Vocal singers have never been my thing. I prefer hoarse, nasal, moaning, slender or yelling voices, in short, strange and unique voices, rather than having my eardrums burst by performers who endlessly hold a note at the microphone without breathing, as if their career were an eternal competition. Also I found very interesting the list of the 200 best singers and singers of all time of the magazine RollingStone.
But I completely understand the outrage at Celine Dion’s absence from this list. More than that: I felt it. My dear colleague Patrick Lagacé wrote a delightfully ironic column on this collective anger. But I must insist: it’s not funny, Patrick, even in the second degree. It is an outrage! And on that, I agree with you that in the middle of January without light, after the excesses of the Holidays, it’s hard on the liver.
If Whitney Houston, the epitome of the vocal singer who tormented my auditory nerve for decades with I Will Always Love Youcomes second in this list, it is not possible that Céline does not appear in this directory of 200 names, not even at the 200e position.
Because she’s from Quebec? It’s hard not to take that personally. In any case, it looks like an exercise between happy fews who are happy to ward off the ugly duckling.
Of course, there is war, inflation, global warming, in addition to all this lack of tenderness and that there is no more America (as Brel sang, who does not appear on the charts either), but it doesn’t make sense for Celine to be ignored like this. Pardon the blasphemy, but jesus christ, Céline is “the voice of God”! No matter where you travel in the world, you’re going to hear it somewhere. Even in the depths of the Haitian countryside, I couldn’t escape him.
I didn’t like Celine when I was a teenager, and it took me at least two new generations of adoring fans (and a few nights of karaoke) to bow humbly to her planetary triumph. There’s no way I’m going back.
More seriously, this slap in the face came shortly after Celine announced that she had to put her career on hold because she has a very rare neurological disease, Moersch-Woltman syndrome. I don’t know about you, but me, it made me feel depressed, and it’s as if the winners of the RollingStone added insult to injury. Like many people, I wondered what was happening to him, what was hiding behind this silence and these repeated postponements of shows. Her post on Instagram broke my heart. Could it be that she never goes back on stage again? A world in which Céline doesn’t have fun on show, doesn’t show off her crazy wardrobe and doesn’t give crazy interviews can only be a boring world, in my opinion.
I no longer count the number of times that Céline’s media flights have taken me out of the gloom and that her songs have finally made me happy.
Moreover, while we are concerned about young people’s lack of interest in Quebec culture, she is the one who transports to the four corners of the world this accent and this good-natured attitude specific to this territory – the demonstration encouraged by Julie Snyder in front of the offices of the RollingStone in New York this week is further proof of that. Hearing Céline say to a French presenter who was emphasizing her accent, “you’ll get used to it, kid! », It was enjoyable, I think.
And she would have led this flamboyant career in English to be snubbed in this country where she generated millions of dollars and supported thousands of jobs in Las Vegas, in addition to breaking I don’t know how many records? Through Céline, we almost feel like Ovide Plouffe, who found that he had no place in the whole world.
I say it without irony (and I am surprised myself): I miss Céline. How she is missing from this list of the 200 best singers of all time.