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CONCERT IN BERLIN
On October 28, 1996 Celine Dion performed at the ICC Berlin in Berlin, Germany with the "Falling Into You Tour". According to a review published on a German newspaper, "Canada´s most successful export item 28 years old, very atractive and blessed with a tremendous tone quality. Celine Dion is undoubtely one of the best pop singers of her generation. She is the Barbra Streisand of the 90´s. The Canadian is a proffesional in every respect. She shines in her broad repertoire which extends from a sensitive ballad, French chansons to excessive Rock´n Roll. Her irrepressible joy of life never seems artificial. One simply believed that she identifies herself 100% with the charm acters of her songs".
CONCERT IN MILAN
On October 30, 1996 Celine Dion performed at the Fila Forum in Milan, Italy with the "Falling Into You Tour". The performance of "All by myself" was later shown on TV.
CONCERT IN ZURICH
On November 3, 1996 Celine Dion performed at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland with the "Falling Into You Tour", in front of about 13,000 people. The following day Celine performed at the Hallenstadion again. According to a review published on the newspaper Tagblatt der Stadt Zurich, "Pop Diva Celine Dion held thousands of people spellbound. An elf-like creature with legs like a gazelle, a dream vision. For a concert by Celine it is best to carry, aside from your entrance ticket also a handkerchief for tears of joy. Celine is the ambassador of love and 12,000 Swiss were very willing to be seduced by her". The Zurich concert was recorded for a promo release as a live CD. Limited copies of this CD were made.
CONCERT IN LONDON
On November 16, 1996 Celine Dion performed at the Wembley Arena in London, United Kingdom with the "Falling Into You Tour", in front of about 14,000 people. The following day Celine performed at the Wembley Arena again. The famous Irish folk rock/pop The Corrs did the opening act for these concerts. According to Emma Forrest from The Independent (a British national morning newspaper), during these concerts, Celine was doing her Barbra Streisand thang, chatting with the piano player between numbers and interacting with the audience, because "it´s not my show, it´s our show", she said. The couples and families in the audience were having the time of their lives. They watched in hushed reverence, occasionally venturing to the lip of the stage to give her flowers. "For me?", she gasps, every time, tugging at her white, backless jumpsuit. According to a fan who attended the show, Celine chose to open the UK leg of her "Falling Into You Tour" with the smash hit power ballad, "The power of love". Celine´s performance was flawless right down to the very last note. She proved to her audience the strength and purity of her golden voice when she took the last chorus of the song at high pitch, leaving her audience in awe and provoking the first of many standing ovations. It´s the sign of real solid talent when an artist can capture the audience with the first song, even when the first song is a love song. After taking a bow and soaking up the huge applause that was ringing around the entire arena, Celine, still flabbergasted by the crowd´s reaction, took a moment to talk to them as only Celine can in her casual and humouristic manner. "Wow, thank you so much. That´s the way we like it, so how you doin´? You´re lookin´ good, yeah you are. You know we´re really glad to be here with you tonight. We were here about a year ago... about this time, right?. I don´t know if you remember but there are some rules that we have when we go on tour... this isn´t just my show... oh, non, non, non, this isn´t just the band´s show here on stage, this is all of our show tonight", Celine said to the audience. Celine skipped round to pick up her microphone and placed it in the stand, centre stage. She then performed the title track to her album and tour, "Falling into you". Celine wondered the crowd with her mesmerizing dance moves, flailing her arms and swinging her hips to the tribal drum beat of the song. At one point she moved over to the stage set´s lamp post. The stage is complicated with TV screens littered across the back, a ramp in the middle and stairs at either side. The lighting was magnificent, changing from the soft and sensual deep blues and purples to bright yellows, greens and reds, depending on the mood and tempo of the song. The next song was more upbeat, Celine´s version of "River deep, mountain high", a definite improvement on the original. She sang the song with such tremendous strength, showing off the versatility of her voice. This song was an obvious crowd favourite and one that Celine clearly enjoyed performing herself. Celine then introduced "Seduces me" as one of her favourites from the "Falling Into You" album. She sat down on the stairs, by the lamp post for much of the song. The interpretation of the song was very heartfelt, as Celine put herself in the role of the person in the song, acting it out from the start to the finish. One felt that she was trying to "seduce" the crowd with the song, her voice and the sensual atmosphere that she had created. While the crowd launched into applause, Celine launched straight into, "All by myself", a song that requires a superior vocal stamina that only Celine can pull off. Swirling white lights against purple background lighting helped to animate the song to its maximum. Celine´s live performance of the song is truly special, as she glides her voice with power and ease up to the high notes which she sustains at pitch. But Celine was to pull out all the stops when she stunned her audience by taking the final chorus up a key and singing it completely accapella. The band joined in with her for the end of