The second most amazing thing about the current No. 1 hit “The Power of Love” is that it took no less than four songwriters to come up with a chorus so lame it might not pass muster at Hallmark:
” ‘Cause I am your lady/And you are my man/Whenever you reach me/I’ll do all that I can.”
More amazing, however, is that Celine Dion almost makes that drivel beside the point. Almost. Even as she embraced the song’s neo-operatic bluster like a young Streisand, one couldn’t help thinking that a voice this good deserves better.
The pixiesh 25-year-old French Canadian still brings a phonics-class brittleness to her English enunciation. But at Park West on Sunday she was blasting high notes that transcended the language barrier, and just when it seemed impossible to go any higher, with a wink and a Babs-like dramatic pause, she would.
Although Dion loves to play “Can you top this?” with herself, she does it without smugness. She chats up the crowd with a refreshing lack of glad-to-be-in-Chicago patter. And she eagerly interacts with her three backup singers to set off call-and-response sparks.
Whether punching up the groove on “Love Can Move Mountains” or settling into a mood piece like “Only One Road,” Dion commanded the stage. And she nicely complemented her partners on the duets “The Beauty and the Beast,” with Terry Bradford (subbing for Peabo Bryson), and “When I Fall in Love,” with Clive Griffin.
Great voice or not, however, Dion hasn’t found enough songs worthy of it. Hers is the music of inconsequence that mucks up so much of the adult-contemporary charts, and her synth-heavy band played up to every power-ballad cliche.
It’s been said that Ray Charles could sing the phonebook and it would be worth hearing, but Dion isn’t in that class yet. She’s still a bit too eager to go for the quick kill, sometimes sacrificing nuance for flash.
Yet when she sang one of her early French numbers, translated as “Love Still Exists,” the richness and yearning in her voice were readily apparent. Here was an opportunity to luxuriate in the pure sonic thrill of her singing, and Dion made every note resonate. Now, if she could figure out a way to do that in English.
