You’d think this blog would be a safe sanctuary from any mention of Celine and you’d be wrong! I would invite you to forget everything you know or have experienced about the “Shantousse” as Dave calls her and judge only this performance. Visually and vocally it’s stunning. She blows the song right up, knocks it straight out of the park, insert whatever other analogy you’ve got here, she does it. Gone are her usual Vegas over the top gestures and cringeworthy crowd banter. All I see here is a vocal powerhouse belting the heck out of a great song made famous than none other than the legendary Tina Turner. Okay now get your death threats ready… I prefer this particular performance to Tina’s. There I said it. I’ll be double checking any suspicious packages sent to my address for the next year and beyond.
Of course, unlike the original, Celine’s version here doesn’t suffer from Phil Spector’s god awful production which makes this a bit of an unfair comparison. And before you accuse me of being a total d*** you really should know that this particular performance so delighted Phil Spector himself that he came out of retirement to produce her record “Falling Into You.” He was subsequently replaced, probably because he’s nuts. And because, well, Celine and her people looooove David Foster.
So outside what Celine represents as a performer, outside of where Phil might have taken her music, there will always be this: a great f***ing version of River Deep, Mountain High, fearlessly sang with no bulls*** by someone with an unquestionably great voice.
Get it on iTunes, Amazon.