Céline Dion is surely one of the world’s most successful and well-known French-language singers. Born in the Canadian province of Québec and singing originally exclusively in French, Céline has gone on to international stardom in English and in French, selling over  200 million albums worldwide (making her the best-selling Canadian artist of all time).

Céline’s voix magnifique (magnificent voice) is perfect for this song of hope. I hope you will enjoy it. And if, like me, you enjoy practicing your French with music, a quick follow up to last week’s pronunciation post: I discovered a new radio station (disponible en ligne / available on line) that only plays French hits (no English!). It is a mix of older songs and new hit music. A great place to discover your own new favorite artisits and songs.

* ‘éclairer’ literally means ‘to light up’. The verb ‘briller’ means ‘to shine, glisten’. Les étoiles brillent dans le ciel, mais le soleil éclaire la Terre. (The stars shine in the sky, but the sun lights up/illuminates the Earth.) Note that as in English, la Terre (Earth) with a capital letter is the planet, la terre (earth) with a lower case first letter is soil, dirt, earth.
** Note that in French, you do not, as a general rule, use possessive adjectives with parts of the body. So you would say, for example, ‘J’ai mal à la jambe.’ to indicate that your leg hurts and not ‘J’ai mal à ma jambe.’
*** The verb ‘se taire’ means ‘to keep quiet’ or ‘to hush up’. It shows up in the less polite and more direct expression ‘Tais-toi’ which can be interpreted as ‘be quiet’ but really is closer in practical use to ‘shut up!’ (You’ll also hear ‘la ferme’, ‘shut it!‘). The title of a 1958 French film, Sois belle et tais-toi (Be beautiful but shut up) has, sadly, become an expression of disdain and sexism towards the role of woman in many languages and cultures.
**** Note that while the Académie française is all for, the use of accents on capital letters in French is really only required in two situations and you’ll often see capital letters missing their accents in a whole range of settings and situations. When must you use accents? 1. If the absence would change the meaning or lead to confusion, and 2. with proper names.