Celine Dion opened her show at Barclays Center with the emotional power-ballad “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.”
Gowned in a scorching red Yousef El Jasmi dress and emerging with a chin-length bob of flaxen hair, Dion ended her opening number with a sudden diminuendo. As the strident music softened, Dion lilted in falsetto so that her voice became a lamentation for love, for hope and for courage.
On February 28 – 29, concertgoers were treated to two back-to-back nights of Dion’s Courage World Tour in NYC with a setlist that revisited hits from the 90s, spanned three decades’ worth of her catalog and delivered performances of songs from her latest album, Courage. Best known throughout the world for her unrivaled singing voice, Celine Dion is also, perhaps, the hardest-working woman in show business, and this latest undertaking is true to form for Dion who is no stranger to large-scale enterprises. According to the online portal Statista, Celine Dion has held the two “highest grossing Las Vegas residencies of all time.” It is no surprise then, that Dion added to her repertoire a medley of up-tempo songs by Bowie, Queen, Prince, Ike & Tina Turner and Labelle, all artists whose music provide the soundtrack to the Vegas boulevard (Dion even payed homage to Elvis in a sequined jumpsuit designed by Michael Costello). Her showmanship is a combination of compassion, class, humility, and sense of humor that results in an artist who is unparalleled in today’s industry. Her performance of “All by Myself” received a thunderous ovation as she demonstrated her incomparable vocal strength after a great buildup of the music. Moving between octaves with gorgeous melisma and natural force, the lyric soprano belted notes that were interspersed by her confident gesticulations.
Celine’s show left nothing to be desired. The encore performance of “My Heart Will Go On” featured a drone display abundant with quadcopters giving off a blue glow around Dion like bioluminescent plankton. As the oceanic aurora ascended to become starlight, the constellation of drones faded to a single point of light that Dion cupped in her hands like a granule of pixie dust before lifting it up to obscurity. Not long after, Dion, in a cumulus Zac Posen gown, would graciously acknowledge the rippling applause after her performance with a bow and then floated away on air.
Fans will get another chance to see Celine Dion at Barclays Center tonight, Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 7:30 PM.