Celine Dion, Franco Dragone - Full Documentary "A New Day... The Secrets" (English Version)

it started in 1999 and i was doing a world tour  and we were finishing this tour in december 31st   at the end of this night we were about to  leave for vegas we had decided to bring all   our families and friends to las vegas to have  fun to get into year 2000 this is the first day   of a two-year off i was about to take two years  off to take a break relax and try to have a baby   and then who knows we decide to go to see the  cirque du soleil the show oh from franco dragon   the show was finished and celine wouldn't  move you know she stayed glued to her seat   crying laughing it's an incredible show i look  at my husband and i say if i come back in show   business this is the type of show would like to do  i insist to go backstage and to say hello and to   congratulate all the performers and i say you  know you all all of you guys are so amazingly   talented and generous but you give beyond  your talent you changed a bit of my life today   i took the initiative to to write her a letter  to her and to to tell her how much i appreciate   her attitude towards the artist and and also  that it would be a pleasure and an honor for me   if one day we could just meet or even dream or  think maybe to do something together i thought   that it was an incredible coincidence destiny so i  gave him a call invited him to come to see us when   he would come to the united states and he came to  our house in florida we met and i said you know   you want to work with me i would love to work with  you it was really uh we say in french un coup de foudre which is a really you you fell in love with  these people uh very fast celine and him started   talking and dreaming we talked very fast about  doing a project together at the size of o so um my job was to get the deal done the deal  that was done for a new day with celine was   the biggest contract uh ever negotiated for an  artist for a live entertainment deal so it was   the biggest deal in the in the history of the  music business we're talking about an investment   of over 300 million dollars when you consider  the magnitude of the deal it's pretty amazing   this day and age that you can find people that  in one meeting you fall in love with the vision   fall in love with their personality and you shake  hands on a deal like this if you're gonna gamble   las vegas is the place to do it well when i first  heard of this deal we didn't own caesar's palace   we were a competitor and it was such a big deal  there was so much money involved in building the   coliseum and what celine earns out of the deal  that it struck me originally is enormously risky   and it was unprecedented that you could sell more  than four thousand tickets to one performer's   show five or six nights a week weeks and weeks  and in fact years and years so it was quite a   stunning notion and i was in fact a little  skeptical when i first heard about it it has   been successful beyond anyone's imagination really  so once we had all agreement on the deal we were   very excited and franco started working we began  the casting and we did i think we auditioned 1000   dancers i think all over the world we danced  our butts off it started off very interesting   we just had a walk and from walking across stage  we got people were getting cut already from 1 000   people we had to go to 50 58 everybody came in  belgium we begin with the dancer really to create   different vocabulary with different  choreography there was an electricity in the air   and we knew that we were all part of something and  it was we had the time to bond together everyone   was on a level playing field everyone had sort  of come there from all different parts of the   the world and different backgrounds and  and we just knew we were going to be part   of something great everybody started to  work on that project then i got pregnant   and then i started to realize that i  haven't had a life before when i had my son   i didn't want to i didn't want to perform in las  vegas anymore i just met the most extraordinary i had a life the first time i wanted i knew then  that i wanted to have more success as a mother   than a singer and   i tell told renee that i didn't want to do that  anymore and that if it was possible to kind of   stop the project finally he came back to me and  he said you know it's too advanced there's too   many people involved it's too much money and i'm  afraid to say that will have to go on with it   it was probably one of the hardest moment of my  life as um as an artist because all my life before   having a son before having a child that's all i  wanted i wanted to succeed i wanted to perform   i wanted to be part of the biggest show i wanted  to be busy and express myself through music   and i realized that there was more than that  in a life in my life now and it was hard   and my son was born and i had to face that new journey and i hoped for  a year but we already had engaged herself to   two or maybe three i don't even remember we  moved to vegas my son was a year and a half   started to rehearse we went to belgium in  october november i think 2002 celine renee   and all the family and the little reddish ark  they came in uh la liga and we present it to them   thank god for celine she walked in and first  of all we just all did a standing ovation   and it was great because she walked in  not as the diva you would have imagined   she didn't have any makeup on immediately  she took off her shoes and she welcomed us   instantly we felt that that connection with her  and we were just so grateful that this was the   woman we were working for she was so