It was an honour and privilege to see this show. Celine’s
mini tour of the summer of 2016 will be talked about for many years to come.
I have to admit I was not thrilled when I first saw the setlist from Belgium and France,
my setlist would have been quite different, so many of my favorite songs were
missing, and many were rarer album tracks and songs she doesn’t often sing. I
would have replaced 10 songs with others, but what I heard totally blew me away.
I was excited to see a show of hers mostly in French, because let’s face it her
French recordings with a few exceptions totally outclass her English repertoire
in soul and artistry. Her Las Vegas show is all very “American” high gloss
while this show had emotion, subtlety and class. Without singing a note Celine
walked on stage, after reciting a snippet of the poem, "Trois Heure Vinght" behind a hidden screen to a 10
minute ovation. She could barely start the first song and new single “Encore un
soir”. The song was written by her long time songwriter and collaborator Jean-Jacques
Goldman. She asked him to write her one more song, this time about the passage
of time as a tribute to Réne. She stood on stage for 2 hours, no wardrobe
change, Celine wanted to spend as much time and sing as many songs she could
for her fans. She could barely hold back the tears especially when she sang “Et
je taime encore” the applauses stopped her right before the refrain for a good
5 minutes. Her orchestra with a full string section was breathtaking; this is
what a real concert should sound like, no theatrics, just fabulous music, and an
incredible vocalist, the real original definition of a “Diva”. She premiere a
new song which was voted by the public to appear on her new album, written by unknown
songwriter Daniel Picard, the song “À la plus haute branche” was stupendous;
you could hear a pin drop. Even songs like « Tous les blues sont écrits
pour toi » which is not a favorite of mine sounded better than the record
and will make me revaluate them. “L'amour existe encore” and “Pour que tu m'aimes encore” was sung with maturité
and beautiful vocal restraint. One of the cleverest moments of the night was her new version
of “Naziland, ce soir on danse” from Luc Plamondon’s big rock opera Starmania. Céline
had asked her producers to figure out a way to incorporate Réne’s favorite TV
show and theme song “Law & Order” into a song, when she explained it I
thought it was crazy but the result was fabulous. When I heard the first notes
of “Dans un autre monde” I couldn’t help but get up and dance, but as I looked
around the forum I could see I was only one of 5 in the stands standing up and
boogieing, most preferred to sit as it was a ballad heavy list. One of the evenings highlights was the acoustic medley of "Apprends-moi
/ Tous les secrets / Ne bouge pas and Valse adieu", Celine along with her back up singers and a few musician, did a type of campfire sing along which was as worthy as the full orchestra tracks, the ending with just her and the singers doing "Valse adieu" was incredible, it took me a few minutes to realize it was all accapella. I did get up
again when she sang “Love Can Move Mountains” into “River Deep, Mountain High”.
She obviously did the huge English hits “Because You Loved Me”, “It's All
Coming Back to Me Now” which morphed into “The Power of Love”. I cried when she
sang “It's All Coming Back to Me Now”, it reminded me of the last concert of
hers I saw in 1996 with my then best friend Chris D. my friend has chosen to no longer be around
and it just stirred up emotions. She covered “Purple Rain” and her new recorded
version of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”. As a unique twist to our night, she
asked us for a favour at the encore. She had to record “My Heart Will Go On” for
an American TV show and asked if we could be part of it. The show briefly stopped
as she explained that there would be camera cue’s, she would talk to the
American audience in English, then sing the song. She asked us to light up the stadium with our
cell phones, hoping that we had enough power left over; that along with glow
sticks they were selling at the kiosque produced an incredible sight. The show
ended with her love and peace pledge “S'il suffisait d'aimer”, she then sang an
accapella snippet of “Vole” and faded into the background as the lights went
down.
I really hope this concert is recorded and is set to appear
on CD and DVD, not everybody got the chance to see it live, and some of us want
to experience it again.
Merci Celine,
Setlist
1.
Trois
heures vingt (A cappella snippet)
2.
Encore
un soir
3.
Je
crois toi
4.
Qui
peut vivre sans amour ?
5.
Immensité
6.
Et
je t'aime encore
7.
Pour
que tu m'aimes encore
8.
Terre
9.
À
la plus haute branche
10. Ordinaire (Robert
Charlebois cover)
11. Because
You Loved Me
12. It's All
Coming Back to Me Now / The Power of Love
13. Le vol d'un ange
14. L'amour existe encore
15. Apprends-moi / Tous les secrets / Ne
bouge pas / Valse adieu
(Acoustic)
16. Tous les blues sont écrits pour toi
17. Dans un autre monde
18. Naziland, ce soir on danse
19. Purple
Rain (Prince cover)
20. Love Can
Move Mountains
21. River
Deep, Mountain High
22. The Show
Must Go On (Queen cover)
Encore:
23. My Heart
Will Go On
24. S'il suffisait d'aimer
25. Vole (A cappella snippet)
