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CONCERT IN SAN FRANCISCO
On March 27, 1997 Celine Dion performed at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, USA with the "Falling Into You Tour" in front of about 7,000 people. Philip Elwood, from the San Francisco Chronicle (a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area) wrote "The amazingly popular singer Celine´s lengthy performance before an adoring capacity crowd at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Thursday night featured fewer love songs than one might have expected and a substantial quantity of dance and rock numbers that were often overdrawn". According to him, for Celine, a few things are certain, right from a concert´s start. One is that her fans, mostly thirtyish, are ecstatic from the first sight of their singing goddess to the last note from her lips, which on this concert was at the end of a brief reprise of her super-hit, "Because you loved me", a sing-along encore. Another certainty concerning Celine is that she has a strong voice and lots of lung capacity. When she finally quieted the crowd at the show´s beginning, she graciously accepted - over the footlights - a dozen floral bouquets and all manner of gifts, and talked a good deal ( "I like to talk as much as I like to sing", she said, and the audience noticed), then roared into "The power of love", followed by "River deep, mountain high". Dressed in a tight, shiny, beige strapless pants suit and wearing a loose gold lame jacket, Celine first came into the spotlight high at the top of a long ramp, down which she descended while singing. Her instrumental sextet and trio of backup singers were scattered on various levels on either side of the ramp. Huge video screens and cylindrical banks of speakers flanked the wide stage. Overall, it was a superbly produced show, audially and visually, with beautiful stage lighting, laser beams in abundance, and lots of crisply edited stuff on the screens. Celine mixed her musical bag throughout the show, shifting, for instance, from the torchy moan, "Seduces me" to Eric Carmen´s (and Sergei Rachmaninoff´s) anthem-like "All by myself" with apparent ease. At another point she sang the "Beauty and the beast" theme, following it with a Vegas-revue-styled "Declaration of love". She goes through a lot of yell-leaders´ gymnastics during her renditions. At one point while lying on her back with her head hanging over a platform edge (singing all the while) her power pack fell off. She wiggled to her feet laughing, carrying the power pack, continued the song and, with gleeful cheers from the crowd, finished off "It´s all coming back to me now" while an assistant replaced the black box. But who else but Celine would deliver a sanctimonious speech prior to the singing, with a gospel choir, of the 1996 Olympics song, "The power of the dream", and then dive into "Twist and shout", a la Mick Jagger - grimaces and all?. The concert began with a 25-minute set of down-home delta blues, performed by the fine young singer-guitarist Keb Mo'. Strange things happen in concert packaging.
VH1 HONORS CONCERT
On April 10, 1997 Celine Dion took part at the 4th annual VH1 Honors Concert, which benefits music education programs in public schools across America through VH1´s Save the Music initiative. The concert took place at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, USA and it was aired on VH1 channel in USA. The show offered a strong lineup of chart-toppers past (Wonder, James Taylor, Steve Winwood) and present (Sheryl Crow, the Wallflowers) and one eternal mystery (the artist still known to everyone but him, his family and staff as Prince). Presenters ranging from Alice Cooper to Richard Dreyfuss pleaded the case for music education as an essential element of a healthy society. Actually, Celine´s appearance was through a pre-recorded video of the performance of the N° 1 hit in Japan "To love you more" with the young violinist Trisha Lee at the Universal Amphitheatre on March 25, 1997 (one of the concerts of the "Falling Into You Tour"). This VH1 Honors Concert raised $150,000 for VH1´s Save the Music program, which collects instruments to donate to schools and to expand music education.
CONCERT IN NEW YORK
On April 12, 1997 Celine Dion performed at the Madison Square Garden in New York, USA with the "Falling Into You Tour" and in front of about 20,000 people. During the show, Celine used the golden outfit she also used during the concert on March 14, 1997 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, USA. Although, the first concert of Celine at the Madison Square Garden was on past July 29, 1996 with the same tour.
CONCERT IN MONTREAL
On May 5, 1997 Celine Dion performed at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Canada USA with the "Falling Into You Tour". This was the first of a serie of four concerts at the Molson Centre with this tour. Celine performed again on May 6, 11 and 12, 1997. Although, Celine already performed several times at the Molson Centre with this tour the year before. According to some fans who attended this show, it started at 20:00. Celine performed with the white outfit of the tour.
T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION GALA
On May 8, 1997 Celine Dion performed at the 22nd Annual T.J. Martell Foundation Gala, a benefit event which took place in New York, USA. Celine performed in honour of David Glew, Chairman of the Epic Records Group and recipient of the 1997 T.J. Martell Foundation´s Humanitarian of the Year award. The T.J. Martell Foundation is the leading charity of the music industry, raising funds for cutting edge research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS. Laboratories are located in New York, USA at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center; in Los Angeles, USA at the Neil Bogart Memorial Laboratories at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles; and in Nashville, USA at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt Cancer Center. During the past twenty-one years, the foundation has raised more than $100 million to fund innovative research, giving hope to thousands of people affected by leukemia, cancer and AIDS. Research breakthroughs include one of the first effective combination treatments for pediatric AIDS and the development of new treatments for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer through novel gene therapy approaches. Sony Music Entertainment and DreamMedia, along with the entire music and entertainment industry, have joined forces to raise money for the T.J. Martell Foundation with an extensive on-line auction. The cyberspace event featured a variety of items including: music memorabilia from AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Candlebox, Eric Clapton, Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Metallica, Alanis Morrisette, Rush, Pearl Jam, Elvis Presley, and Van Halen; a baby grand piano used by Garth Brooks in "The red strokes" video; items from "E.R.", "Friends", "Mad About You", "Seinfeld" and "Baywatch"; guitar lessons with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai; autographed guitars from Silverchair, Chet Atkins, and Toad The Wet Sprocket; sports-related items autographed by Shaquille O´Neal, Mike Piazza, and Emmit Smith; and much more. This was Celine´s first internet broadcast live performance. The performance began at 10:20 p.m. and lasted 45 minutes. Celine´s song list featured: "The power of love", "River deep mountain high", "All by myself", "It´s all coming back to me now", "Love can move mountains" and "Because you love me". Over $8 million was raised in this year´s T.J. Martell Foundation fundraiser. Celine was accompanied by her manager and husband, Rene Angelil. Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola also took part on this benefit event.
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