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CONCERTS IN MONTREAL
On February 10, 1988 Celine Dion gave the first of a serie of 42 consecutive shows at the Saint-Denis Theatre in Montreal, Canada with the "Incognito Tournée" (also know as the "Incognito Tour"), a concert tour organized to support the album "Incognito", released on April 2, 1987. Celine performed at the Saint-Denis for a moth starting on February 10, 1988, and later between April 12-17, 1988, June 14-19, 1988, September 21-24, 1988 and December 14-18, 1988. The show was performed forty-two times at the theatre, but before the tour, Celine wasn´t thought of as a great performer. Many strong-voiced singers, such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, have built a career offstage. With this tour, Celine learned an enormous about being onstage. Denis Savage and Daniel Baron joined the crew for these shows. Savage would be in charge of miking the halls, while Baron would take care of the stage sound. As the Christmas holidays drew near, the show was in perfect running order. But one part was missing: a stage manager and tour director. Jean Bissonnette seggested Suzanne Gingue, Claude "Mégo" Lemay´s girlfriend. The "Incognito Tournée" with its fifteen musicians and technicians, would present greater demands. Celine´s sister Ghislaine Dion was also part of the crew (as backup singer). Suzanne didn´t have much experience, but she was a fighter and had loads of determination. In January, she contacted the local producers. She filled her tourbook, reserved hotel rooms, and printed and distributed the programs and posters. The show was designed like a giant menu that featured Celine´s astonishing vocal variaty. Every kind of song was included: from sentimental ballads to hard rock, with one stop on Brodway and another in Paris. During the shows at the Saint-Denis Theatre, Celine performed some material from the rock opera Starmania (including the songs: "Quand on arrive en ville", "Les uns contre les autres", "Le monde est stone" and "Naziland, ce soir on danse") and hits that had been established by other female artists. She gave a new and profoundly moving interpretation of Jean-Pierre Ferland´s "Ton visage". She imitated the most famous voices of that time, from Michael Jackson to Mireille Mathieu to Ginette Reno to Diane Dufresne. Celine also performed "Comme un cœur froid", "Incognito", "Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)", "Carmen", "Summertime", among other songs. She also sang the famous song "That´s what friends are for" in duet with several musicians. The orchestra Le Pop Philharmonique, directed by Gilles Oueller, accompanied Celine on these shows. Footage from these concert at the Saint-Denis Theatre, was broadcasted as part of the TV special entitled "Céline: En Spectacle Et En Coulisses", aired by ARTV channel in Quebec, Canada. According to a scan from a magazine (from November 1987), Celine was scheduled to perform at the Saint Denis Theatre from February 4, 1988 to February 14, 1988. Althought the first show at the Theatre Saint-Denis started on February 10, 1988.
CONCERT IN TORONTO
On June 24, 1988 Celine Dion was invited by the Toronto´s French-speaking community to sing at the city´s Saint-Jean Baptiste Day celebrations, at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Canada. The open-air stage overlooked Lake Ontario. A few days before the show, the organizers and Radio-Canada producer Gabriel Dube were astonished to learn that Rene Angelil (Celine´s manager) was insisting that she sing a few songs in English. They tried to tell him that it might not be well received; Saint-Jean Baptiste Day is a very patriotic French-Canadian celebration. But Rene wouldn´t back down. Come show night, they understood why. He´d invited big shots from Sony Music Canada and Sony Music USA and reserved first-row seats especially for them. French-speaking Ontarians and visiting Quebeckers were offended. When Celine performed in English, they started to boo. Most French-speaking people in Toronto speak English at work and on the street. But the Saint-Jean Baptiste celebration is sacred, a time for French Canadians to rally together. Celine was visibly disconcerted. Claude Deschesnes, the MC, was beside himself. Luckily, it started to rain, and the show stopped. Rene realized he´d made a mistake. He´d have to live with this particular political reality. What happened in Toronto was a valuable lesson. Rene understood that he had to win over Celine´s Quebec fans.
