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Céline Dion is writhing on the floor, her reptilian impulses activated by
a second-skin glittering emerald-green dress with matching thigh-high
sock boots. “I’m a chameleon, whoa oh oh oh,” she’d sung to the tune
of Donna Summer’s “On the Radio” during her brief walk between the
dressing room and now the studio floor of her ELLE photo shoot. This
is the Céline Dion that memes are made of.
For suburban teens in the ’90s, Céline was a regular amid car visor
CD sleeves. She was as likely to be sandwiched between Shania Twain
and Mariah Carey as she was, more covertly, between the Fugees and
Radiohead. Even the most pretentious music snobs had to admit her
octaves-spanning vocal range was pretty impressive. But was it cool to
love her? Let’s put it this way: That Céline CD was often “my mom’s.”
Now, though...now, loving Céline Dion is undeniably cool.
Twentysomethings have latched onto the five-time Grammy winner
as an icon to “stan” (to obsess over, to idolize; origin: stalker plus fan).
Credit for this newfound fandom is owed in part to her shameless love
of fashion (“Some people do drugs, and I buy shoes,” she told journalist
John Heilpern in 2012); and in part to Law Roach, the self-described
“image architect” who’s cultivated that obsession into Instagram catnip.
The singer discovered Roach via his work with Zendaya. Céline’s
twin boys, Eddy and Nelson, now eight and a half years old, were fans
of the former Disney star’s show K.C. Undercover. In 2016, Roach pre-
sented Céline with an oversize $885 Vetements hoodie printed with
a poster image from Titanic. In case you’re not of this planet, Céline’s
“My Heart Will Go On” is as central to the film as the boat itself. On a
more self-conscious star, the hypebeast look could have landed with a
“What was she thinking?” thud. But on Céline, with skinny jeans and
gold Gucci heels, it was, to put it in internet terms, straight fire.
She’s upped the sartorial ante since then. Behold her as a futuristic
flight attendant in a plunging V-neck jumpsuit and a veiled military
cap, and a mod Mary Poppins engulfed by an outsize Marc Jacobs coat
and wide-brim hat on steroids. Last July, a photo of Céline wearing a
banana-yellow power suit and skinny sunglasses went viral. In it, she
defies gravity, perching on a windowsill, legs spread in a nearly 180-
degree power stance. “My Heart Will Go Off,” “A New Slay Has Come,”
“It’s All Coming Back to Memes,” declared Twitter. Whatever the cap-
tion, Céline projects the very now notion of women doing whatever the
fuck they want.
With this spike in her cross-platform appeal comes her new gig as
global spokesperson for L’Oréal Paris. It’s what brings us together at
a Las Vegas studio one chilly Saturday last February. After the shoot
wraps, Céline changes into an Alexandre Vauthier couture minidress—
blush, belted, sparkling (you know, casual)—to talk about her first-ever
beauty contract. She does two interviews, one in French with ELLE
France and one in English, with me. Both are punctuated by Céline’s
sudden outbursts of singing, which is arguably her native tongue. With
a net worth estimated at $430 million according to Forbes, she hardly
needs the money, but L’Oréal Paris’s “I’m Worth It” tagline really spoke
to her. “Telling other women that they, too, have self-worth, that they
are strong, is obviously really important. You cannot limit yourself. My
life started over at 50; I feel happy, I feel beautiful. I thought, ‘I must
have done something right for this to be happening.’” I ask if she tracks
her Instagram likes and comments. “Free your mind, and the rest will
follow!” she sings, waving her finger in the air. “Be color-blind, don’t be
so shallow!” Translation: No, she does not. But her team does, and she’s
thankful to them for helping her be the best version of herself.
While Céline’s fabulous life is a field day for her 3 million follow-
ers, who comment, “SLAYYYYYY,” and “Omfg bitch, JE T’AIME,”
make no mistake—it’s Céline who’s having the most fun. “I am like a
one-year-old!” she says. “I’m not saying that I don’t care what people
think of me, but I’ve reached a point in my life where I can let myself
make my own decisions and choices.” For years, she says, her vocal
cords were the boss. All she did was practice. “Now I am discovering
myself more and more. I am a woman assuming her own destiny, full
of energy and in love with life. It’s never too late to start. At 51, I have
the sense that I am at my pinnacle!”
Still, she’s hesitant to fully embrace her style-icon status. “I love
fashion a lot, definitely. For me, fashion is art. It’s a way of expressing
yourself. When I put something on, I play. I don’t take myself seriously. I
kind of, like, borrow a character. But to be considered a fashion icon?” She
throws her hands up. “I don’t know, I just do one day at a time, do the best
I can, feel the way that I want to feel. That’s the most important thing.”
Céline’s feelings were a highlight of the spring 2019 couture season
in Paris. Fashion editors spotted, and socialed, her weeping front row
at Valentino. “It was not clothes—it was magic, a fairy tale,” she recalls.
But there was a more profound trigger. “The first song was ‘The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face,’ which was part of my wedding.” Céline’s
husband and longtime manager, René Angélil, the father of her three
sons, passed away in 2016. “The music starts and this dream comes,
a lady, a beautiful rose. All you saw was her face in this amazing pink
gown.” She starts to sing the Roberta Flack ballad. “It was so emotion-
al; I was speechless. I didn’t want to cry. I was worried Mr. Valentino
was looking at my reaction. To be honest, it felt like I was making a
scene, but I was overwhelmed.”
As with any headliner worth her triple-digit ticket price, there’s a
certain mythology to Céline’s tale. It begins in Charlemagne, Quebec,
where she was born the youngest of 14, “even though my dad didn’t
want to have children,” she pauses, “but baby, I’m worth it!” (See what