Popularity established

Subject: Popularity established Mon Aug 25, 2008 1:07 pm

Popularity established 1993-1995
By:Haidar albaghdadi

In 1993, Dion announced her feelings for her manager by declaring him "the colour of [her] love" in the dedication section of her third Anglophone album The Colour of My Love. However, instead of criticizing their relationship as Dion had feared, fans embraced the couple. Eventually, Angélil and Dion married in an extravagant wedding ceremony in December 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.

As it was dedicated to her manager, the album's motif focused on love and romance. It became her most successful record up to that point, selling more than six million copies in the U.S., two million in Canada, and peaking at number-one in many countries. The album also spawned Dion's first U.S., Canadian, and Australian number-one single "The Power of Love" (a remake of Jennifer Rush's 1985 hit), which would become her signature hit until she reached new career heights in the late 1990s. Subsequent singles, such as "When I Fall in Love", a duet with Clive Griffin, and "Misled" failed to reach the upper tier of the pop charts in the U.S., but were moderately successful in Canada.

The Colour of My Love also became Dion's first major hit in Europe, and in particular the United Kingdom.
Both the album and the single "Think Twice" simultaneously occupied the top of the British charts for five consecutive weeks. "Think Twice", which remained at number one for seven weeks, eventually became the fourth single by a female artist to sell in excess of one million copies in the UK, while the album was eventually certified five-times platinum for two-million copies sold.

Dion kept to her French roots and continued to release many Francophone recordings between each English record. Generally, they achieved more credibility than her Anglophone works. She released À l'Olympia, a live album that was recorded during one of Dion's concerts at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, in 1994.
It had one promotional single, a live version of "Calling You", which peaked at seventy-five on the French Singles Chart. D'eux (also known as The French Album in the United States), was released in 1995, and it would go on to become the best-selling French album of all time.

The album was mostly written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman, and amassed huge success with the singles "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" and "Je sais pas". "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" reached the Top ten in the UK, a rare accomplishment for a French song, and "Je sais pas" reached number one on the French Singles Chart. These songs would later become "If That's What It Takes" and "I Don't Know" on Dion's next English album, Falling into You.

The mid-1990s was a transitional period for Dion's musical style, as she slowly diverged from strong rock influences and transitioned into a more pop and soul style (though the electric guitar remained a central part of her music). Her songs began with more delicate melodies that used softer instrumentations, and built up to strong climaxes, over which her vocals could be displayed.

This new sound received mixed reviews from critics, with Arion Berger of Entertainment Weekly accusing her of preferring vocal acrobatics over dynamics and embarking on a trend of uninspiring, "crowd-pleasing ballads".

Resultantly, she earned frequent comparisons to artists such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

There were also signs that her work was becoming more clichéd: critically, The Colour of My Love was not consistent with earlier works.
However, while critical praise declined, Dion's releases performed increasingly well on the international charts, and in 1996 she won the World Music Award for "World’s Best-selling Canadian Female Recording Artist of the Year" for the third time.

By the mid-1990s, she had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world, among female performers such as Carey and Houston.