Dion takes "Chances" with harder sound as "Day" ends

10/08/2007 2:17 AM, Reuters
Chris Morris

It's the fourth standing ovation of the evening as Celine Dion soars through another of her signature hits. The reverent audience at Las Vegas' Colosseum at Caesars Palace -- many of whom have planned their vacations around these 90 minutes -- appears to be in awe.

She has lived this moment for some 700 nights since launching her "A New Day" residency at the resort in March 2003, but Dion still appears stunned by the reception. She bows gracefully before the 4,000 fans, then raises her arm to share the moment with the troupe of 70 dancers and musicians who fill the stage with her.

"A New Day" is credited with helping catapult Las Vegas' reputation as a destination for A-level talent. Dion has sold 3 million tickets there, according to Billboard Boxscore -- and grossed $370.4 million through mid-September 2007.

But come December 15, Dion will have left the building.

"Five years ago, I had done it all. I needed a new challenge," Dion says. "I wanted to offer my fans something more theatrical and spectacular than anything we'd done before. I never felt I had anything to lose."

She consistently filled 4,000 seats five nights per week at the Colosseum, a $95 million theater custom-built for the show. Billboard Boxscore ranked the AEG Live residency among the top five grossing concerts worldwide each year.

But at first not everyone had high hopes for the undertaking, she recalls. "People were still questioning us after one week, two months, the first year," Dion says. "Now we can say we've changed something. It's hard to leave behind, because we started a family with everyone involved in the show. But it's time for something else."

ROCKING OUT

Enter "Taking Chances," her first English-language album in three years. Due November 13 via Columbia, the set signals a sonic left turn for Dion. In a 25-year career often trademarked by hits that soar, the adult-contemporary immortal here more often roars, accompanied by an abundance of guitars and a tempo that's brisker, with a deliberate rock tint.

"It's not a new Celine," she says. "There was no deliberate plan after five years to do something else. But I'm like everyone. I'm 39 now. I don't look like I did 10 years ago, I dress differently -- and I don't sing the same. I have more edge and felt like doing something different."

Dion offers a candid view of her perceived reputation, suggesting that as she was building her career, perhaps she was steered in a direction that kept her stylistically staid.

"When people sent me all those romantic songs to make people feel better or to cry, I went there because I had to prove myself," she says. "Those songs are great and made me who I am today. It wasn't a mistake, but I didn't have a lot of choices. Do you think I wanted to hold those long notes forever and kill myself onstage every night? But everybody always sent the hardest songs to sing to me: 'If somebody can hit those notes, it's Celine Dion.' And I can do it; I can hit them, baby.

"Now maybe we're all tired of those 10-second notes -- the writers, the people -- and they've evolved, too," she continues. "Maybe no one thought I was capable of doing anything else, but I've got Heart and Doobie Brothers and Janis Joplin and Creedence Clearwater Revival inside of me, too."

IN JOPLIN MODE

An electrifying standout among the album's 16 tracks is "That's Just the Woman in Me," a song Dion has considered recording for 20 years. But she never felt it was the right fit for previous albums. Written by Kimberly Rew, it implores, "I need a man to love/Respect me, protect me, rule over, drool over/That's the woman in me, baby."

Dion says, "I was amazed that song waited for me, that no one had recorded it. But now I was scared -- I'm used to such control, and this needs to be sung like Joplin. I got myself into a character and put myself into abuse mode and started to sing through my soul and not my vocal chords. I sang it through twice; I didn't want to work on it, because its honesty needed to be felt. When we played it back, I began to tremble, because I could not believe it was me."

On the album's dramatic cover art, Dion wears her hair teased with extensions into a near-lioness mane, her facial expression curiously cryptic. The idea was all hers.

"Maybe there's a look that people expect, but this is show business. Come on, it's still the same me, but I decided that I don't have to paint on a smile to show what's inside," Dion says. "Don't look at my lips and my hair; look into my eyes and feel me, baby. I am smiling there and giving more than ever before. Come with me. Listen and imagine me however you want."

Fans will be able to do just that on the arena/stadium tour in support of "Taking Chances," which kicks off February 14, 2008, in Johannesburg with eight shows there that month. (Proceeds go to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.) Dion then treks to the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. The yearlong outing will cover five continents, 25 countries and more than 100 cities.

These shows will be far less intimate than "A New Day," which Caesars Palace president Gary Selesner says "reinvented how entertainment is perceived in Las Vegas."

Dion is primed for this next chapter in a stellar career.

"This is the best album of my life," she says. "If you have a child with all the potential in the world and you don't give him or her the chance to explore, it's a loss. My voice and my body are in the best shape ever. I'm more mature and grounded. I need to express myself and show that I feel great and beautiful."

Reuters/Billboard