Pop Break Live: Celine Dion ‘Courage World Tour’ at The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia
Pop Superstar Celine Dion brought her Courage World Tour to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on February 26th. Dion finished up her historic 16-year residency in Vegas this past June and is now touring in support of her newest album, Courage, released on November 15th.
It’s been 11 long years since Celine Dion played Philadelphia so it was no surprise that the audience was fired up for this show. You could feel it in the air, even during the DJ set prior to her coming on. The audience was a great mix of young and old and appeared to be a family affair for many. It was a nice blend of mothers, daughters, grandmothers and small children. There were also large groups of friends along with couples but it was a predominately female audience and this Philly crowd showered her with as much love as she could handle during the night.
Dion, looking unbelievable fit in a shimmery red dress, opened up with her big hit “It’s All Coming Back To Me.” For nearly two hours Dion, along with an extraordinary band and a group of highly entertaining back up singers, totally captivated the audience. With the exception of a gigantic open stage and some cool stuff at the encore the production was pretty minimal, nothing really glitzy, no dancers or bombastic lighting to distract. It was just simply Celine … and her incredible multi-octave voice!
The set included most of her greatest hits such as “That’s The Way It Is,”” The Power of Love,””If You Asked Me Too,” “I’m Alive,” and “Beauty and The Beast.” Her cover of Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” was awe-inspiring. Another standout was “To Love You More” in which she was accompanied by a violinist. The song ended with “hands in the air” and the crowd singing along loudly.
One of her newer songs that really stood out was “Courage.” It’s a song about dealing with loss. Back in 2016 Dion’s husband and brother passed away within two days of each other. Having lost her beloved mom less then six weeks ago you could see it in her face how difficult it was to get through. You could hear a pin drop during this song. The crowd was right there with her. It was a nice moment.
In between songs there was a lot of banter with the crowd. Dion was very chatty and the audience absolutely loved it. She felt “genuine” and her connection with the crowd was pretty intense. Her great quirky sense of humor shone through during the night. After her first song there were four costume changes during her set. Dion, dubbed a true fashion icon in the past, did not disappoint with her sparkly silver pantsuit with an open back, a puffy white jacket and pants with a tuxedo shirt underneath, a tan colored dress with ornate black flowers and a stunningly beautiful white ball gown at the encore. This fashionista still has it going on!
Dion likes to get the audience involved at her shows which made the song “You’re the Voice” stand out. They turned the lights up and Dion urged the audience to sing as loud as they could. She said it could become an anthem and that it would become “our song”. They happily obliged. Besides an extended version of “Because You Loved Me”, in which the audience sang the last chorus, one of the “mic drop” songs of the night was “The Prayer,” a duet performed previously with opera singer Andrea Bocelli. She did it solo and it was as powerful and dramatic as the original. Chills…
She ended her set in bombastic fashion with a stunner of a medley. Dressed in a disco inspired sparkly silver pantsuit she performed covers of Bowie’s “Lets’ Dance,” Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” Prince’s “Kiss,” Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High,” and Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” Her stellar band really kicked it up a notch on this and made it all the more memorable.
Dressed in a gorgeous white puffy gown, she encored with the song that everyone was waiting for “My Heart Will Go On,” from the blockbuster movie Titanic. The audience screamed every word. It was also a stunner visually as the audience lit up the venue with their phones as synchronized drones, simulating stars, circled then rose above Dion on stage.
Accompanied by a just a piano, Celine Dion ended the night with John Lennon’s “Imagine.” With the state of affairs in the world today, this really struck a chord with the audience. They cheered loudly on certain lyrics and sang loudly on others. It was the perfect song to end what turned out to be the perfect night. There is no doubt the audience was left with a lasting memory. What a wonderful performance by one of the truly legendary voices in music.
