys Assia and her track Refrain and the second one coming in 1988 when Canadian songstress Celine Dion did the honour with Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. The latter woman would ultimately go onto sign a major recording contract with Sony Music Canada and watch her successful career unravel bit by bit amassing years of experience and success in both French and English noting that she has consistently recorded albums in the two languages in order to please her fans across the board.

In the past couple of years, Celine Dion has been working in Las Vegas within the Caesars Palace giving out a number of concerts in a month and in her current showcase, she is singing songs from the movies along with original material released in her respective studio albums including It's All Coming Back to Me Now, My Heart Will Go On, Where Does My Heart Beat Now and The Reason amongst many others. Still, it seems that leading ladies of the present industry have been facing some vocal problems with Celine being the latest hit by a bout of inflammation having had to cancel at least five weeks of her residency in Las Vegas and have a surgery that has been recently conducted on Adele but nevertheless, she has perfectly healed and in back on the road with her husband and manager stating that she will be releasing a French language album in September following by an English language album in October. Details about the latter are already out as the tracks will be a mixture of what she is performing at the moment during her tour in the United States along with some new material. The album bears the title, Water and a Flame and a snippet of the first single, Didn't Know Love has already been released during her latest interview on The Today Show where she spoke of her time in lieu and her comeback.

Source: The Today Show, Google Images