Start date 15 March 2011 Legs 21 | End date 3 June 2017 (current) No. of shows 336 | |
Location Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. Venue The Colosseum at Caesars Palace | ||
Celine is the second residency show by Canadian recording artist Celine Dion. The show is performed at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada beginning 15 March 2011, with an estimated 70 performances per year (which makes Celine the top money earner in Vegas, earning $476K a show). The show ranked 26th in Pollstar's "Top 50 Worldwide Tour (Mid-Year)", earning over 20 million dollars. Being seen by over 200,000 people, the show became the number one show in 2011 (for North America). The show has also made Dion the "most profitable music act in Las Vegas" since Elvis Presley.
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According to Pollstar end of year data (2011–13), the show has grossed $116.5 million, playing to 726,346. In March 2013, René Angélil announced that Celine had extended her residency contract to 2019. Due to a statement made by Celine and Caesars on 13 August 2014, all planned shows through 22 March 2015 had been cancelled due to husband, Rene Angelil's battle with throat cancer.
On 24 March 2015, it was announced that Celine would resume the residency on 27 August 2015 with new theatrical and musical elements. With her return to the Colosseum, it would also be the first time that Dion would have a majority of new band members. Around the same time as the announcement of Dion's return, her management released a statement that due to giving Dion a new look and feel, some of the singer's longtime touring musicians would no longer be part of her team including Claude "Mego" Lemay (Piano and Musical Director), André Coutu (Guitar), Yves Frulla (Keyboards) and Violinist Jean-Seb Carré (Violin, Guitar, and Background Vocals). On 14 January 2016, Dion cancelled the rest of the January performances due to her husband's recent death from cancer. Dion later resumed the residency on 23 February to a sold-out crowd garnering rave reviews. Céline celebrated her 1000th Las Vegas show (overall) on 8 October 2016.The show has gathered a total of more than one million spectators since its inception.
Background
On 15 March 2011, Dion began a three-year residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The new show features 31 musicians, consisting of a full orchestra and band. The show was Directed and Produced by Ken Ehrlich with the creative production from Celine's long time Lighting Designer Yves Aucoin and Sound Mixer/Designer, Denis Savage. Moment Factory will be producing the visual elements for the show (the company previously worked with Nine Inch Nails and DJ Tiesto). The show does not contain the dancers and Cirque du Soleil style choreography seen in Dion's previous show at the Colosseum, A New Day.
Dion announced her Vegas comeback during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Tickets went on sale that same week with extremely strong sales. The opening night show on 15 March was sold out within minutes. Rehearsals began on 17 January 2011, in Florida, and at the Colosseum starting on 17 February 2011 when Dion moved back to Vegas to begin preparations for the new show.
Additionally, it was reported in January 2011 that ticket sales for the show had already passed the $10 million mark, marking the fastest sale in the history of the venue. Caesars Palace President, Gary Selesner stated that the first lot of shows through 17 April will be completely sold out.
Broadcasts and recordings
Several concerts have been professionally filmed for both television and promotional use. The premiere concert on 15 March 2011 was filmed in its entirety. Excerpts from this concert were shown in the documentary "Celine: 3 Boys and a New Show", which was broadcast in early October 2011 on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and also various advertisements for the residency. The show of 17 April 2011 was also filmed in its entirety and excerpts of "All By Myself" and "My Heart Will Go On" were shown in "Celine: 3 Boys and a New Show". "Open Arms" from the concert of 26 March, was broadcast on American Broadcasting Company during the 2011 MDA Show of Strength telethon on 4 September 2011.
On 19 June 2011, "Because You Loved Me" was broadcast at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. The song was filmed 15 June.
On 15 January 2012, Celine held a special concert supporting "Play without Pain: Children's Sickle Cell Benefit." The entire concert was filmed and excerpts of "Open Arms" and "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" were shown in the behind the scenes video of the event. A 47-second excerpt of "My Heart Will Go On" from this concert was sold to various news outlets following Celine's sudden announcement that all future concerts would be cancelled in August 2014.
A live video of "My Heart Will Go On" was leaked on YouTube on 12 July 2012, and was officially released on 31 July. The footage in this video was filmed on 1, 2 and 3 July 2011.
Celine's performance of "Loved Me Back to Life" on 30 December 2013 was filmed and was broadcast on Entertainment Tonight Canada during their New Year's Eve special on 31 December.
Critical reception
The show received many positive reviews from music critics. USA Today wrote, "Dion isn't here to perform. She's here to kill it. Again… she isn't aiming for applause. She's looking for rapture." Las Vegas Sun wrote, "A magnificent masterpiece! Celine has single-handedly redefined class and elegance in onstage performances. Her voice is sent from the angels." The Montreal Gazette wrote, "Dion magnificent in new Las Vegas show. One hell of a show!...Jaw-dropping... Grandiose, yet intimate…Pure entertainment of the highest order. Worth every penny!" Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star headlined his article as, "Celine Dion's Vegas show more spectacular than ever," and claimed, "If her last show sold out for five years, this one should make it for ten."
Pollstar Data
At the end of 2011 Pollstar announced that Celine was number 10 on their Top 25 North American Tours gross of $41.2 million.
At the end of 2012 Pollstar announced that Celine was number 29 on their Top 50 Worldwide Tours with a gross of $36.5 million.
At the end of 2013 Pollstar announced that Celine was number 23 on their Top 25 North American Tours list with a gross of $38.8million and number 25 on their Worldwide Tours (this included the number from the Sans attendre Tour.)
Pollstar announced during their 2014 Mid Year Tour Gross's Celine was at number 7 on their Top 100 North American Tours List and number 28 on the Top 100 Worldwide tours list with a gross of $21.1 million.
Celine was 47 on the Top 100 American tour List and 77 on the Worldwide Grosses in 2015 with a total gross of $22.6 million, lower than previous years due to taking a year off to look after her sick husband.
Celine is 10 on the 2016 Year End Top 100 worldwide tours with a total gross of $85.5 million.She is 14 on the 2016 Year End Top 200 North American Tours with a total gross of $61.1 million.
Set list
Notes
- An interlude of "Declaration of Love" was cut at the beginning of 2012
- Song for You was performed during NYE 2012
- On select dates (winter runs 2011-2013, "Overjoyed" was replaced by "The Prayer" (virtual duet with Andrea Bocelli.)
- "Ne me quitte pas" was replaced by "S'il suffisait d'aimer" from 17 June 2014 until 4 July 2014 probably due to Rene's illness.
- On 29 July 2014 Dion did not perform any French song
- on 27 August 2015 the show premiered with a revamped setlist including various new songs
- "All The Way" (virtual duet with Frank Sinatra) was performed during the first three shows in August 2015 return.
- An interlude of "Unison" was performed until September 2, 2015
- "If I Can Dream" initially was performed live as a virtual duet with Elvis Presley, later performed as an interlude video performance (since 8 September 2015) to be finally cut in Spring 2016
- On 31 December 2015, Adele's hit, "Hello" was performed.
- "The Reason" was performed on March 9 and 11, 2016 as a tribute to Sir George Martin.
- Immortality was originally a duet version with a hologram version of Dion on stage and Celine going through the audience. Later on, the hologram was cut and Celine sang the whole song while walking down the aisle. From Spring 2016, she started singing the song standing on stage. According to fan posts on some message boards of the singer, Dion stopped going down the aisle due to audience members pushing, fighting, and racing up towards the aisle attacking Dion trying to get photographs with her.
- "Recovering", song written by Pink, premiered on 20 September 2016.