Taking Chances

Performer: Celine Dion
Engineer: Emanuel Kiriakou; Linda Perry; Kevin Mills; Mark Gray; Montez Roberts; Jeff Chestek; Ed Cherney; Kristofer Kaufman; Francois-Eric Lalonde; Rune Nissen-Peterson; Lasse Martin; Tommy Andersson; Roger Sommers; John Stalh; Andrew Chavez
Producer: Emanuel Kiriakou; Ben Moody; Linda Perry; Christopher Neil; John Shanks; Peer Astrom; Anders Bagge; Kara Dioguardi; Kristian Lundin; Aldo Nova; Ne-Yo; David Hodges; Christy Hall; Chuck Harmony; Kuk Harrell; C. "Tricky" Stewart
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Evelina Gard (vocals); David Stenmarck (spoken vocals); Chuck Harmony (various instruments); Michael Thompson (guitar, electric guitar); John Shanks (guitar, bass guitar); Michael Herring , Jesse Bond (guitar); Tim Christensen (guitars, Mellotron, bass guitar, drums); Karl Engstrom (guitars, keyboards, programming); Peer Astrom (guitars, bass guitar, drums, programming); Sebastian Thott, Sebastian Nylund (guitars); Linda Perry (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, organ, Mellotron, background vocals); Emanuel Kiriakou (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, programming); Aldo Nova (electric guitar, keyboards, electronic percussion, keyboard programming); David Levita (electric guitar); Per Sporrong (violin); VSL, Linda Lampenius, Jeff Bova, Lee Blaske, Ulf Forsberg (strings); David Hodges, Fred Nelson (piano); Robert Wells (grand piano); Doug Perry (organ); D.C. Collard (Hammond b-3 organ); Kristian Lundin (keyboards, programming, background vocals); Chris "Tricky" Stewart, Martin Sutton, Jamie Muhoberac, Pat Leonard, Ned Douglas (keyboards); Calvin Palmer, Paul Ill, Marty O'Brien (bass guitar); Jeff Rothschild (drums, programming); Nathan Wetherington, Damon "DJ" Jefferson, Abe Laboriel, Jr., Jim Keltner, Dorian Crozier (drums); Christopher Neil, Donna Simon, Belle Erskine, Kara DioGuardi, Lucy Woodward, Delta Goodrem, Ne-Yo (background vocals). That enormous mop of Stevie Nicks-style rock-chick hair on the front cover of TAKING CHANCES is the first clue that this is a different sort of album for Celine Dion. The formerly carefully coiffed French Canadian singer's first mainstream pop effort since 2002's A NEW DAY HAS COME, TAKING CHANCES is Dion's rock album. Guest producers and songwriters include former Evanescence co-leader Ben Moody, Canadian hard rocker Aldo Nova, Britpop master Kimberley Rew (of Soft Boys and Katrina and the Waves fame), and Linda Perry, who wrote and produced hits for Pink and Christina Aguilera, among others. Over the course of these 16 songs, Dion applies her bombastic, unapologetically operatic vocal style to an entirely new context, and the combination works well. Perry, Rew, and Moody in particular have previous experience working with female singers with big voices, so their songs match Dion's expressive vocal power with wailing guitars, dramatic piano crescendos, and subtle reminders of the rock of arenas past, from BORN TO RUN-era Bruce Springsteen to Heart's power ballad days. Indeed, one of the album's highlights is perhaps the definitive version of Heart's "Alone." While not noisy enough to worry Dion's easy-listening fans, TAKING CHANCES lives up to its title admirably.

Celine Dion's ascent from stardom in her native Canada to the upper echelons of international pop divadom is one of the 1990s major success stories. Blessed with a formidable set of pipes and a preference for heart-in-the-throat ballads, the precociously talented Dion initially won over American listeners in 1991, 10 years after her French-language debut, with the title track from Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. From then on, Dion became a music-biz phenomenon, with platinum record sales, sold-out concerts, and across-the-board appeal rivaling her idol, Barbra Streisand.

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