Sunday night time on the United Center, the place Celine Dion arrived as a part of her Courage World Tour — her first highway trek in over 10 years — the pop celebrity proved herself each a traditional diva and an idiosyncratic stage presence.
Dion has spent a lot of the previous decade in Las Vegas as a part of a residency which ended earlier this 12 months. During the night’s set, she playfully referenced the massive hole in touring.
“I escaped [from Las Vegas],” she joked at one level.
The present was set to begin at 7:30 p.m., however in true diva vogue, Dion saved the viewers ready, taking the stage greater than 45 minutes later. By the time she made her entrance — ascending atop a riser that emerged from beneath the stage — whereas singing the opening notes to “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” the viewers eagerly forgave her tardiness, hanging on to each phrase.
Dion spent a lot of the night time singing her largest hits equivalent to “That’s The Way It Is,” “The Power of Love,” and “To Love You More.” The viewers sang together with enthusiasm, with Dion incorporating her traditional vocal gymnastics into each lyric.
Celine Dion performs Sunday night time on the United Center.Santiago Covarrubias / For the Sun-Times
One spotlight got here throughout a efficiency of “Love Can Move Mountains,” with Dion’s backing band and vocalists turning the usual pop quantity right into a soulful, upbeat romp.
Another got here throughout “All By Myself,” with Dion singing the climactic ultimate refrain a cappella, her voice filling the stadium. This prompted an enormous response from the viewers, who have been in awe of Dion’s uncooked vocal supply.
Dion’s talent as a dwell vocalist exceeded expectations. Her voice — whereas polarizing to some — is in wonderful situation, with seemingly easy excessive belts and countless vocal runs punctuating the set checklist. In a very spectacular sequence of runs throughout “Because You Loved Me,” Dion sarcastically remarked to the viewers that “it [wasn’t] that hard.”
True to type, her quirky and typically weird humorousness shone brightly all through the night time. At one level, Dion repeatedly sang “Chi-town like a diamond” to the tune of Rihanna’s hit music “Diamonds.” Moments like these — together with one the place she fist-bumped a guitar participant, and a sequence of complicated jokes about leftover Thanksgiving meals — helped showcase a looser aspect of Dion.
Amid the hits, Dion delivered two songs from her newest album, “Courage.” Her efficiency of the titular observe — impressed by the demise of Dion’s husband and enterprise supervisor René Angélil — was an emotional excessive level. The viewers remained silent all through the music, letting Dion’s voice communicate for itself.
Toward the tip of the night time, Dion emerged in a silver sequined jumpsuit — certainly one of 5 outfits worn all through the live performance — and carried out a medley of covers, together with David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” amongst others; she carried out the latter in her native French. While Dion definitely didn’t reestablish herself as a disco diva with the medley, the songs have been a pleasant change of tempo from the night’s many ballads, and her barely awkward dance strikes have been charming in their very own proper.
Dion completed the night time with a two-song encore, together with maybe her most well-known hit, “My Heart Will Go On,” from the movie “Titanic.” It was effectively definitely worth the wait, together with her voice sounding simply nearly as good because it did on the preliminary recording greater than 20 years in the past.
Following that explosive efficiency, Dion revealed she had another music left, breaking into a canopy of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It was essentially the most subdued portion of the live performance, with solely Dion’s vocals and a lone piano filling the stadium. It was a young, honest ending to a present centered largely on theatrics.
“I want to give you one last message of peace and harmony,” Dion stated.