Supernova Singer Celine Dion Has Become An International Star In A Very Short Time

The photo shoot goes on hour after hour, lasting well into the night. The subject is Celine Dion, the French-Canadian supernova who has sold 13 million copies of her last two albums.

She has become an international star, but she has never taken her success for granted. And if she’s frazzled by the long hours in this photo studio, changing clothes and posing endlessly, she doesn’t betray it. She knows that it’s simply another professional chore, an essential part of show business.

“I don’t get too much rest, but I’m sure you know show business,” Dion, 26, says during a break. “When the train passes, you have to catch it. My career is going well; it’s happening now. I don’t have time to think about it. It’s just, ‘Let’s do it,’ because it might end tomorrow. We never know.”

The lean, intensely verbal Dion is the youngest of 14 children from Montreal, so it’s no wonder she’s used to working hard to be noticed. She’s doing it in two languages. She has made 11 albums in French, including last year’s “D’eux,” which sold 3 million copies in France alone to make it the all-time best-selling French album there. And she’s made four albums in English, including 1993’s “The Colour of My Love” (with the No. 1 hit “The Power of Love”), which sold 8 million copies worldwide.

And now comes her latest English-language disc, “Falling Into You,” which is out this week. It should easily bridge the Top 40 and adult-contemporary genres with its Barbra Streisand-influenced vocals and its surprisingly fresh cover versions of the Tina Turner hit “River Deep, Mountain High” and Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself.”

“I started my English career not that long ago,” says Dion, who broke into the U.S. market a few years ago by way of hit duets on the soundtracks to “Beauty and the Beast” (with Peabo Bryson) and “Sleepless in Seattle” (with Clive Griffin).

“English is a second language and will always be a second language because my origin and roots are as a Francophone,” she continues. “But I love languages, and I’m thinking of taking a break next year to learn Spanish.”

There will be no breaks this year, however. Dion is on a frightfully hectic schedule - touring in Australia this month, then Canada next month, then the states all summer and Europe in the fall.

“Live performance is what I enjoy the most. I do all of this,” she says, alluding to the photo shoot and similar duties, “just so I can be onstage. The stage is the part of show business that I love. It’s where I can be myself.”

Dion has a classic pop voice that can induce chills. She has been singing professionally since she was 12, when she was discovered by Rene Angelil - who became her manager, then her husband - and she has retained the astounding knack of singing in an open-hearted, sincere style.

“I’m just giving back what I have received all my life,” she says. “I grew up with 13 brothers and sisters. My parents were musicians, and they used to tour with members of my family. (Music) is the only thing I know. And my parents gave their everything to us. We never had money, but we were never poor because my parents gave so much love to all of us. We had the real, true values of life. And today, I know I can always go back to my family, even if something happens in my career and it’s over.”

Unlike many artists, Dion doesn’t compete relentlessly with her peers and doesn’t follow every nuance of the Billboard charts to see how those peers are doing.

“I don’t want to be a number on a chart,” she says. “I’m not looking at the chart to see where I’m going. I go into the studio and try to put my whole soul and heart and feeling into what I do. My role is to sing the best that I can.”

The new album, which has a number of songs penned and produced by former Meat Loaf partner Jim Steinman, blends cinematic, orchestrated pop with sweeping ballads such as “Because You Loved Me.” It’s the album’s first single, and it doubles as the theme song in the new Robert Redford-Michelle Pfeiffer film, “Up Close & Personal.”

Several songs show the influence of Streisand, to whom Dion has often been compared. “She’s definitely the person I look up to the most in show business,” Dion says of Streisand. “She has so much class and is so talented. I love her and love every movie she’s done. If I can have a little bit of her career, I’d love it.”

Like Streisand, Dion wants to pursue acting as well as music, once she can find the time for it. So far, she has had only a cameo in a French-language miniseries in Canada seven years ago called “Flowers on the Snow.” She notes: “I played the role of a girl who was beaten and abused by her parents. It was a true story and was one of the most difficult things I’ve done.”

Also like Streisand, Dion hopes to stick around for many years. “I don’t just want a hit song or movie,” Dion concludes. “I want a career. And I want a career that will last.”