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CONCERTS IN LONDON
On May 6, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the O2 Arena in London, UK with the "Taking Chances World Tour" in front of more than 20,000 people.The tickets for this concert were sold out in few minutes, so two new dates were added on the same day. On May 8, 2008 Celine performed at the O2 Arena again. During these concerts, Celine opens with "I drove all night", the yearning Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly composition that served Roy Orbison and Cyndi Lauper so well, and which was Celine´s last UK hit in 2003. She´s only revving up but, even if her 10-piece band, heavy on the cheesy synths, are never quite loud enough, Celine is soon at full throttle and making light work of power ballads "It´s all coming back to me now", from the Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf canon, and Heart´s "Alone". "It´s been way too long," she apologises to her British fans as if to make up for the fact that she chose to play a record-breaking Las Vegas residency for five years instead of touring the world. The drummer must have played "All by myself", Eric Carmen´s guilty pleasure Seventies song, hundreds of times but still manages to sound leaden. The conveyor belts on which she slides and glides become metaphors for the whole shebang, which also features an ill-advised soul medley and ends rather flatly with "Love can move mountains". Inevitably, the beached finale on the bank of the Thames is "My heart will go on".
CONCERT IN BIRMINGHAM
On May 10, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, UK with the "Taking Chances World Tour" in front of more than 12,000 people. This was the last concert of this tour that Celine gave in UK.
CONCERTS IN ANTWERP
On May 13, 2008 Celine Dion gave the first of three concerts in Antwerp, Belgium at the Sportpaleis Antwerp with the "Taking Chances World Tour". The next dates were on May 14 and May 16, 2008. During these concerts Celine performed the Francophone set list of the tour composed by "I drove all night", "J´irai où tu iras" in duet with Marc Langis, "The power of love", "Destin", "Taking chances", "S´il n´en restait qu´une", "Eyes on me", "Ziggy", "Dans un autre monde", "All by myself", "I´m alive", "Je sais pas", "My love", "Alone", the Queen medley with "We will rock you" and "The show must go on", "It´s a man´s man´s man´s world", "Love can move mountains", "River deep, mountain high", "My heart will go on" and "Pour que tu m´aimes encore". With these three concerts, the gross sales were $7,619,814 with 45,352 tickets sold.
CONCERT IN PARIS
On May 19, 2008 Celine Dion gave the first of six consecutive concerts at the Palais Omnisports De Paris-Bercy in Paris, France with the "Taking Chances Tour" and in front of about 17,000 people. Celine has presented to her French enthusiastic fans an absolute great show of superlatives on the center stage specially designed for the tour. An absolutely spectacular mega show accompanied by a visual feast of color, fashion, dance and surprises. Among the surprises of the evening were a new intro video included with footage from previous concerts. Celine performed "I drove all night", "J´irai où tu iras" in duet with Marc Langis, "The power of love", "Destin", "Taking chances", "S´il n´en restait qu´une", "Eyes on me", "Ziggy", "Dans un autre monde", "All by myself", "I´m alive", "Je sais pas", "My love", "Alone", the Queen medley with "We will rock you" and "The show must go on", "It´s a man´s man´s man´s world", "Love can move mountains", "River deep, mountain high", "My heart will go on" and "Pour que tu m´aimes encore". For the finale Celine wore a new and different outfit: a sexy black long dress. Celine performed again at the Palais Omnisports De Paris-Bercy on May 20, 21, 24, 25, and 27, 2008.
CONCERT IN DUBLIN
On May 30, 2008 Celine Dion performed at the Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland with the "Taking Chances Tour". Celine held court before a sea of 64,000 fans at Croke Park as she belted out the melody of hits that have made her a household name. It was ten years since she last played in Ireland and her legions of admirers were making the most of it as they travelled the length and breadth of the country for the sellout concert. She was supported by the opera world´s answer to the boyband, Il Divo, who took to the stage to rapturous applause. It was a fond return for Celine as it was in Dublin that she won the Eurovision Song Contest 20 years ago, a move which helped propel her career into the showbiz stratosphere. Tickets for the gig sold out in record time, although concert promoters MCD released a limited number of extra tickets a few days ago. A major crowd and traffic management plan was in place around the stadium for this, the first of four concerts to be held there over the coming weeks. Around 150 gardai policed the concert with another 400 stewards on duty. For the finale Celine used the same outfit she used on Manchester concert on May 2, 2008. For this show, it wasn´t used the center stage specially designed for the tour.
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