As a multi-million selling pop icon, Céline Dion is easily one of the best recording artists that this world has ever seen. We can expect that such an outstanding career that has spanned for several decades-long comes with an impressive net worth, and the thing about mega-rich people is that they can purchase anything.
I guess what is missing in Céline Dion’s purchase list is health, but no one can purchase good health. The songbird has recently made rounds on the internet with her fans criticizing her body for apparently looking too thin. Usually, celebrities tend to ignore such criticism, but the ones directed towards her were particularly hurtful, and she caved.
1. Body Shaming
With the anonymity that the internet provides, people have taken on Dion’s social media channels to post harsh comments. Anyone would find it challenging to keep their calm when they are the center of such comments as “Lost too much weight, looks like a skeleton,” or “Eat something please.” These remarks put together qualify as downright cyberbullying.
2. Health Problems
Most of the harsh comments made on her social media accounts are from people who did not see Dion rise in the competitive world of music. Back then, she was as healthy as anyone could be. As old age kicked in, she began experiencing health problems, some of which necessitated surgery.
3. Disappointment
Anyone would feel betrayed by such comments after filling the hearts and minds of people worldwide with sweet melodies, which we can all agree took some appreciable amount of energy over the years to churn out. Dion blatantly expressed her disappointment with the inappropriate comments directed towards her weight.
4. Looks Matter in the Show Business
Celine Dion came to the limelight when she was just a teenager and became exposed to the appearance-demanding world of music. Even with such a gorgeous face and a splendid figure, Dion would constantly encounter criticism regarding her appearance. This was the case despite winning the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.
5. Rising to Fame
It became apparent from an early age that Dion was destined to be an international star. Her performance of “Ne partez pas sans moi” was so captivating that it earned her one of the most coveted global awards in music. Noticing this, her manager René Angélil decided that she would have to change her image first for her to rise to actual international fame and maintain her status as a global icon.
6. Transforming her Image
Responding to her manager’s request, young Celine Dion made a few transformations on her image, including straightening her teeth. People seemed to have a problem with her teeth, including magazines that market to her native Quebec people. She was even labeled “Canine Dion” at one time. Not all would agree, but her move to get her teeth straightened was feasible.
7. Surgery and Learning English
To make the teeth straightening process complete, Dion had to undergo mouth surgery. She completed this with a new haircut and a complete transformation of her style. She was forced to quit singing in her native Quebec and embrace the English dialect. After 18 months, she emerged as a completely transformed person, ready to take on the world of fame.
8. Baby Steps
Celine Dion’s first album in English mainly obtained positive reviews. It was released in the 1990s and was titled “Unison.” A year after this, she collaborated with Peabo Bryson and released the song title for the hit movie Beauty and the Beast. That track solidified her name in the global entertainment scene, and there was no looking back after that.
9. Continued Success and Marriage
After Beauty and the Beast, she followed her steadily growing stream of success with the release of her second album. This album sold remarkably well and particularly in the United States, where it went double platinum. She attributed a significant chunk of her success to her manager, René Angélil, who later got married in 1994 in a high-profile wedding.
10. “My Heart Will Go O
It is the dream of every artist to have their voice be heard across different continents and mainly when the melodies and the lines are so strong that they could easily make you cry. This was the case for Celine Dion when she bragged a deal with the creators of the internationally acclaimed film “Titanic” to release the soundtrack for the movie.
11. First Grammy Award
It is safe to say that the track “My Heart Will Go On” was the defining music of her career. This song topped charts in different parts of the world and won her two Grammy awards in one night, one for Record of the Year and the other one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
12. A Unique Sense of Fashion
As international fame kicked in, Celine Dion established a bold sense of fashion which she rocked without apology to red carpet events. She began donning unusual ensembles and daring dresses that made her just as exciting and captivating as her hits. One can recall her appearance at the 1993 Grammy Awards, where she wore a sheer black outfit that revealed her underwear.