positive and  we got to show her what we'd been working on and   her response was unbelievable she was wiping her  eyes she couldn't believe how beautiful it was   like she was just so excited and her excitement  for the project just rejuvenated us it rejuvenated   our spirits and that was so badly needed at  the time and thank god for celine you're an   inspiration because what i'm not capable of  doing you're doing it you're doing it with for us and the most thing that i'm  sad about is i won't be able to sit   every night in the audience to look at  you because i'll be with you on stage i have to say that until celine and  renee arrived in belgium i was still   i don't know this project was still a kind of  abstraction maybe real maybe not real then when   i saw celide and rene in belgium ah i said i think  this is uh this project is it's real once i commit   myself i wanted to finish it professionally i'm  gonna go and finish it all i'll do it all the way i can make the rain go anytime i move and in the december of 2002 everyone moved  here in las vegas the theater was ready the construction of the building uh took exactly  14 months from where it was a hole in the ground   to a finished theater now this is something  that can't happen anywhere else in the world   las vegas has the ability  to fast-track construction   the theatrical consultants for the building  was cenoplus and they were responsible for   the original conceptual design of the  building a round building two balconies   four thousand seats so our theater it has twice  as many seats as the cirque du soleil theater but   the furthest seat is only 120 feet so it's a more  intimate theater for twice as many people one of   the challenges we had when we put the sound system  together was the fact that the theater is round   when you're a sound person the round building is  really not a fun thing to work with you have many   reflections all coming back to the center where's  where celine is standing so it took us quite a   few times to get the speakers at the right place  where we could actually have the echoes not coming   back straight at her but more diffused so that  was a big big challenge to the thing i saw the   tea actor beautiful great big machine impressive  motivate me a lot in the same time impress and   stress stress me it's a big challenge for a singer  to perform in the desert to perform every night   in a dry environment so my specification  for the coliseum for the for the theater   was to have humidity on stage every night and  for sure humidity in my dressing room every night   so very often before the shows and after  the shows i have a machine um that i do some   bronco i humidify my nose with the saline every  day the desert it's better to do it a couple of   times a day and i also do the the bronchosaline  one so i do a couple squirts of saline into this   little machine that i breathe so it's not oxygen  it's saline so it goes through my vocal cords   the back of my throat larynx the  lungs and it goes into the bronchiole   and it moisturizes everything it's very important  the scenic designer for franco dragon michelle   crait came up with the idea of being able to see  the entire performer and the surface of the stage   and the back wall of the stage the screen as as a  way of building the context to put celine's music   into and so he came up with the idea of using a  raked stage and our stage is at 5.7 degrees which   is about twice as steep as as even an opera stage  the most difficult stage i've ever performed on   actually i think a lot of artists some left  because it was too hard it took about three   months to adjust to that that's one of  the most difficult things of this show   is dancing repetition on that because of how the  impact on your joints night after night you know   everything's got to give and just the angle you  land changes everything and it's quite difficult   the original concept for the back wall of the  theater was that it was going to be a big white   psych and we were going to be projecting  video on that psych and that would be   how we would change the context of the songs but  me as a lighting designer i was like if you put a   big white wall and i have dancers going and the  cross lights and everything it's going to be a   nightmare for me so i was really pushing for  another type of technology so eve proclaimed   that what we really needed was an led screen and  everybody kind of winces because that's just huge   money i had another discussion with one of the  accountant of the company and he was giving me   [ __ ] that you're crazy to make karen and celine  spend that amount of money and are you nuts and   he said at the end of the phone he said but  you know what i just talked to renee and he   wants it so i was like oh i have room i said  we're looking at about 10 million dollars and   renee kind of nodded his head and he went  back to phil anschutz who had already paid   for the millions of dollars that it  took to produce the show and said phil   you wanted the best show you could possibly have  in this theater that they're building for us   and the only way we're going to be able to do  that is to buy an led screen and it's going to   be 10 million dollars and renee is a salesman  and a gambler and he was able to convince   um phil to come up with that extra 10 million  dollars and it was the best money he's ever   spent so when i received a yes we were able to  say that okay on a new day celine dion will have   the biggest indoor screen in the world the rumor  on the strip as people like to say around here   was that now that we had come up with  this show that was so much more expensive   so much bigger so