the song which she returned to centre stage to sing, changing the finale and modelling her voice gracefully on the final sustain. The crowd went wild and Celine received yet another standing ovation. There was a look of sheer joy on her face as she commented, "I´m glad I recorded the song". Celine then picked up numerous bouquets of flowers and teddy bears and walked over to place them on the piano. There she chatted to Claude "Mego" Lemay, her pianist and commenced her second speech of the evening. "Now Mego I know you wanna play your music and everything but I just wanna have a chat with my audience... go on just give me a few seconds... please, please... you´re the best", as she turns to the audience. "You already know how I love to sing, well I love to talk too", said Celine. "You all know that I come from a French-Canadian upbringing, right?. Do you also know that I grew up the youngest in a family of fourteen?. God, you know everything about me, right? What am I doing here. Well I tell you something that you don´t know... when mum and dad married, dad didn´t want kids... yeah that´s right. Isn´t it amazing, poor dad... no what am I saying, poor mother. Can you imagine sixteen people round the dinner table, three times a day?. I didn´t get the chance to say much at that time, so now when I get the chance to talk... yeah, I talk and I don´t stop. I love to talk", said Celine. You know what´s funny?... I did my first tour in the province of Quebec when I was just fourteen years old. All my songs were in French at that time, except one that I´m sure you´ll know". Then, Celine launches into the song "What a feeling!" while the crowd applauded. "And did you see the video?... The shower scene?" (she starts to do the dance, captivating the audience with her frantic leg movements). "Well the audience were dancing and singing along with me, we were having a great time, yeah, What a feeling!", said Celine. "Don´t get me wrong I was not doing the shower thing on stage. But we were all dancing and singing and the crowd would cheer... but you know, I did not understand a single word of what I was singing at that time" (crowd roars with laughter and Celine laughs along with them). "So I said to myself: Celine, you´re gonna have to pack your bags and go to school and learn English, and so I did. ´Cause I don´t write my songs so you never know what you´re gonna get. Well my English teacher, she wanted me to speak perfect English and that´s great, she was so cute. But can you imagine for two months, five days a week, day after day, the same thing?. You know how the French we have problems with the H´s?. So for two months it was like... Well Hhhhhhello, and Hhhhhow do you do?, and Hhhhhhow are you?. Can you imagine every day the same? Well, I Hhhhhhhad a great time" (pulls cross-eyed expression). "Well, I´m glad I did learn English because it means that I can be here with you tonight, speaking to you, singing my songs on the stage and I´m very proud of that. Do you want me to sing in French for you then?", asked Celine. The crowd started to applaud and shrieked with joy. One of the first foreign sung hits here in the UK in recent years, "Pour que tu m´aimes encore" was sung next, a hauntingly beautiful ballad which was illustrated not only by Celine on stage but also through the use of video clips which were being shown on the raised screens. The next French song was the rocky duet, "J´irai où tu iras", in which Celine substituted the great Jean-Jacques Goldman for her own and equally talented bass player, Marc Langis. Celine demonstrated her endless energy as she danced and ran from one end of the stage to the other, singing with all her heart to her audience. The last two songs proved that there are no language barriers and that music itself is an international language that can be enjoyed by all. "Let´s do some of my early stuff, feel free to sing along", chirped Celine. A soft blue lighting adorned the stage and the band kicked off with "Only one road". Unlike last year Celine took the song down a key, perhaps to save her voice but more than likely so that the audience could sing along with her. The next song was the Oscar winning duet, "Beauty and the beast", which she sang with Terry Bradford, one of her backing vocalists. Both seemed to enjoy singing the song, which they acted out with pure emotion and feeling. Celine´s stage ending to this song was beautiful and certainly tear jerking, as she twisted and glided her voice up to the final sustain. The audience went wild with applause and Celine took a moment to have a drink and to tell the audience that the next song she was going to sing, she had actually recorded there in the UK. "Where does my heart beat now" was again performed with true vocal accuracy and stamina. At this point in the show, Celine removed her white jacket to reveal her perfectly toned and tanned back and shoulders. She jumped straight into "Misled", telling the crowd to "Get up and dance". It was just as lively as last year´s performance and the crowd danced their socks off and continued to do so when Celine powered straight into "Declaration of love". Celine used the whole stage to animate the song, showing off her incredible vitality. The enigmatic and effervescent figure of Celine was seen charging from one side of the stage to the other, never losing her breath or missing a note. Celine herself is proof that the malicious rumours that are circulating about her being anorexic are false. How can anyone who is anorexic have that amount of stamina, to perform a jam packed two hour show, five nights a week?. Celine is a picture of health, without a doubt. The stage was shadowed in darkness and a swirling storm was sounding around the arena. The audience cheered in suspense as Celine disappeared round the back of the stairs. The