Celine Dion first night review: Superstar still hitting all the right notes

THERE are increasingly few superstar singers who you go to see live in concert because of their voice, but Celine Dion remains the queen of nailing those notes, writes Cameron Adams.

THERE are increasingly few superstar singers who you go to see live in concert because of their voice.

But Celine Dion remains the queen of nailing those notes; one of the last true divas standing.

Taking a break from her Vegas residency, Dion has tailored this show for the Australian market.

And that includes her already infamous cover of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.

CELINE DION TOURS AUSTRALIA FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADE

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Celine Dion performs at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night. Picture: Naomi Rahim/WireImage

Farnham’s got one more chance to make a noise and make it clear — Dion’s second Melbourne (and final Australian) show at Rod Laver Arena tonight — to give us the duet we never knew we needed until Celine professed she was a Farnsey fangirl.

“It’s one of my favourite songs and I’ve always wanted to do it in my show,” Dion said of the Australian national anthem.

All the big hits with all those big notes are delivered just as you remembered them: My Heart Will Go On, Because You Loved Me, Beauty and the Beast, The Power of Love, Think Twice and I’m Alive.

Dion was never cool - power ballads, soft rock - yet by still being at the top of the game she’s become cool. These songs are classics and Dion’s fashion makeover is impressive.

If I never go to another concert in my life, I won’t care because @celinedion just gave the most amazing performance I have ever seen. pic.twitter.com/pNvzmaUkcl

— Shelly 💛🖤 (@Tassiemum528) August 7, 2018

There’s also the song Pink wrote for her, Recovering, after her husband Rene Angelil’s death.

Dion, who turned 50 this year, is clearly still emotional singing the songs that helped build her career. Watching her belt out All By Myself, directly after Recovering, is an powerful double blow.

The night’s first standing ovation came early — Dion in tears at the end of the stunning epic It’s All Coming Back to Me Now. She could have shaved a minute or two after the 10 minute story to set up Ashes, the song from Deadpool 2, and how Ryan Reynolds wrote her a letter and how she thought he wanted her to act in the film, to keep Jim Steinman’s It’s All Coming Back... to it’s original full length.

Yet she’s determined to still have fun — doing a sultry ballroom dance routine to Falling Into You and her amazing band covering Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk plus a Prince tribute with Kiss and Purple Rain.

Dion profusely apologised for the 10 year gap between Australian tours and thanked fans for supporting her music for three decades.

In one of her lengthy but endearingly dorky chats (“I love to sing but I love to talk too”) she mimicked singing My Heart Will Go On while pushing a Zimmer frame.

“Please stop me when I get there,” she joked. “Please don’t show up.”