much more that that it couldn't  possibly work a few weeks before the opening everyone was very nervous our  partners were nervous because   we're talking about millions and millions of  dollars not knowing if this show is going to   work if this formula is going to work in las  vegas people at caesar's palace who build   the theater for this and invested a lot of money  were nervous and i can understand them franco was   very nervous because you know it's  his responsibility he's the director   first rehearsal with with celine i could not stay  more than 10 minutes in the theater because it was   really for me i could not breathe i had really  panic attack so i was so i realized how much   the the myth uh celine is so universal that um i  was really scared unfortunately two weeks prior to   the premiere i got really sick and i got sick with  a bronchitis and a sinus infection and asthma and   the whole shebang and i was i was brand new in las  vegas i was not adjusted to the climate over there   living in a desert singing in the desert it's  quite difficult sinus problem one after the   other i got really sick so that two weeks  of rehearsal i was in bed waking up every   four hours to do treatments for asthma doing  like stuff on my nose and breathing humidity   and it was a mess she had a problem with her voice  we we lost a few weeks of rehearsal so it was   really a puzzle to to to manage and we we arrived  at the the premiere very vulnerable premiere time makeup hair dress i don't  even know if everything fits   it's beyond i'm not i'm not ready i  don't know if they were but i was not   was really the she took the the place and she was  the i would say the mother of the family she she   she encouraged everybody when everybody were  more in stressing you know and this was really   really impressed me uh very much the opening  night 2003 march 25th big night everybody was   very very nervous of course we thought everything  was in place well so we're sensing for the opening   on the show on stage everything was working  fine and for one of those changes come out to   do the quick change and there was a very fast  one was something like 40 seconds quick chain   no shoes there was someone one of our technician  i think i don't want to put the blame on someone   but it just moved pair of shoes because it's  preset you know you have shoes we have uh you   know pants and blouse and everything shirt right  there so the shoes were moved for maybe five feet   away but excitement and the rush and we didn't  saw the shoes so so then put pants on shirts and   i send her on stage make it then you know barefoot  here i am on stage bare feet and um i say to mom   uh don't worry mom um i'm fine anybody wear size  38 in the audience and everybody started to laugh   and finally t tuff who is like the the messenger  comes on stage and with my shoes that they found   three four minutes later and i'm giving them  giving him the microphone and i'm putting my   shoes and i'm on the edge of a step and and  i said okay fine and i people thought because   when i made jokes with it and and they thought  it was part of the theatrical aspect of the show whenever you reach for me in opening week in march of  2003 we used to stand out in   in the lobby and listen to people's comments as  going out to gauge what type of a show we had   whether people were happy with it they didn't  like it whatever and a lot of comments were   i don't know why they have such a big production  because i only came to hear her sing in show   business it's the public that decides everything  and when they came here they wanted to see celine   they wanted to hear her sing her hits and  the magic of franco is that he found a way   finally to take advantage of celine's charisma  and great talent and blend it with 50 people   on stage and produce a unique unique show that  has never been seen before the most important problem to solve in the show with  celine was the balance between   theatre i would say and concert you must  wonder where are the musicians here they are the first shows musicians were not on stage  something that was really frustrating for the band   because we used to to be the show you know like on  tour there was no dancers that we do the show so   being hidden at the time was  very hard on the musician's egos   and so we discussed we discussed  this matter we worked on this and   to bring them more and more into the show i would  say that at the beginning the connection between   dan's circus like serge pop singer the connection  was not done it was like three separate worlds   and we had to bring this together you know  i really think that now the balance between   concert and theater are much more interesting i stopped flying because i needed surgery when  i when i i loved flying actually because i love   to do hard things and i love when not to put my  life in jeopardy but to challenge myself actually   to put a harness every night and to fly six story   and um try to sing and be strangled in my belly  every night was quite a technique challenge for me i had to keep doing it because it was dangerous at the beginning of the project selena and  franco thought about celine having a new look   so you know i was listening i thought it was a  great idea until i learned that the new look they   were talking about was cutting your hair short  and dye it blonde at first it was a technical   situation the stage pushed my my hair forward and  i always had to play with my hair to get it out of   my face and people could not see my face well so  it was probably the most expensive hair coloring   haircut in the whole industry and it cost a lot of  money because everybody hated