Céline Dion is a Canadian pop singer. She was born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, and she emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
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Dion first gained international recognition by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Following a series of French albums in the early 1980s, she signed on to CBS Records Canada in 1986. During the 1990s, with the help of Angélil, she became one of the most successful artists in pop music history. In 1999, Dion announced a hiatus from entertainment in order to start a family and spend time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer. She returned to the top of pop music in 2002 and performed nightly in a five-star theatrical show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas for five years.
Dion's music has been influenced by genres ranging from rock and R&B to gospel and classical. She is the best-selling Canadian artist of all time, is the second best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era, and is the only female artist to have two singles sell more than a million copies in the UK. Her 1995 album D'eux, is the best-selling French-language album of all time. In 2004, she was presented with the Chopard Diamond Award at the World Music Awards for becoming the best-selling female artist of all time. According to Sony Music Entertainment, Dion has sold over 200 million albums worldwide.