13. Continued Success
She continued releasing hit songs which she accumulated into a whopping 13 albums before the beginning of the 2000s. She had enjoyed resounding success by this time, and so she decided to take periodic breaks in her music career. Dion opted to concentrate more on her husband and her personal life.
14. Cancer Kicks In
Celine Dion had the unfortunate ordeal of watching her husband battle cancer. This is one of the biggest tragedies that she has ever suffered, and it took a toll on her music career. Things started looking up for her in 2001 when she welcomed her first child. She named her after him after her husband.
15. Maturity
In 2002 Celine Dion interviewed VH1, where she stated that becoming a mother comes with a great sense of responsibility and maturity. She added that she does not see herself in the same light as before giving birth to her child. Dion appeared to have embraced a more positive attitude.
16. Fashion Still Prevails
At this point, her fans were expecting that she would make a comeback into the music world and possibly with a different perception. Instead, Dion decided to concentrate more on her bold sense of fashion. She wore a cut-out gown that revealed her hips to the 2003 Billboard Music Awards.
17. Fertility Treatments
As she approached 40, Dion needed to embark on increased fertility treatment stating that this was necessary for her. She told People in 2005 that she had a frozen embryo in New York waiting to be brought into the world as her second child. She was wrong about this as it eventually turned out to be twins: Nelson and Eddy.
18. Rags to Riches
Dion was interviewed with “Woman’s Weekly,” where she lamented about her life growing up. Her parents did not have much. She recalls passing down clothes from one sibling to the next to save on the cost of buying new ones. She was the youngest of 14 siblings, so you can guess what this meant for her dressing code.
19. I Wish I Looked Better
Anyone who has experienced it will tell you that growing up in a poverty-stricken home is not such a lovely thing. Dion, for instance, was forced to commute to and from school at least four times each day while wearing worn-out snowstorms. She also stated that she had at one time felt uncomfortable over her looks.
20. Insecurities
Dion stated that she used to feel awkward and insecure growing up because she thought her teeth didn’t look normal. She recalls beating herself up for not looking or feeling her best. Her insecurities compelled her to avoid meeting new people and making friends at school. She felt most comfortable at home.
21. Activism
Having experienced bullying on a personal level, Celine Dion became an activist against bullying. She demonstrated her efforts and concerns when she spoke in a podcast for the charity foundation, Jasmin Roy. Jasmin Roy is a charity foundation that accentuates its focus on the people of Quebec.
22. Tragedy Kicks In
Even as an international celebrity and record-breaking artist, the complexities of life will always prevail. In 2016, Dion lost her husband to cancer-related complications. As if this was not enough, she lost her brother barely 48 hours to the same disease. Now you can imagine the extent of emotional damage that Dion experienced having to lose two loved ones on the same day.
23. Staying Strong
Dion had no choice but to stay strong for her children. She told Page Six that she was trying as much as possible to carry on and give her three children the life that her husband would have wanted for them. She stated that she had no option but to stand firm and tall. Maybe if the critics had read this part of her life, they would be less willing to rebuke her weight loss.
24. Back into Fashion
Following her losses and her advancing age, the least people expected from Dion was for her to return to the fashion world. However, the thing about her is that she has always had a way of surprising her fans when they least expect it. She told the Australian magazine that she was going back into fashion and nothing would stop her.
25. Célinununu
It became apparent in 2018 that Dion was not joking about her quest for fashion. She made a significant move by launching Célinununu, a gender-neutral clothing line targeting children. Its underlying goal is to liberate children from the conventional roles of boys and girls and encourage them to set their path.
26. Image Change
The thing about establishing a clothing line is that it puts you out there in public, much like a celebrity. People will start paying attention to your public and personal image. This is exactly what happened to Dion. Criticism concerning her appearance begun when she posted photos of herself in 2019 on her Instagram page.
