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Yes, she was feeling it during her first Vegas residency, the one that began in 2003.
And during the 2008 world tour and the next tour and all the other tours after that.
Normally, after a show, her vocals would drop at least a half-note.
One day, she noticed her voice went up instead.
Then it began to burn out.
By 2020, she tells the camera, I could barely walk.
The venue was full of press and fans who sang along to the hits piped in before the screening.
I Am: Celine Dionlets you decide.
Celine is one of the few living singers whose work is so ubiquitous, it textures the worlds nostalgia.
But this film suggests a new status for her: that of an injured athlete.
Its not just the way she talks.
Of teamwork in general, she says, If you wanna go fast, go alone.
And if you wanna go far, go together.
Of herself, she offers: The person that I am today, I didnt create myself.
I didnt invent myself.I am.
Even now, shes prone to breaking into song halfway through a sentence.
In her view, The performance is way bigger than the song.
The stomp and twirl of those longgazelle legs, that flung-out wingspan that seemed as wide as the stadium.
(Id always thought of Celine as one of the iconic tall girls.
I was shocked to learn were allegedly the same height: five-foot-seven.)
Sometimes that voice is played as the teasing prelude to the full, 360 song-and-dance experience.
She moans in pain as EMTs lift her onto a gurney.
The raw clip exemplifies the films revelations, which are all about Celines physical state.
We get to watch her try, and its painful.
After one attempt, she is so overstimulated that she goes into crisis, during a sports-medicine therapy session.
Her feet spasm, then her hands.
However, since Celine approved everything in this project, even an abject moment serves a purpose.
(She did just tell the BBC shesplanning a new Vegas show.)
in front of the cameras.
My first time viewing the film, I almost didnt notice how little Celine does in it.
She shakes her head, disturbed by this double fault that shouldve been an ace.
Je naime pas ca, she tells her recording engineers and looks about to cry.
Some athletes retire when they start to slow down.
They know whats coming and want to end on their terms.
Others keep pushing till their bodies refuse them.
The film tells us that Celine is the second kind.
To be is to belt.
I think I was very good, she says at one point.
I think I had some stuff that was amazing.
What would it mean to be Celine Dion anyway?
Celine sighs as she summarizes: Shes the best.