it and we did a dvd   video show with the short white hair and  we had to throw it in the garbage because   it was terrible every time i saw her on stage if  i would have been thinking only as her manager i   would have insisted on both of them to really push  my point about the image but celine was so excited   to change something to start you know with a new  look and so into it and so happy about it that the   husband took over and i wanted her to be happy and  love what she's doing and get into this project   with the right attitude so i said okay if you want  to do that sure go go ahead do it well i decided   to go back to my original kind of like long brown  hair because i um well people hated it actually   and um my husband's uh partner dave platel said  to me you know don't get it don't take it wrong   you're not it you're not a hairdo  you know it's uh people hate it and   it's because you're probably the only  thing that doesn't change in their lives   your stability for them her core fans who were  who who own celine they love her for who she's   been for all of their lives you know they've  been following her for 15 20 years and it was   a bit of a shock to them but so eventually we had  to you know revert back to what everyone loves to   see her and you know she looked good in the in in  the short blonde hair you know uh um but it wasn't   the fans weren't ready for it they wanted to they  wanted their celine the public has the last word of several input and celine being the leader  of the costumes to freshen up the whole thing   we decided to change the costume new hair  extensions and new makeup and work with my   stylist anywhere that i used to work with and  ask sergio noma to come and recreate the hair   and ask zayn my stylist is doing my own  hair every night to kind of readjust and   help me to go through this every night to  ask scott barnes to kind of redo my the   makeup for me and show me to do a new way and so  designing new makeup i think before it was more   theatrical the show being very theatrical um  for the last year i think celine wanted to   to to have you know a more fashionable and  modern approach to tour looks for the stage   for the change for riverdeep we have a dress  uh very short in metal it's all in chains from   alexander mcqueen celine looks fantastic in it  she has amazing legs so it was very exciting to   add this very sexy number to the show when  i was a little girl i had a red dog only that's strange sex sex appeal everybody  walking forward and like lights coming   down on stage it's totally a  different color for the whole show i see all there's a moment we're all around celine and  the fan is blowing on her and we're all doing   this movement and you just feel her energy and we  can look at each other and so the rapport and the   connection we have amongst all the dancers with  celine at the center it's very symbolic really   of the show that celine is kind of the  center of our world right now and we just   owe everything to her and it's like we're all  praising her and thanking her she's living and   we're living get the stick out of the microphone  turn my back into the audience look at my dancers shiny legs shake the behind a little bit of course the manager in me thinks that it's a  great number that people love great production   great ideas but the the husband really thinks  that his wife is beautiful and she looks great me our show has many many stories we've been together  five years now and we've we've been living life   together you know and there's some good secrets  there's some good stories one of the stories i   have is a couple years ago celine became ill and  we cancelled the show for about two weeks and   it was pretty serious and the dancers were  concerned and we wanted to show her that we   were thinking of her we wanted to show her that  you know we were concerned we wanted to cheer up   so we decided that we were gonna send her a  card and we're gonna send her a cast photo   so we all got on stage and we took off all our  clothes and we took uh costume parts and pieces   and we strategically you know placed them maybe  they were hands or other people's hands you know   on certain parts and we had a blast doing this  photo shoot and of course you know our show is   called a new day well we sent her the card and  we sent her the photo and we lovingly retitled   the show a nude day because we just wanted  celine to know that we felt naked without her during seduces me sitting sitting in a large  chair and we have only male dancers coming in   i came i tried to follow all those dancers was  the uh the one just before the last one it was   you know like the other guys but i would try  to keep my belly in it's like you know like   dancer because dancers have shaped like nothing  like mine you know so i was walking on stage   and when i just go through you know celine's  i was walking up from the chair she was in   thinking about what the song was and didn't see me  yet and then when she opened her eyes i was just   up front of her and i let my belly go like you  know and she was 10 seconds after i have to sing   can you imagine in your head that tried to control  the laughing and everything that was amazing everything   there's a thing i could say right now because  she probably won't hear that before it's out   and the secret will still be here with us until  the the dvd is out uh we change the time on her   clock it's five years she doesn't know about it  it's five years that her clock is three minutes   earlier it makes a big difference three minutes is  the world for us for her to be ready a little bit   more on time and she doesn't know it until this  day so that