The Greatest Show-woman

CELINE DION is cool, okay? Says Jonathan Fam who attended the ’90s pop diva’s first-ever concert in Singapore.

You probaby think that you don’t know that many Celine Dion songs but, guess what, you probably do. And you will find yourself singing along, sorry, belting out every single one of them if you ever have the good fortune of attending one of the Canadian diva’s concerts.

Such is the power of Celine Dion who, for years, was one of those artistes everyone secretly loved but would rather die than admit that they are a fan of. But how the tides have turned as the Québécois singer, in recent years, has become a fashion icon and a purveyor of all things cool in pop culture. (Merci beaucoup, Drake and Vetements!) It explains why the full-house crowd at the first night of Celine’s two-night concert at the Sands Grand Ballroom consisted of people who lived through that era where being a Centrepoint kid was a thing, as well as current cool kids and Instagram influencers who no doubt grew up weaned on a musical diet consisting of Celine power ballads courtesy of their parents.

The gig, which marks Miss Dion’s first time in Singapore in her almost four-decade-long career, started shortly after 9 pm — an hour after the audience was seated. But we were entertained in the interim by warmup act vocal impressionist Veronic DiCaire who performed bang-up impressions of divas like Shakira (uncanny), Britney (commendable) and Mariah (not even close, honey). She smartly left out mimicking Celine, who is one of the most parodied artistes of our time. Though we think it would have been a hoot if Veronic had paid tribute to her patroness who we all know can take a joke. Did you not see her music video for Deadpool 2’s theme song ‘Ashes’? See? Cool.