-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCERT IN PALM BEACH
On April 3, 1999 Celine Dion gave a private concert at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, USA. During her performance, Celine shows the strain of her husband and manager Rene Angelil´s cancer treatment. She performed some of her greatest ballads wearing the same costumes of the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". Although the concert was not part of the tour.
CONCERT IN HOUSTON
On April 11, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Compaq Center in Houston, USA in front of more than 16,000 people. This concert was part of the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". According to Joey Guerra from The Houston Chronicle, Celine wouldn´t have to do much to keep an audience entertained. She has a substantial repertoire of appealing love songs, and her big-screen connection with a certain sunken ship has made her one of the best-selling female artists of all time. One sigh, one sultry look, one clenched fist in the air would be enough to satisfy fans. But Celine is no ordinary diva. For almost two hours the concert at Compaq Center, the irrepressible entertainer talked, joked and danced amid the music. "I love to sing, but I love to talk, too, man", Celine said to the sold-out crowd. Celine laced the show with funny anecdotes and conversational chatter, and it often seemed more like she was shooting the breeze with friends than commanding a stage in front of ecstatic fans. She would scrunch her face up when introducing a song with a corny joke, and she would point to faces in the crowd when stressing a point. It all came across as accessible and charming. Celine connects just as skillfully with the often dramatic nature of her music. Dressed in an elegant gray gown, she rose from the bottom of a heart-shaped stage to sing "Let´s talk about love", the title track off her latest English album. Halfway through the song, Celine was joined onstage by members of the Houston Children´s Chorus, who formed a circle around the singer as she led them through the words. Things kicked into high gear with "Declaration of love", an uplifting number that was cue for Celine to remove a skirt covering a pair of glittering pants and begin to shimmy around the stage. The in-the-round setting proved perfect for Celine´s infectious energy, and she played to every side of the arena throughout the evening´s fast-paced numbers. The reggae-tinged "Treat her like a lady" found her trading slick moves and high-fives with a pair of energetic backup singers. Between songs, a number of fans rushed the stage with gifts ranging from flowers and teddy bears to golf balls, which Celine seemed to especially enjoy. She said she picked up golf during a trip to Hawaii. Celine was also showered with get-well cards and wishes for her husband and manager, Rene Angelil, who was recently diagnosed with a form of skin cancer. "Rene´s doing fine", Celine said. "Your support means everything to us". Instead of dwelling on her personal troubles, however, she channeled her passion into her songs. She earned a standing ovation for a show-stopping rendition of "The power of love", and her delivery was exquisite on "S´il suffisait d´aimer", the restrained title track off her latest French album. Celine showed her real strength during "The reason", a swelling power ballad; "It´s all coming back to me now", an epic tale of lost love; and "To love you more", a lush, romantic moment. They proved a potent trio of flawless pop drama and moved a number of fans to tears. Celine is not afraid to follow her music gloriously over the top. Often, she would stand center stage, close her eyes and thrust her head back furiously, inciting screams and cheers from the crowd. The show´s extravagant trappings were pared down during a section of the show dedicated to Celine´s favorite songs by other artists, including Eric Clapton, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra. The best was a hushed, nuanced version of Roberta Flack´s "The first time ever I saw your face". Celine shared vocals with Barbra Streisand, via video, for the diva-duet "Tell him". She employed similar tactics for "Immortality", a collaboration with the Bee Gees, after heating things up during a disco segment that found her in a white suit boogieing under a glitterball to "Stayin´ alive" and "You should be dancin´". Every element was in place when Celine´s "Titanic" love theme, "My heart will go on", docked onstage during the evening´s only encore. Celine stood onstage in a flowing red dress as a replica of the ship´s rail appeared and movie scenes flashed on the video screen. The music swelled, the lights flashed, and Celine raced to the edge of the rail, just in time to hit her high note. It probably shouldn´t have worked, but Celine made it seem completely spontaneous and genuinely exciting. The song "To love you more" was performed with Roddy Chiong on the violin and not with Taro Hakase as in other concerts (Roddy Chiong was part of Shania Twain´s band). Many shows after March 1999 that were originally announced, were cancelled due to Rene Angelil´s sickness (Celine´s husband and manager). Some of them were postponed until later in the year but those that were cancelled completely included Dublin, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Gothumberg, Vienna, Barcelona, Marseille, Lyon, Cologne and Lisbon.
CONCERT IN AMSTERDAM
On June 14, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands in front of more than 60,000 people with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". Celine began the European leg of this tour on June 14, 1999 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Those fans with Celine tickets, saw German singer Xavier Naidoo, English rock group Mike and the Mechanics and Irish folk-rockers the Corrs open for Celine on various tour dates. The European leg of the tour saw Celine performing two-night stands in both Paris, France and London, England. On the Amsterdam concert, there were some changes on costumes and on the set list of the tour. Celine opened the concert wearing a white kimono that she took off just after the first song, to continue singing with a white and silver blouse and white pants (same outfit she would use during the rest of the tour). For the finale, on the songs "My heart will go on" and "Pour que tu m´aimes encore", Celine wore a silver ballgown with a silver jacket on top of it. There were only two concerts where she wore the silver ballgown outfit. One of them was in Amsterdam, and the other was in Atlantic City, USA. This concert drew a record number of visitors, 61,083 people. According to a fan who attended the show, "It was so amazing. The way she came up and her dresses were so beautiful, and she was so incredible".
