Celine Dion was born Celine Marie Claudette Dion on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada. She is the youngest of fourteen children born to Adhemar Dion and Therčse Tanguay, both of French Canadian descent. At age twelve, Dion collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to compose her first song, "Ce n’etait qu’un ręve" ("It Was Only a Dream"). Her brother Michel Dondalinger Dion sent the recording to music manager Rene Angelil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album. Angelil was moved to tears by Dion’s voice, and decided to make her a star. He mortgaged his home to fund her first record which was entitled La voix du bon Dieu. It was released in Canada in 1981.It became a local number-one record and made Celine Dion an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician’s award for Top Performer as well as the gold medal for Best Song. She then went on to learn English and two years later released Unison. Worldwide sales of Unison have reached 3.5 million copies. Celine Dion has since sold over 200 million albums worldwide.
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