Taking Chances World Tour

The show, directed by Jamie King—known for his work with Madonna—combined Dion's performances with elaborate staging, fashion elements and choreography. The set included many of her best‑known songs as well as material from her English‑language album Taking Chances.^[3] The two‑hour production was divided into four thematic segments—soul, rock, Middle Eastern‑inspired and "fashion‑victim"—and included eight dancers. Rehearsals took place in December 2007 in Primm, Nevada, and at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The technical setup incorporated 20 LED screens, one of which moved above the stage, along with catwalks, conveyor belts, elevators and ramps. Dion also recorded several video sequences for use during the show. The opening film depicted her driving at high speed to a remix of "I Drove All Night". Two versions of this introduction were created: an early one highlighting moments from her career, used in South Africa, Asia, Australia and some European dates, and a later version showing footage from cities visited on the tour. Another montage presented Dion in various fashion styles over the years, accompanied by a remix of "My Heart Will Go On".

King rejoined the production on 2 May 2008 in Manchester, England. Prior to that, the show was not staged in the round (except in Japan) due to logistical constraints. After two and a half months on the road, Dion rehearsed again to refine the performance for the central‑stage configuration. Because of her bilingual repertoire and the limitations of certain venues, King developed three distinct versions of the show. One was an English‑language, in‑the‑round production using the full system of mobile screens and stage machinery. A second, also staged centrally, incorporated ten of her most popular French‑language songs for Francophone audiences. A third, simplified version was created for arenas where the central stage could not be installed; these performances used an end‑stage layout with a large central screen and an expanded lighting design. Before the European leg, both the central‑ and end‑stage versions were finalized and reconfigured to ensure compatibility across venues. New costumes debuted at the start of the European shows.

Dion and her band rehearsed approximately 60 songs in English and French, from which about 27 were selected for performance depending on the market. "Pour que tu m'aimes encore", one of her most successful French‑language singles, was included throughout the tour; the song had set records in the 1990s as the best‑selling French‑language single of all time and one of the few French songs to chart widely outside Francophone regions. Dion also performed several cover songs, including James Brown's "I Got the Feelin'" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", and Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "The Show Must Go On", though the Queen songs were removed after the 27 October show in Winnipeg. She also performed Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me", which was dropped after the concert in South Korea.^[4]

When the tour reached Dion's home province of Quebec, she performed eight sold‑out shows in Montreal and two in Quebec City. Although not officially part of the tour, Dion also gave a free concert on 22 August 2008 for an audience of 250,000 at the Plains of Abraham during the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. The French‑language performance included numerous guest appearances. The event was broadcast live on Bell Satellite TV and viewed by more than 200,000 people at home.^[5]

On 22 August 2008, the City of Lévis broadcast Dion's honorary concert for Quebec City's 400th anniversary online and on television. The event attracted an audience of 250,000 people.^[6] On 31 August 2008, a special performance of "My Love" aired during the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.^[7] The telethon performance was later used as the official music video for the single.

An official tour photo book, Celine autour du monde, was released on 24 September 2009 in Quebec and France. The 368‑page volume includes 485 photographs by Gérard Schachmes, presenting images from concerts, backstage moments, and Dion's travels. It also includes photos of her family, the tour crew, dancers, singers, musicians and technicians, as well as scenes from locations such as the River Thames, an African safari, and early‑morning stage preparations in New York.^[8][9][10] The book was released in Canada on 14 October 2009, with editions for the United States and Japan planned.

The tour was documented in the film Celine: Through the Eyes of the World, which follows Dion on stage, behind the scenes and during personal moments with her family.^[11] The documentary was released on DVD and Blu‑ray on 11 May 2010.

Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert was also released on 11 May 2010. It includes a DVD and live CD of the English‑ and French‑language setlists (issued separately). The English recordings were made in Boston on 12–13 August 2008, while the French recordings were captured in Montreal on 31 August and 1 September 2008. A deluxe edition includes both DVDs, a 52‑page booklet and fold‑out souvenir postcards.^[12][13]

Dion set a record in the history of Canadian concerts, when she sold out all her Montreal shows in only a few minutes.^[14] After further shows being added, bringing the total to 11, Montreal's audience (with 20,995 in attendance at each show^[15]) became the largest on the tour with 227,616 spectators for a single city. Dion performed in Bell Centre 31 times since 1996.^[16] Other Canadian concerts were sold out immediately, prompting second dates to be added in Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg, and a third show added in Toronto.^[17] In the United States, second dates were announced in New York City, Uniondale, Boston, and Newark.^[18] In Ireland 64,000 tickets for her Dublin concert, the largest single concert of the scheduled tour, were sold out in 3 hours.^[19]

Dion also sold out stadium audiences in South Africa, Netherlands (50,000) and Denmark (42,000).^[20] A second concert date was added for Sydney, Australia after tickets were selling fast in the country.^[21] For a 22 August 2008 free concert (not a part of the Taking Chances Tour), Dion sang in front of her biggest crowd, up until that point, when she performed on the Plains of Abraham to help celebrate Quebec City's 400th Birthday. Tickets were distributed to around 250,000 people.^[22]

Dion announced she would be playing at The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor on 7 February 2008. Tickets sold out in a record 15 minutes, with more than 125 people queuing up the night before to wait for tickets.^[23] Her performance at the Kansas City, Missouri Sprint Center became the highest-grossing concert in the arena's history, with a gross of $1,661,827. That record has since been broken by Elton John and Billy Joel.^[24] Dion's concert at the Miami, Florida American Airlines Arena set an attendance record, selling 17,725 tickets.^[25] Britney Spears broke that record two months later, performing for 18,644 people. However, although singing for a smaller audience, Dion grossed $2,247,233; Spears managed to gross $1,972,928.^[26] According to her official website, Dion became the top-selling performer for three venues: Montreal's Bell Centre, Kansas City's Sprint Center, and the New Orleans Arena. The latter concert grossed $1,829,331.^[27] Dion's performances at the Bell Centre (in 2008) ranked second in Billboard's Top 25 Boxscores.^[28]

The concerts received mixed reviews in the press. Diane Coetzer of Billboard claimed Dion's first performance in South Africa "may not have ultimately succeeded in presenting her as a multi-faceted performer, but it definitely confirmed that Dion is a singer of unparalleled ability. Performing in a stadium that ordinarily holds rugby fans and flanked by two huge screens, Dion used her astonishing voice to captivate the near-capacity crowd." Coetzer praised the dancing and visuals, but believed the choice in covering soul songs and songs from Queen made the show awkward until the closing in which "My Heart Will Go On" was performed.^[29]

Jon Caramanica of the New York Times wrote that Dion "showed off a few new tricks without violating her core tenets of scale and pomp." On the other hand, he described some of the other songs, such as "My Love" as "a technical exercise, a singer practicing her vocal workout in front of thousands of people."^[30] The Independent gave a negative review of Dion's performance in the London concert, by awarding the show 2 stars out of 5 and claiming, "Many singers perform in their second language and manage to sound convincing. Despite selling a reported 200 million albums – including 27 million copies of that Titanic soundtrack – Céline Dion is not one of them."^[31]

Randy Lewis's article in the Los Angeles Times was more enthusiastic, opening with, "It's a no-brainer why Celine Dion's Taking Chances tour is shaping up as one of the highest-grossing North American concert attractions of 2008... hundreds of thousands of fans are filling arena after arena to hear Dion deliver emotional climax after emotional climax, goosebump-inducing vocal thrill after thrill, sweeping chorus after chorus filled with spirit-lifting affirmations and enough technical razzle-dazzle to dwarf the Super Bowl halftime show. And that was just her opening number." The article was expanded, claiming "her vocal workouts are all about perfection — and without a hint Auto-Tuning in sight — she succeeds at letting her human side come through in the spaces between songs. That gave some tangible ballast to the often overblown arrangements that typify her middle-of-the-road pop songs. The album from which the tour draws its name does indeed take a few chances —stylistically, placing her in harder-hitting rock settings than she, or her fans, have been used to. And she included a healthy dose of the new songs, pumped up by her razor-sharp band and three singers, who were joined by eight dancers on several of the night's biggest numbers." Like in the previously mentioned Billboard article, the soul covers were not appreciated.

