Celine Dion’s Exclusion From ‘Greatest Singers List’ Sparks Outrage

Fans have criticized “the audacity” of Rolling Stone to exclude Celine Dion from their new list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Celine Dion has sold over two hundred million albums globally and is still going strong at age fifty-four. As the best-selling Canadian music artist, she has received numerous accolades over her career, including two Honorary Doctorates of Music and five Grammy Awards.

Rolling Stone has named Aretha Franklin as the best singer of all time followed by Whitney Houston, Sam Cooke, and Billie Holiday.

Mariah Carey, according to Rolling Stone, ranks as the fifth greatest singer followed by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Otis Reeding, and Al Green, who comes in at tenth place.

Céline Dion was not included on Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Singers of All Time list. pic.twitter.com/pJKFEfhaYE

— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 1, 2023

 

However, Dion was nowhere to be seen, and her Twitter followers the world over vented their displeasure and disbelief at this. They called the Rolling Stone omission of the Canadian artist—known for her powerful and skilled vocals—from the greatest singers list a “Titanic mistake.”

Céline Dion was not included on Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Singers of All Time list. pic.twitter.com/pJKFEfhaYE

— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 1, 2023

“Respectfully, not including Celine Dion, arguably the best vocal technician of all time, in this list is borderline treasonous,” producer, promoter, and recording artist Jamie Lambert tweeted.

Respectfully, not including Celine Dion, arguably the best vocal technician of all time, in this list is borderline treasonous https://t.co/cy72FEpdyr

— Jamie Lambert (@JamieCollabro) January 2, 2023

Others were upset that artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, and Sting were left off the list.

Most recently, to the dismay of fans, Dion announced she would be postponing several Europe tour dates after being diagnosed with a neurological disorder that doesn’t allow her “to sing the way [she’s] used to.”

She suffers from a stiff-person syndrome, which is defined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as “a rare, progressive illness that affects the neurological system, primarily the brain and spinal cord.”

Success with Beauty and the Beast and Titanic

When Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson produced the Beauty and the Beast title song for Disney’s successful animated film hit in 1992, Dion finally broke through to the mainstream as a pop music superstar.

The song “Beauty and the Beast” earned a Grammy, an Oscar, and peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Celine Dion’s second English album, Celine Dion, included this song and went on to become her first gold hit in the United States. It was a multi-platinum success, selling over twelve million copies worldwide.

Dion’s first U.S. headlining tour was made possible by the indisputable success of her self-titled album, which featured the smash single “If You Asked Me To.” The single peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart.

Dion performed “My Heart Will Go On” for the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film received a record-breaking amount of Oscar Award nominations of which it won eleven, including best song. Dion’s ballad was played on radio stations throughout the world.

On December 19, 2022, a fan shared the all-time epic performance of Celine Dion on Twitter. This was exactly twenty-five years after Titanic was released.

TITANIC was released 25 years ago today and won 11 Oscars, including Best Song for MY HEART WILL GO ON.

Singing it at the 1998 ceremony, CELINE DION gave one of the all time great Oscar performances. pic.twitter.com/R31T08DtqE

— James Leighton (@JamesL1927) December 19, 2022