lights flashed on and Celine reappeared at the top of the ramp, astute and ready to thrill her audience with a dramatic performance of her current hit, "It´s all coming back to me now". Celine performed as if she were in a movie, giving herself the chance to show both subtlety and power in one song. The song went down a treat with the crowd who showed Celine why the song has been such a big hit over here. Celine walked to the front of the stage to accept more flowers and gifts and thanked the people, remarking, "It feels like Christmas already, thank you, you´re so kind". The band struck up the rhythm to "Le ballet" and Celine started to talk with her audience once more. Celine proceeded to sing "Le ballet" and then took time at the end of the song to introduce the members of her band. This was done in the traditional "Dion" fashion as she gave the audience her impersonations of each section of the band. Her guitar impersonations left the audience in amazement, then followed the bass, drums, a beautiful and amusing chorus with her vocalists, percussion and finally the piano. Celine just has a face of many expressions and a sense of humour that shines from her. Each member of the band showed off their talent and proved what team work is really all about. Next came "Love can move mountains", which again roused the crowd into song and dance. Celine then unexpectedly vanished from the stage. The noise in the arena was so intense, shouts of "Encore" echoed all around. After only a gap of five minutes, Celine returned, dressed in her "Olympic Outfit", that famous long white leather skirt and glitter top. The TV screens started to show clips from "Up Close And Personal". The crowd cheered and applauded when Celine started to sing the USA number one smash, another hit song written by Diane Warren, "Because you loved me". Everyone was singing and swaying to the beat, their arms outstretched in the air. At one point there was a Mexican wave going all around the arena, the atmosphere was incredible. Celine stopped before the last two lines of the song and invited the audience to sing them with her. "I want you to sing for me now, ´cause it´s harder for me to sing for you here on stage, now it´s your turn", said Celine. The last lines are sung at least four times as Celine enjoys this so much. Next up was a heartfelt cover of Carole King´s song "(You make me feel like) A natural woman", made famous by Aretha Franklin, (one of Celine´s favourite singers). Celine´s interpretation of the song knocked socks off the original, as she gave another spectacular performance. After yet another standing ovation, Celine took time to mention her proud Olympic moment, "This Summer I had the pleasure of singing this next song in front of all the athletes at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. I was very honoured to be asked and I would like to share that song with you tonight. I´d like it a lot if you´d join in with me, the words will appear on the screens to help you along. You know what really makes an artist happy is when the audience wants another song, you´re so great. OK let´s go, let´s sing", said Celine. The noise in the arena was astounding, as the entire audience sang along with her. Celine took time at the end to thank everyone and to shake hands with some of the crowd at the front of the stage who had been dancing and singing along with her all night. She accepted more flowers, took her bows and left the stage. The crowd knew this wasn´t it. How could she leave without singing their song, the UK Number one smash hit, "Think twice"?. Amongst the chants were "Encore, encore", "Celine" and "We want Think twice". Celine returned to give them what they had been waiting for, performing an updated stage performance of the song. She finished the song with a sentimental yet dramatic ending, holding the final sustain to her maximum and then she wowed the audience with the new sensual and heartwarming finish. After taking in the applause that she well and truly deserved, Celine wiped a tear from her eye and left the stage, waving goodbye as she disappeared from view.
CONCERT IN GLASGOW
On November 19, 1996 Celine Dion performed at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow, Scotland with the "Falling Into You Tour". John Williamson from The Herald, wrote: "A few years ago rumour suggested that Celine Dion was in a recording studio with the legendary Phil Spector working on a new album. It never happened, but seeing the size of the Celine phenomenon it makes for an intriguing prospect, as Dion is an act so perfect in so many respects that her almost total lack of substance is of very little consequence. Gifted with one of the few voices big enough for the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, backed by a super competent band, the show is so mercilessly upbeat, slick and professional that it´s hard not to be caught up in the general euphoria. After all, Dion´s stage persona inhabits a world where everything is luxurious and has a happy ending and where in reality is suspended until at least the end of the show. It´s an escapism that has won its way into the hearts of a huge, mainly female audience". According to him, the music hardly needs describing, as Dion´s hits are so manifold and ubiquitous that they are barely noticeable, but they fall conveniently into three main categories. There´s the great pop songs ("Misled" and "Where does my heart beat now"), the overwrought and often horrible power ballads like "All by myself" and the cover versions which range from the excellent ("River deep, mountain high" to the inexorable, "The power of love"). The following day Celine performed at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre again (November 20, 1996).
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