As the first French-Canadian performer to achieve superstar status throughout North America, the meteoric rise of Celine Dion was among the biggest international success stories of the 1990s; adored by fans for her dynamic vocal prowess, her polished, melodramatic brand of adult-contemporary pop remained a fixture at the top of the charts throughout the decade. Born March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion was the youngest of 14 children; her parents operated a small club, and on weekends the entire family would regularly convene there to perform folk music. At the age of 12, she, her mother and one of her brothers assembled a demo tape which found its way to the offices of local pop manager and promoter Rene Angelil, who was so taken with the young girl's voice that he mortgaged his home to finance her debut recording, 1981's La voix du Bon Dieu. (Despite their 26-year age difference, Dion and Angelil were later married in 1994.)

Quickly Dion began to earn global renown, and with 1983's Les chemins de ma maison, she became the first Canadian performer ever to score a gold record in France. As the decade progressed, she became a phenomenon throughout French-speaking Canada, scoring a series of platinum records; in 1987, she signed with Sony Canada, making the leap to the label with the LP Incognito, and a year later won the famed Eurovision Song Contest. Finally, in 1990, Dion issued Unison, her English-language debut (coming just a year after learning the language); the album produced a number of hits, among them "(If There Was) Any Other Way," "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" and "Have a Heart." However, her true commercial breakthrough was the title track to the 1991 Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, a duet with Peabo Bryson; the single topped the U.S. pop charts, and also scored an Academy Award.

1992's Celine Dion was a mammoth success, notching four major hits -- "Love Can Move Mountains," "If You Asked Me To," "Water From the Moon" and "Did You Give Enough Love." The follow-up, 1993's The Colour of My Love, was no less popular, launching smashes like "When I Fall In Love," "The Power of Love" and "Think Twice." In 1994, Dion issued a live album, A L'Olympia, and a year later returned to her French roots with D'eux; the legendary producer Phil Spector then agreed to come out of retirement to work with her, but he exited their sessions in anger over her perceived "commitment to mediocrity." Instead, Dion's next single, "Because You Loved Me" -- the theme to the 1996 film Up Close and Personal -- became her biggest hit yet, as well as the best-selling adult contemporary hit of all time; additionally, the accompanying album, Falling Into You, was another huge success. In 1997, she released Let's Talk About Love, and also scored big with "My Heart Will Go On," the love theme to the movie Titanic. Dion's fourth French language LP, S'il Suffisait d'aimer, followed a year later.