National sacrilege! The absence of Celine Dion from the list of “200 Greatest Singers of All Time”published on 1is January by the American magazine Rolling Stone, has caused a stir among his fans all over the world. Questioned by an Internet user judging that this omission was “a crime against humanity” – “I call the police”he added – the French police even split a humorous response on Twitter : “With regret, we inform you that the police, who have a huge number of fans in their ranks, will not be able to appeal to you on this file”. But it was in Quebec, his homeland, that the indignation was the strongest.
“Absolutely inconceivable! »exclaimed the cultural columnist of Radio Canada Eugenie Lepine-Blondeau. “Do you have to have lived somewhere between Mars and Jupiter for the past thirty years not to realize the exceptional talent of Celine Dion? »was offended a member of the Bloc Québécois (independence). “You want a reason to consider that those stupid lists of assholes… don’t mean anything?”got carried away the author-composer Diane Warren, who wrote many songs for the Quebec star. A list of the greatest singers, and Celine Dion is not there? “We want the names of the people who voted for this list”, threatened a user; “do not harm the Queen”begged another.
Narcissistic injury
All Quebec media are in unison to denounce the injustice done to the interpreter of My Heart Will Go on, twenty-seven albums on the counter sold more than two hundred million copies, recipient of seven Grammy Awards. The presence of other Canadian singers – Joni Mitchell (50e position), Leonard Cohen (103e), The Weeknd (110e) ou Neil Young (133e) – does not change the narcissistic wound experienced by Quebec.
Because the “diva of Charlemagne”, the village in the great suburbs of Montreal where she was born, is now part of it, like the fleur-de-lis adorning the flag of the province or the French language of which Quebecers want to be the last defenders of the national heritage. To touch it or, worse, to forget it, is to despise the Quebec “nation”. Her moving video published on December 8, 2022, in which Celine Dion confided that she suffered from a rare neurological disease – stiff person syndrome – preventing her from resuming her world tour, further strengthened the ties between the exile of Las Vegas, where she has lived for many years, and her homeland.
No more Quebec humorist risks a vitriolic sketch on the little popular singer that she was, no more prominent artist would think of snubbing her. In his first television series, currently airing in Quebec, The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up, the director Xavier Dolan offers, in a karaoke session, a cover hot and desperate to Look at me, written by Jean-Jacques Goldman for Celine Dion in 1995. A tribute to this singer who “shaped history and defined our lives”one of the criteria claimed by Rolling Stone to establish his forgetful record.