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THE TOUR
Starting in January 1985, "Céline Dion En Concert" (meaning "Celine Dion In Concert") was Celine Dion´s first real own concert tour. Celine toured mostly the province of Quebec, Canada.
...> About The Tour
The tour is also may known under the name "C´est Pour Toi Tournée", due to Celine´s album titled "C´est Pour Toi", although this album wasn´t released until September 9, 1985. As disciplined as ever, full of healthy energy, Celine was preparing carefully for this demanding tour, taking singing and dancing lessons from Peter George, and leading an austere existence. According some sources, the tour started in La Sarre, a town in northwestern Quebec, Canada in January 1985. Although it was on March 12, 1985 when Celine gave a press conference at the reataurant Les Jardins de Paris in Montreal to announce this first real tour. Anyway, in a little over two months, Celine gave 36 performances in 25 cities in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. The tour ended with 3 sold out concerts at the Place des Arts in Montreal, Canada between May 31 and June 2, 1985. According to the tour programme, Celine had worked during months to prepare this tour of 2-hour concerts. Each concert featured two backing vocals and six musicians, under the direction of Canadian composer, Paul Baillargeon. The lighting for the tour was made by Maurice Giraud, who has also worked for Johnny Halliday, Charles Aznavour and Uves Duteil among others. According to Celine, her manager Rene Angelil watched over everything on this tour, from the stage direction to the scenery, from the musical arrangements to the lighting, the order of songs and even Celine´s clothing and hairstyle. Quite often during the tour, he took charge of the direction and the lighting, posters, and publicity. Rene confessed that two years before, a producer offered them thirty-five thousands dollards to do this tour and they refused. "Celine wasn´t ready for it yet" he said. Also according to Celine, Rene told her "this is your first real tour, you have to present them with the complete menu of your talent". So Celine did rock, lullabies, opera and blues. She performed Giraud´s "Mamy Blue", Felix Leclerc´s "Le train du nord", old classics like "Over the rainbow", the eternal "What a feeling". She also sang an aria from Bizet´s "Carmen" and "Up where we belong" in duet with Paul Baillargeon. Eddy Marnay had introduced Celine to the music of Michel Legrand, who was a friend of his, and he put together a medley of his songs that Celine adored. Of course, Celine also performed her biggest hits, like "Ce n´etait qu´un reve" and "D´amour ou d´amitié", as well as some of the songs of her upcoming album, "C´est Pour Toi". Although according to other sources, the set list of the tour did not include any songs from the album "C´est Pour Toi", as the album wasn´t released yet. She sang several songs in English, though she did not speak that language at that time. During a TV special aired in September 1985, Celine performed all the songs from "C´est Pour Toi". In reference to this tour Celine has said "I celebrated my seventeenth birthday on the stage of a liberal-arts school in Val d´Or, in Abitibi in Quebec. We were right in the middle of a tour, the first really big tour of my life, which had already sent us from one end of Quebec to the other, throughout eastern and northern Ontario, and into New Brunswick. There seemed to be no end to it. We didn´t want it to end, we were so in a groove, so excited. Our show got larger every day and the tour was extended, adding one city after another. We caused a stir before we arrived and after we left. We were sold out everywhere" (extract from the book "My Story, My Dream").
...> Broadcasts And Recordings
Celine´s first live album was recorded at a sold out performance at the Place des Arts in Montreal, Canada. It was released in December 1985 with the name: "Céline Dion En Concert". In September 1985, "C´est Pour Toi TV Special" was aired in Quebec television, including songs from just released album: "C´est pour toi", "Dis-moi si je t´aime", "Les oiseaux du bonheur", "Amoureuse", "Pour vous", "Tu es là", "Elle", "Avec toi", "Virginie... Roman d´amour", "Vois comme c´est beau", "C´est pour vivre".
...> Songs Set List
1. "Ouverture (la première fois)"
2. "Mon ami m´a quittée"
3. Hommage à Félix Leclerc:
----1. "Bozo"
----2. "Le p'tit bonheur"
----3. "Moi, mes souliers"
----4. "Attends-moi "ti-gras""
----5. "Le train du nord"
4. "Up where we belong" [ ft. Paul Baillargeon ]
5. "Tellement j´ai d'amour pour toi"
6. "D´amour ou d´amitié"
7. "Over the rainbow"
8. Hommage à Michel Legrand [ ft. Paul Baillargeon ]:
----1. "Quand on s´aime"
----2. "Brule pas tes doights"
----3. "La valse du lilas"
----4. "Quand ca balance"
----5. "Les moulins de mon coeur"
9. "Carmen (L'amour est enfant de bohême)"
10. "What a feeling"
11. "Une colombe"
12. "Les chemins de ma maison"
13. "Finale (la première fois)"
...> Additional Notes
- "Amoureuse", "Mamy Blue", "Avec toi" and "C´est pour toi" were performed on several concerts.
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TOUR PROGRAMME
For this tour, was distributed a tour programme only in Quebec, Canada and totally in French. There were only few copies available.
...> About The Programme
This little book or tour programme was made with little budget and the interior is in black and white (exception made of a double-page color poster in the middle). It presents a text describing the tour, a biography that well covers the first 4 years of Celine´s career, pictures from Celine and some song lyrics. It contains 15 pages and its dimensions are 22,5 x 28 centimeter.
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BROCHURE
A concert brochure was made available to help promote the concerts Celine performed on May 24-26, 1985 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec in Quebec City, Canada. The brochure contains four pages with information about the concert, the songlist and the tour personnel.
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