would be a surprise i am so in a rush almost there almost there during the course of  our stay here the there's celebrities that come   not every night but on and off some want to be  noticed or celine will introduce them from stage   and some don't want to be incognito you know you  can't even tell they're here anthony hopkins was   going to be in the house and we decide well what  can we do because nobody he didn't want to be   know that he was there but we wanted to  do something so he knew that we knew i   went to wardrobe department and they made  up a shirt that tied like a straitjacket   and then they went and got a mask and put a  mask just like hannibal lecter did and then the   we used a regular dolly they strapped me in  with the loading loading strap and during the   tourist cross which is when all the tourists  run across stage they wheeled me out first   two guys wheeled me out and set me up and celine  never knows what's going to happen and when she   came down center stage i was leering at her  like a hand of elector would and she screamed and they turned around and walked me off  and then after the show i ran out to the   lobby and i took my mask and i went up to  mr hopkins and asked him if he signed it   which he did gracefully and security  staff said that all the way to his car   all he could talk about was  that what happened on stage one of the many guests that we had that struck  me the most i think was when michael gorbachev   went to meet celine with his daughter  who's a really big fan of celine   and well they were both there standing really  straight they didn't sit down you know and he   had the security guard the interpret his daughter  and him and and i couldn't believe that you got   this guy who changed history who was there  meeting celine and he was meeting him as   as a fan and and and he was happy to selling  and everything that was a big moment for me   and of course so many celebrities from hollywood  came like oprah came like michael douglas arnold   schwarzenegger came michael jackson even came i  want to impress them i want to impress myself i   want them to say oh my god it was so gorgeous so  good i want to impress them you know i'm proud a very emotional moment came when her  father passed away on november 30th 2003. you know we told her that of course  she doesn't have to do the show   and she insisted on doing the show that night  because she said that would want me to do the show   tonight is very special night for me it is also a very difficult day i've lost my dad this morning  i am insisted of coming my dad was and still is my number one  fan since i'm a very little girl and i know that um my dad would have wanted me to be here tonight  on stage with everyone i love doing what we love   and um we always think that we're so  strong but um i know that um he is here and i will tonight perform the very best i can and i will give everything i have and i would like to um to dedicate this  show to him people were in pain as much   as i was it was awful but i did it for my dad  the colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky   are also on the faces of people going  by i see friends shaking hands saying how do you do i hear babies crying i've watched them grow oh they learned much more than i'll ever know and i think what a wonderful world i think to myself what a wonderful i collapsed backstage after the end of the  show and thank god my brother was there   that night i was not a stage manager but i  was celin's brother and i'm very proud of it my heart will go and from that night you're going to see celine  every night doing a little sign up there   because he's over here over coliseum las  vegas and is taking care of her and me and   all the band members and all the family  i would love to dedicate this next song   to all the parents and children of the world  and especially my very own rene charles if i could i'd protect you from the sadness in your eyes  you know i have to say that my son was having   a hard time with music when he started his  life um and the reason why it's because i was   actually he didn't have he didn't have any  problems i was having a problem with coming   back in the industry after finding that my  most amazing pleasure in life was to be a mom   and this difficulty that i had to come back in  show business my son went through this when he   was ready he said to me one day mom i want to go  and say the show and i said which show he said   your show i said oh all right when he said now  tonight well i said uh i didn't want to be so   impressed in front of him that he would change his  mind so i said oh sure but i leave in 10 minutes   so he said no problem i'm ready i'm like so it  was the first time in my life that i was nauseous   he we all left together he had his tickets in  his hands i was getting ready for the show when   the show started my smile was hooked to my ears  i was waiting for so long for a miracle to come   it was the first new day of my life and um i  realized that my son has accepted me as a singer baby mommy wants to protect you and help my  baby through the hungries cause you're part   of me and if you ever ever never need a sinner to  cry on but just someone to talk to i'll be there if it was one of the best day of my career i  went in the audience after the end of the   show like i do every night and i give the rose  to someone that night i gave the rose to my son   and i took him in my arms and i went back on  stage i waved good night we went home and we never   talked about it since then my son is successful  as a human being he's a happy kid he's totally   well and i'm much better because i can  perform i can be free and not