Celine Dion, Soon to Be Leaving Las Vegas, Announces 53-City North American Tour

By Chris Willman

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – If you haven’t been up for a trip to Las Vegas this past decade and a half, Celine Dion is coming back to you now. “So many people came to see us, and now we all think it’s time for us to go and see them,” the pop superstar said in a combination mini-concert and Q&A to announce her “Courage” world tour, held before an invited audience Tuesday afternoon at L.A.’s Theatre at Ace Hotel and webcast on Facebook Live.

“As you know, I have been performing at Caesars Palace on and off for the past 16 years,” Dion told the crowd of fans and press. “I think there was a miscommunication or something, because I think I was supposed to be there for two months, something like that,” she joked. “But because of the great support from people like you… my heart kept going on and on and on and on. We are still there till June, so come on out. but you know what? I think it’s time for a change. … I’m also very, very excited because I’m also releasing a new album. Everything is later. The tour is later, the album is later — I would say, around November, roughly.”

If Dion was a little fuzzy on exact dates in person, and the album release date truly is TBA, the tour is very much set in stone, and a press release announcing the dates went out while she was still on stage. The “Courage” North American tour begins with four shows in her native Canada at the end of September, then moves to the United States for a long stretch that lasts from mid-October through mid-April 2020, wrapping up with some additional Canadian dates at the end of that month. (See her full itinerary, below.)

Dion was short on details about the tour, saying, “The thing that I can say right now, because we’re still in the process of putting it together, is that it’s not gonna be the Las Vegas show.”

She revealed that her next album, which will be her first English-language release in six years, is also called “Courage,” after a title song.

“I think we all go through a lot of things in life – we all do – whether it’s losing someone, whether it’s some kind of sickness, something that we have to fight,” Dion said. “And I think I went through a lot. And life had given me the tools — my family, the way that I grew up, the way that we all were raised in my family — to find my inner strength, to find courage, to keep going. When I lost Rene, before he went to his other life, he wanted me back on stage. He wanted to make sure that I was still practicing my passion. And I wanted to prove to him that I’m fine, we’re fine, we’re gonna be okay — I got this. … All the people I love so much, from my crew and my management … to the people who take care of my children, everyone who embraced the moments that were difficult,  they gave me so much strength. And then a song came that was called ‘Courage’ … and it didn’t take long to think Celine, I think the album should be called ‘Courage.’”

It’s not done yet — or at least it’s not sequenced and edited yet. “Oh, I’m more than ready,” Dion said. “The problem is that I’m too ready. The problem is that I can’t make up my mind. I can’t choose. I don’t have one album, I’m up to four. I think I have 48 songs, and they ask me to pick 12. Are you kidding?… Can we have a triple album? Why not?”

One new song, “Flying On My Own,” was excerpted, although it might have gone unnoticed except among the most attentive faithful, as it was heard during an opening video that had Dion catching a ride from Vegas to L.A. in a car full of drag celebrity interpreters (including, naturally, a ringer for Celine).

Little was revealed about the style of the album, though she did say Sia is involved. “I am totally addicted to . Because whatever her journey was, I feel her pain and her passion and I connect with her music tremendously. She’s written in the past for me,” she said. “I’m not supposed to say this, but she’s on the new album as well.” She belted out a chorus of “Chandelier,” as she is prone to. “It’s not gonna be that song. And by the way, Sia, you should have kept that song for me.”

Dion also extolled the virtues of the singer LP, whose biggest hits have come overseas, saying she discovered her while pursuing her new passion, ballet class. “I was like, who is that? LP? Yes, girlfriend! I need to find her phone number because I need to try to see if she can write for me.”

Preceding the Q&A portion of her hour-long appearance, Dion had her band sit in while she performed “I’m Alive,” the “Deadpool 2” song “Ashes” and “My Heart Will Go On” for the crowd.

Tickets for Dion’s Sept. 18 through March 13 shows go on sale April 12 (with a presale for fan club members April 8). The shows that begin March 24 will be put up for sale at an undetermined later date.

Her “Courage” itinerary: