After seeing Céline’s interviews on NBC, CBC, and TVA, I can’t stop thinking about The seal’s lament in Alaska from Beau Dommage. Seeing to what extent Céline has dedicated herself to her career without counting, I want to sing to her: “It’s not worth it/To leave those you love/To go and spin/Balloons on your nose” .
For you to love me again
In the interview that Céline gave to Jean-Philippe Dion, it struck me that Céline still repeats the phrase that kills in show business: “The show must go on“. What if it was precisely this idea of continuing, no matter the cost, that had led Céline to the edge of the precipice?
For more than 20 years, Céline has taken care of others (her husband, her father, her mother, her children), but has not taken care of herself. She experienced losses, but did not have time to “absorb” these losses because the “show” had to go on.
Celine had a voice found in one in a million people. But here, she has a disease that is found in one person in a million.
Do you remember the 2010 documentary called Céline around the world?
Here is a summary of the description: “In Australia, due to the virus in her throat, she is speechless as she celebrates her 40th birthday… […] Then, back in North America, the diva again had voice problems.
In consultation with ENT specialists, she even discusses spasms with specialists. “My eyebrows are spasming, my ears are spasming.”
When you look at this, in retrospect, it gives you chills, because we know that the main symptom of stiff person syndrome is… spasms. As early as 2010, Céline spoke to us about this illness that was gnawing at her, but we may not have been able to read between the lines.
Finally, in another scene, Céline is speechless before going on stage. She decides to sing anyway. As he left the stage, someone said to him: “It’s done, anyway.” And Céline replies, looking devastated and worried: “I don’t know at what cost it was done.”
We will never know “at what cost” Céline pushed the machine. If she had listened to herself, if she had taken better care of herself, if she had slowed down the pace, if the “show” had NOT continued, what would have happened differently?
To faint
Don’t wonder why Céline chose to cover the song by Mouffe et Charlebois Ordinary. It was to tell us: “But this job is dangerous/The more we give, the more the world wants.”
In the documentary I am: Celine Dion, the star, without makeup, looking exhausted, says in a small voice: “I’m like an apple tree. People line up, come and take beautiful apples, I make them shine. They all leave with baskets of apples. But my branches are starting to bend under the weight, my branches are crooked. My branches are producing fewer apples, but there are still just as many people lining up. I don’t want them to wait in line if I don’t have apples for them.”
I’ve never heard a better metaphor for the hard job of being a star.