CONCERT IN BRUSSELS
On June 16, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Stade Roi Baudouin (also known as the King Baudouin Stadium) in Brussels, Belgium with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour" in front of more than 50,000 people. Shortly before the concert, Celine wanted to receive about ten children suffering from Mucoviscidosis. They were photographed with Celine on bakstage. Celine also received an special award. According to an article published on the Le Soir (a Berliner Format Belgian newspaper), Celine´s music delighted the King Baudouin Stadium with her concert. It was fine, it was "suffisait d´aimer" (enough to love). Managed by a veteran of the profession, Celine could not miss her appointment with an audience in Brussels that she had not seen for two years. And indeed, when the last notes of "My heart will go on", she can calmly consider returning one day. It´s 21:45 p.m. when Celine finally takes possession of the stage set up square in the middle of the site. Overcome the four giant screens and will be seen from every angle, except for press photographers, confined to one side while their "target" proves the most moving. Just like Michael Jackson in his heyday, it is by an elevator that Celine rises in the center of a heart carved on the boards. The white veils she wears and the children´s choir who joins her on the first song of the night "Let´s talk about love", make her appear as an angel. The height of emotion on that night is achieved when Celine says: "Rene is well!". Rene Angelil, husband and manager, has just been hospitalized for cancer and is recovering in the house the couple owns in Florida, USA. The show also reveals a flawless professionalism. The game scene is no longer too much secrecy for the interpreter of "S´il suffisait d´aimer". Simple as a whole, the show proves effective, however duets with a singer and violinist with a small medley of old memories including "Ziggy" to refrain repeated by the public, nothing is missing. Celine then plunges back in the seventies and the tubes that are the Bee Gees "Staying alive" and "You should Be dancing".
CONCERT IN PARIS
On June 19, 1999 Celine Dion performed at the Stade De France in Saint-Denis, France (a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris) in front of about 90,000 people, with the "Let´s Talk About Love Tour". According to journalist Hélène Hazéra from Agence France-Presse (AFP), on this concert, the scene is in the medium of a stage, a heart under a capped quadrilateral of a dome. Celine arrives decked out in an embroidered white kimono of flowers, like Princess Leila from "Star Wars". That evening at the Stade De France, everyone thus had already known about the troubles of health of Rene Angelil. The cancer of her husband has not affected the performance of Celine, who had never given concert in such a great stage. With its 500,000 tons of concrete, the Stade De France, poised like a flying saucer to the accesses of Paris, makes ten million times the weight of the singer. Nearly 85,000 people took their seats on the concert. They will also be as numerous this evening. Even before Celine starts her first song ("Let´s talk about love", surrounded by a chorus of children), part of the public had already risen. The star, draped in white, appeared on a platform coming up from beneath the immense stage. Then, Celine betrays in a "Good evening, Paris" the syndrome of the provincial-made singer. A multicoloured children´s choral group gathered around her, Celine takes off her kimono to show herself in white combination-trousers. The tiny silhouette is well-behaved but, on the giant screens, the smile is carnivorous. Sometimes, wiring for sound, the orchestration or the abused English pseudo-accent scrambles the text. "That pleases me so much to see you. It´s extraordinary! It´s an extraordinary stage. If you were here last year, I understand that you won" (ovation); "I´d like to say to you... that Rene is well" (ovation); "Sure it´s difficult to be so far from him, thank you for your prayers and your energy which help so very much. This wave of love is felt as far away as Florida; this evening, he sees the show, he´s with you", says Celine. One expects to see Rene, her manager and husband, on the screen, and then not. During the show, Celine performed some of her great American successes, of which "My heart will go on" is one, standing at the prow of a ship. But she especially interpreted the songs written for her by Jean-Jacques Goldman, including one with him in a duet ("J´irai où tu iras"). After having embraced her, discrete Goldman paid homage to the Québécoise. "We are happy that you could come", he said, before starting for her, as capella and accompanied by the public, the refrain from "S´il suffisait d´aimer". Celine then sang it in entirety. A crescent of the moon lit a cloudless sky then. The public shivered. And that had nothing to do withthe temperature, which had started to get chilly. Celine sang as if it were her last time on stage. The huge venue was frightening first of all, but it became very small. She made it her home. The complete repertory of the concert included: "Let´s talk about love"; "Dans un autre monde"; "Je sais pas"; "The reason"; "Je crois toi"; "To love you more" (with Taro Hakase on violin); "Treat her like a lady" (in duet with Diana King, who appeared on a big screen); "Terre", "J´irai où tu iras" (in duet with Jean-Jacques Goldman); "S´il suffisait d´aimer"; "On ne change pas"; "I´m your angel" (in duet with the backing vocals Barnev Valsaint); "The power of love"; a medley acoustique with the songs "Ce n´était qu´un rêve", "D´amour ou d´amitié", "Mon ami m´a quittée", "L´amour existe encore" and "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" (with all the band seated in center of the stage); "Love can move mountains"; "Stayin' Alive"; "You should be dancing"; "Pour que tu m´aimes encore"; and "My heart will go on". Celine performed again at the Stade De France on June 20, 1999. The concerts at the Stade De France were recorded for a CD/DVD package. The performances were released under the title "Au Cœur Du Stade" (meaning "At the heart of the stadium"). The package were released separately with DVD following the CD release. The CD contains an abbreviated version of the concert, primarily showcasing her French-language songs. A live video of "Dans un autre monde" was used to promote both the CD and DVD packages.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