worry and   the best is yet to come we're good we're leaving las vegas and she's the hottest  act in las vegas uh you know year after year   she's been voted the entertainer of the year  in las vegas the show of the year in las vegas   so that's also unusual because usually people come  here if they've got a good show they're going to   stay some some artists some acts have been here  for 15 20 years some even longer so it's unusual   for us for an artist of her stature to come to  las vegas to begin with and then to leave at   the height of her career or the height of the las  vegas show is also unusual so you know this past   five years it's a historical moment for sure well  celine dion's arrival at caesar's palace really   initiated the revival of the property as one of  the pre-eminent gaming properties in the world   she's one of the preeminent superstar  celebrities and performers in the world   and the fact that she would take up residence  here and perform nightly in the coliseum theater   really brought a tremendous level of prestige  and panache to caesar's palace for our high-end   guests from around the world selena changed the  face of las vegas because for the first time   you had an international star at the height  of her career coming here to do a new show   designed especially for las  vegas now many many superstars   are thinking of doing the same thing  here we're very proud to be their partner   and we're very proud to be what is going to be the  greatest live entertainment event ever a new day   is not ending a new day is just reforming itself  for another venture and another opportunity so   we'll be back you know the key to the success  of this show is that everyone involved has an   important role to play from the person that deals  with the electric wires to the singer they're all   important celine knows that everyone knows that  the biggest secret or perhaps the the question   that i get asked most often about the show and  when people discover that i work with celine is   is she really as nice as she seems on television  and i have to unconditionally answer that yes   it's absolutely true and it's not a facade i mean  that's the strange thing when you when you meet   her you realize she's she's a a simple person that  has a true humility and honesty and she treats   everyone with incredible respect as artists and  as human beings i want celine to know that this   show has been a gift it's changed our lives and  we are so grateful that this company goes above   and beyond you know all their obligations to us  they've really taken care of us and i will i'm   forever grateful to celine we became a  family we've lost people that we loved   some gave birth to some children some left the  stage because it was too hard for them physically   some had personal problems left for eight months  came back to finish the journey with us there   was more than shows there was more than songs  and music and dance it was a five-year journey   and it's a lifetime even though it's tough  to start with i have to say i'll miss it hey guys what's up well i thought that um  you know i have nothing to do before the show   so what do you think if we do a tour i'd love to  invite you let's go and take a look the only thing   i ask for is humidity in my dressing room at home  and on stage there's humidity that comes out of it   and it's saving my life it's like an invisible  wall right now it's 30 humidity so rick do you   mind to explain to us every time i go and  see you and say rick you got to give me more   more humidity more humidity i'm a little bit rough  with you explain to us what's going on how does it   work so we produce our own water we make uh  we have a reverse osmosis system that makes   water with zero minerals in it uh no no  electrons no nothing it's just pure water   only in the desert in the desert we suck water  out of lake mead and we pump it up on the stage my that will go on for a couple  seconds and then it will stop i'm alive don't ladies and gentlemen this  is how it works backstage   it's gonna stop right any second now  any second one two okay i'll id again well actually i can have  myself a facial in the meantime look at those guys they're partying   oh now you're waking up sorry playboy  i'm working very hard playboy magazine you see not everyone's working really hard and  these are real pearls you know what there's no   such thing about having fake stuff nothing's  fake we sing for real we cry for real we laugh   for real we love each other for real the pearls  are real we love each other and this is real   you've got severe yeah how are you guys are  you doing homework yes you're studying right   i'm studying i'm studying to be an athletic  trainer in hopes to be a physical therapist   but that's a seven year process and we'll see  if i make it that far i'm sure you will i'm   sure you will hey you know daniela has been  um all of them have been incredibly talented   troopers and more than talented they've been  very generous and just like very special people   danielle is my standing so every time  that we rehearse a new number for example   um she comes in at two in the afternoon for  me for me to be able to sleep three hours more   and she does the work for me and i love it  and i appreciate it every night when we bow   i kiss elijah and he's putting white  powder on my face and then i kiss   tita and he puts brown so i have my makeup a white  spot of elijah and a red cheek from titanfall is to get to you

Channel: CelineDionWeb

Views: 124,791

Keywords: celine dion, céline dion, céline, dion, celine

Id: VTzK4-8RI48

Length: 52min 33sec (3153 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021