On the first day of 2023, Rolling Stone published its list of ‘The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time’. Now, you’d expect a publication that focuses on music and culture to curate such a list from time to time. Rolling Stone first published a list of a similar iteration back in 2008, narrowing it down to 100 singers as selected by “a panel of 179 experts”.
We all know that music—like many other forms of artistry—is subjective. What would be soul-stirring for one person, isn’t necessarily the case for someone else; and the same goes for the many different facets of music from its more nuanced, emotional aspects to genre-specific niches.
But when it comes to singing, technical abilities come into play—something that isn’t exactly as subjective. It’s exceptionally curious then why Céline Dion was left out of Rolling Stone‘s ‘The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time’ list (she was also not included in the 2008 list).
According to Rolling Stone, the latest list was judged based on “originality, influence, the depth of an artist’s catalog, and the breadth of their musical legacy”. The publication also caveats the curation of the list by affirming that it is “the Greatest Singers list, not the Greatest Voices List”—which is pretty much down to semantics, but as Twitter user @Ilozue716 succinctly puts it: “Do you sing with your arms or something?”
It’s laughable really that Rolling Stone would leave out one-third of the ‘Vocal Trinity’—a term that often refers to Céline, Mariah Carey (number 5) and Whitney Houston (number 2)—from the list. I’m not even going to entertain the order in which a singer was placed (Kelly Clarkson at 194 and way below Taylor Swift; really?) since there’s no mention of a ranking of any sort.
There’s no actual metrics in the publication’s final curation of the list. And to be fair, whittling it down to just 200 singers in popular music is no mean feat, especially given the much broader and diverse classification of pop music in the recent decade or so. But based on the aforementioned criteria, do we really think that the Céline Dion deserves to be snubbed?
Céline Dion’s lack of originality
First and foremost, “originality” is quite a vague way of determining a singer’s influence. Do they mean that a singer has to not sound like anyone else? Because I don’t know about you, but I can definitely tell Céline’s voice apart from the rest of the singers on the list. Her voice is uniquely distinct, marked by her slightly accented phrasing and crystal clear tone.
Céline’s voice is so original that it’s become a fodder for impressions over the years. Ariana Grande famously imitated Céline’s dramatic vocal stylings on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as on an episode of Saturday Night Live seven years ago. In fact, just six months ago, an America’s Got Talent contestant advanced to the next round with her rendition of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ which included a Céline impression.
Who does Céline Dion influence
It’s safe to say that Grande and America’s Got Talent‘s Merissa Beddows aren’t the only ones that Céline Dion has had an influence on. There’s no short of artists who have publicly credited her as one of their major influences, including Britney Spears, V of BTS, Sam Smith and many more.
Adele (number 22 on the list) is such a big fan that she once proclaimed that her most prized possession is a used chewing gum of Céline’s—a framed gift from host and comedian James Corden.
Céline is also often thought of as one of the blueprint of pop vocals, of which singers proceeding her have been compared to. Country singer Martina McBride is often referred to as the “Céline Dion of Country Music”, while Malaysian singer Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza has been called “Asia’s Céline Dion” throughout her career.
Beyond her influence as a vocalist, Céline is credited as popularising modern Las Vegas residencies. The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was specially built to house her first-ever residency, A New Day…, in 2003. The success of the initial residency prompted an extension of the contract from three years to five, and is widely regarded as the most successful residency of all time, raking in over US$385 million across 717 shows.
It’s this phenomenal success that has encouraged artists the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to head to Las Vegas, effectively breaking the stereotype that residencies are only for performers past their prime.
Is Céline Dion’s discography deep enough
If there’s one thing to fault (which shouldn’t be of consequence with regards to the list) is the fact that Céline doesn’t write her own songs—something she shares with Whitney.
But with 27 studio albums and seven live albums under her belt (in addition to 19 compilation albums and 25 box sets), there’s no denying that her discography is deep. Her first eight albums were all in French beginning when she was just 13 years old, before her first English album was released in 1990. The first US single released from the latter, ‘Where Does My Heart Beat Now’, peaked the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number four.
Granted that not all her albums have been commercially successful, Céline has sold an estimated 250 million albums worldwide. This has placed her among the top 10 best-selling female artists of all time to this day.
If you’re including a relative newcomer such as Rosalía, with a total of three albums, on the list, Rolling Stone…
Now about that musical legacy
The height of power balladry in the 1990s and early 2000s was brought about by the Vocal Trinity. They’re each known for a particular song (if you really have to distil it to just one). For Mariah, that’s ‘Hero’; Whitney with ‘I Will Always Love You’.
Céline’s is, without a doubt, ‘My Heart Will Go On’—a song that’s as massive as the film that it was the soundtrack to: Titanic. It earned her two Grammys in 1999 for ‘Best Female Pop Vocal Performance’ and ‘Record of the Year’. To date, the song has been played upwards of 420 million times on Spotify alone.
Then, there’s also ‘All By Myself’. Although it was not originally sung by Céline—the original was written and sung by Eric Carmen in 1975—her version remains one of pop music’s most challenging song, vocally.
It’s in the climax of the song that Céline initiates a key change with the highest note (lasting at least seven seconds) in the entire song, sung at the last syllable of ‘anymore’. And like every other indicator of everlasting pop culture relevance, hitting that note has even become a TikTok challenge.
So yes, Rolling Stone leaving Céline Dion out of ‘The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time’ list is the most puzzling thing to have happened in 2023. And we’re only three days into the year.
