Céline Dion Admitted She Never Knew What a ‘Normal’ Life Was

By the time Céline Dion was 13 years old, she was a star. The singer rose to success with the release of her first album and was soon a celebrated name in Quebec. As a result, her adolescence slipped away from her far earlier than it does with most. While Dion said she doesn’t regret this, she admitted that she doesn’t quite know what a normal life is. 

Céline Dion said she never had a normal life

According to Dion, she knew she wanted to be a singer from a young age. Her mother and brother gave her her first song, “Ce n’était qu’un rêve,” and pushed music manager — and Dion’s eventual husband — René Angélil to listen to it. Her early dedication and success have made music a part of her identity.

“I started performing when I was 5. Did I want to be a singer? I never had time to ask myself that question,” she told Vogue France in 2024. “Did people come to see me to hear me tell jokes or to hear me sing? I am a singer.”

Dion’s dedication to her art left limited time for a normal childhood. She said she doesn’t regret this because she doesn’t know what she missed.

“No, because I don’t know what normality is. What is normal? You go to school, you leave school, you’re on stage, it’s something else, it’s sharing with the world, it’s emotion, it’s thrilling, it’s a way of expressing yourself,” she said. “It was a different kind of school. Did I have any friends? Did I miss out on anything? I never had the time to have all that. So I can’t compare. Do I have any regrets? I don’t know, I don’t know and I don’t care because the stage, my family, my children, and my songs have taught me everything I know.”

Céline Dion said she wouldn’t want to change her life

Dion said that she doesn’t have regrets because she doesn’t question life. She feels that her life took the path it was meant to.

“People question life all the time,” she said. “Stop questioning life, we should be living it. It’s not always beautiful, but it’s here.”

She said that her early success was a bit frightening, but she wouldn’t want to change it.

“So I was nervous, I was scared, scared of the unknown. I didn’t have much time to experience life as a teenager,” she explained. “There was no school, I had no friends. I had the stage and my family, I had the best. I didn’t want anything else.”

She grew up in a musical family

Even before her career took off, music was a constant part of Dion’s life. Each of her siblings sang and played instruments.

“My brothers and sisters and I lived in a small house. In the bedrooms upstairs, we slept five or six to a bed. On the ground floor, my mother would be cooking all the time and there was a piano in the cellar,” she said. “Everyone sang, and everyone played a musical instrument. ‘Ghislaine, you’re on drums. Clément, you pick up the guitar. Denis, you sing.’ My parents set up a small orchestra.”

For a while, Dion was an annoyance to her siblings; she kept singing while they tried to play their instruments. Eventually, though, she took her brother’s place when he married.

“I wanted to sing with them, but I was too little. I was five years old. Then it was my turn because my brother was getting married. I had to sing two or three well-known Quebec songs,” she said, adding, I used to go into the cellar to rehearse too. I was over the moon. Those are some of my fondest memories… The most beautiful memories.”