René Angélil: The Making of Céline Dion

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Montreal journalist Jean Beaunoyer’s unauthorized biography of René
Angélil, co-authored with Angélil’s long-time friend, Jean Beaulne,
is a warts-and-all depiction of the impresario who crafted the career of
Quebec chanteuse Céline Dion.

Written in a punchy, tabloid style of brief paragraphs and short
chapters, the book is based on Beaulne’s 300 pages of handwritten
notes, his “box full of old articles, personal accounts and short
biographies,” and lengthy interviews between Beaunoyer and Beaulne.

Beaulne’s knowledge of Angélil comes from their 12-year association,
along with Pierre Labelle, as the singing trio the Baronets, and from
knowing him “better than my own brother” for more than 45 years. We
learn about Angélil’s childhood in Montreal, his interest in musical
talent contests, and first marriage, and about the Baronets’ success
(from which stemmed their involvement with women, sex, and drugs) and
eventual breakup. Along the way, Angélil met artistic manager Guy
Cloutier who motivated him to develop his own management career.

Based on his management experiences with singer Johnny Farago and
Ginette Reno, Angélil recognized the potential in 12-year-old Céline
Dion. In describing the developing relationship of the teenage ingénue
and the 38-year-old manager who eventually married her, Beaunoyer
details the making of Dion’s albums, the pairs’ initial failures and
later successes, their tours, Angélil’s fascination with gambling,
his brushes with heart attacks and cancer, and his young wife’s
positive influence on him. The infamous case of Angélil’s alleged
rape and the subsequent blackmail attempts are also mentioned.

Although it is not the definitive biography of Quebec’s best-known
couple, Beaunoyer’s book will appeal to Dion’s fans and to general
audiences interested in the lives of Canadian popular entertainers.