Sarah Rodman of the Boston Globe wrote positively, "There was never a dearth of stimulation, be it her own costume changes, the intricate lighting, the video imagery, or her cadre of dancers, deployed judiciously. It's a testament to her skill however, that even when the songs weren't strong, Dion was."^[32]

CTV News acclaimed Dion's performance in Montreal, "Dion's stock moves were also on ready display – the fist jabs in the air, the sweep of the arms which makes her look as though she's going to take flight, and the cantering across the stage. However, the trademark chest-thumping move dubbed 'the defibrillator' by comedians and critics wasn't as prominent. The 'Taking Chances World Tour' marks Dion's return to the road after a five-year gig in Las Vegas and Celineophiles were tingling with excitement as they lined up to get into the Bell Centre. Dion had the crowd in the palm of her hand to the point that when she swaggered over to a corner of the stage during various songs, the crowd in that section rose as one as though on command and reached out."^[33]

Much of the critical division came towards Dion's new image as someone who came back from a Vegas showcase. Dave Simpson of The Guardian gave the Manchester concert 3 stars out of 5 and stated, "in her nine-year break from touring (apart from a residency in Vegas), Dion has clearly been abducted by aliens and replaced by CelineBarbie, a dancing sex goddess who makes raunchy smiles at the camera, dances with musclemen, performs rockers penned by Pink's songwriter Linda Perry and, bizarrely, turns Roy Orbison songs into gay disco."^[34] An article in Sun Media gave the Toronto concert 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Is Celine Dion really taking chances anymore? Well, the name of her current world tour would say that she is, but the 40-year-old mega-selling pop star is basically Vegas personified."^[35] On the other hand, The Vancouver Sun after praising the show's set-up, stated, "The idea here is presumably to humanize the diva, as it were, and, fittingly, during the show Dion makes use of two protruding catwalks to "mingle" with the audience. It's worth questioning how humanizing an influence doting devotees who can justify spending $520 for two hours of light entertainment really are, but that's a whole other thesis."^[36]

Festivals and other miscellaneous performances

^A This concert benefited Nelson Mandela Children's Fund

^B This concert was a part of the "Main Square Festival"^[51]

^C These concerts were a part of the "Monte-Carlo Sporting Summer Festival"^[52]

• Dion's performances at the Bell Centre (in 2008) ranked second in Billboard's Top 25 Boxscores.^[28]

• Manager: René Angélil
• Tour director: Denis Savage
• Tour manager: Michel Dion (talent)
• Tour manager: Patrick Angélil (production, logistics and media relations)
• Production manager: Rick Mooney
• Assistant production manager: Shari Weber
• Stage manager: Alexandre Miasnikof
• Artist's personal security: Nick Skokos
• Tour rigger: Cindy Beaumariage
• Lighting director: Yves "Lapin" Aucoin
• Front of house engineer: François "Frankie" Desjardins
• Monitor engineer: Charles Ethier
• Audio system engineer: Mario St-Onge
• RF engineer: Marc Theriault
• Health Services/Chiropractor: Trevelynn Henuset DC
• Assistant lighting director/lighting head: Karl Gaudreau
• Video director: Veillet Mireille
• Head back-line tech: Jeff Dubois
• Computer programmer and keyboard technician: Guy Vignola
• Head video: Martin Perreault
• Production assistants: Sharie Weber, Stephanie Duval
• Tour accountant: Sylvia Hebel
• Creative director: Jamie King
• Tour director: Jim Allison, Concerts West
• Production director: Lonnie McKenzie
• Lighting, audio, video vendor: Solotech, Montreal
• Merchandiser: Billy Wilson

• List of highest-grossing concert tours
• List of highest-grossing concert tours by women