27. You Look Different
After posting her photos, Dion encountered harsh criticism, with one of the critics posing, “Goodness, what happened to you, Celine??!?” Another person commented that she looked starved. The worst one of all was the one that blatantly told the legendary singer that she looked too skinny and needed to put on a few pounds.
28. Genuine Concerns
Not all the comments were ill-cited, as a few people demonstrated their genuine concern over the singer’s sudden change in appearance. One of them politely asked the singer to gain a little weight as she was starting to look unhealthy. Turns out this individual is a big fan of Dion’s, and he/she wanted the best for her.
29. Being the Face of L’Oreal Paris
Some comments were extremely harsh and critical. One of them thought that Dion had aged 20 years from her visible hanging skin. Another individual seemed to have a problem with L’Oreal Paris’ marketing strategy for featuring Celine Dion’s face in their annual publication. This individual stated that Dion looked like she has an eating disorder.
30. Hitting Back
Celine Dion has never been the kind to go down without a fight. At the end of 2019, she hit back at the people who had criticized her appearance. She stated that she was not concerned about pleasing people who felt that she didn’t meet their perception of how her body is supposed to look.
31. Still on Her Case
Even after hitting back at her critics, Dion was still the subject of body shaming whenever she posted a new picture of herself on Instagram. One notable comment read, “I’m in my mid-60s., and you have more wrinkles than I do.” One wonders what kind of person in their mid-60s takes time to body shame a celebrity.
32. Gaining Self-Confidence
All the cyberbullying was essentially sending Dion back in time when she was a teenage girl. She was bullied back then because of the shape of her teeth, and several decades later, she is still being bullied, only this time, the focus was on her weight. In an interview with Deborah Roberts of ABC, she discussed how she overcame the bullying and gained self-confidence.
33. Daunting Dion’s Self-esteem
Dion made a new revelation to ABC concerning her life as a teenage girl. At the start of this post, we talked about how she felt uncomfortable about her teeth to the point that she had to undergo surgery to straighten them. In her April 2019 interview, she revealed that part of her insecurity emanated from her skinny figure.
34. Feeling in Charge
Celine Dion stated that she has never felt fully in control for most of her life, particularly when it comes to her appearance. Dion believes that having control of one’s appearance gives them confidence and strength. It’s a good thing that she decides to embrace a positive attitude despite all the harsh critics.
35. Reflecting on Her Late Husband
Still, in the interview, Dion mentioned how her husband’s belief in her skills and strength encourages her daily. She stated that she owes it to her husband to live her life with utmost confidence and self-esteem because it was upon these values that he was able to raise her from a simple village girl in Canada to an international superstar.
36. Ballet
If you have never loved something so much that you were willing to give up a part of yourself to pursue it, then maybe you should send Dion a message. Hope she replies! You’d be surprised to learn that her weight loss is majorly in response to her newly found love of ballet.
37. Relentless Dion
Celine Dion confessed that although she loves ballet dancing, she finds it difficult at times. She describes her first experience in ballet as being “so hard.” If there is something anyone can learn from Dion’s personal and public life is that she is extremely relentless. Despite its complex nature, she still attends ballet four times a week.
38. Persistent Bullyin
Her critics were still on her case despite having explained the reason for her weight loss. She still receives a lot of messages on her Instagram account criticizing her body. One time, she posted a picture of herself getting ready for the Met Gala and then received critical comments, with one of them calling her a ‘skeleton.’
39. Defending Dion
Some fans were not happy about people criticizing her appearance. One of her die-hards took to social media and said that Dion’s voice would remain unchanged despite her weight loss. This individual went further to question the critics’ rationale for questioning Dion’s image by asking, “How would you feel if someone comments on your post and judges you for any reason?”
40. Underlying Truth
Despite all the negative comments directed towards her appearance, the only person who truly knows what’s happening is Dion. She states that she has never been better in her life and is very happy with her current state. Maybe it’s time that people take her at her word.