CONCERT IN SAINTE-AGATHE
On August 10, 1988 Celine Dion gave a concert on a big tent, as part of the annual event, Nord En Fête in Sainte-Agathe, a municipality in the Municipalité régionale de comté de Lotbinière in Quebec, Canada. Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger David Foster attended this concert. It was in early June 1988 when Foster called to say he´d soon be ready to go to work with Celine, but that first he wanted to see her perform on stage. He would be in Montreal, Canada on the weekend of June 11, 1988. Mario Lefebvre checked Celine´s date book. That night she was scheduled to sing in Sainte-Agathe, a resort town in the Laurentian mountains, in a tent. Why not the next week, from June 14 to 19, 1988? Celine would be performing with the "Incognito Tournée" at the Theatre Saint-Denis, a comfortable, well-equipped hall right in the heart of the city. But Foster couldn´t make it any other time. "No matter", said Rene Angelil (Celine´s manager). "As soon as he hears Celine sing, no matter where, it´ll be in the bag". They booked Foster a flight to Montreal´s Mirabel airport. A limousine would be waiting to drive him to Sainte-Agathe, about an hour north. With him was his wife Linda Thompson, Elvis Presley´s former girlfriend. The two made a striking couple. When they reached Sainte-Agathe, the heavens opened. In the tent, the atmosphere was oppressive; the place reeked of dampness. The sound was appalling. But Vito Luprano and Rene knew Celine was always at her best under pressure. They reminded her just how important this show was for her career, and she gave it everything she had. After four songs, Celine introduced David Foster to the audience, praising him in her halting English. He was the man of the hour in the recording business, the man who worked with Sinatra, Streisand and company. She laid it on so thick that the audience gave Foster an ovation, even though nobody in the tent in Sainte-Agathe knew him. Foster couldn´t help but be flattered. And flat-out impressed by Celine´s voice, her presence, her charisma, her self-assurance. "As soon as you´ve picked your songs", he told them, "I´ll get to work". In reference to this concert, Celine has said "At the very beginning of summer, David Foster told Rene that he´d be ready to work with us soon, but first he wanted to see me perform live. A week after Eurovision, I´d gone back to Europe for a quick tour. When I returned to Quebec, I continued the Incognito Tournée, and the show couldn´t have been in better shape. Not only were the musicians in great form, but I was in good voice as well. But as luck would have it, at the time that David was passing through Quebec, the only performing I was doing was a show for a group of vacationers, under a tent at Sainte-Agathe in the Laurentides. Rene tried really hard to make him put off his trip. David came to the show with his new wife, Linda Thompson, who had been involved with Elvis Presley. It was a really hot day. And it was pouring. The air inside the tent was humid, suffocating. The sound was horrible. At times, the rain hammered so loudly on the roof that it was almost impossible to hear the music. Nevertheless, I felt good, confident, and cool, despite the oppressive heat. The songs came off well. During the show, I introduced David Foster by saying that he was the greatest record-album producer in the world and that he´d worked with the most brilliant American singing stars. The audience at Sainte-Agathe, who obviously had never heard of him, gave him a polite standing ovation, something to which dear David is not impervious" (from an extract of the book "My Story, My Dream"). According to an article published on the magazine "Echos Vedettes", during the concert Celine performed "Mon ami m'a quittée", "Une colombe", "Incognito" and "Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)", among other songs.
CONCERT IN MONTREAL
On September 21, 1988 Celine Dion performed at the Theatre Saint-Denis in Montreal, Canada with the "Incognito Tournée" (also know as the "Incognito Tour"). Celine continued performing at the Theatre Saint-Denis on September 24, December 14 and 18, 1988.
CONCERT IN MONTREAL
On December 14, 1988 Celine Dion performed at the Theatre Saint-Denis in Montreal, Canada with the "Incognito Tournée". Between February and December 1988, Celine gave seventy-five performances of the "Incognito Tournée" from one end of the province of Quebec to the other. Mark Lepage, the Montreal Gazettes hard-to-please pop music critic, attended the final show of the tour at the Theatre Saint-Denis. At twenty, he wrote, she was right up there with Ginette Reno, and even Barbra Streisand. Even though she was impatient to get into the recording studio, she was getting more pleasure out of her live appearances than ever before.
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