"Génération Céline": behind the scenes of the tribute show to Céline Dion

A big tour with all of Celine Dion 's hits is being prepared. At the helm of this show, Richard Walter and Erick Benzi, who have both worked with the singer. Génération Céline , which will premiere on September 19, 2025, is in full rehearsal. BFMTV was there.

Catherine Pearson, Magali Ponsada, Chiara Nova and Virginie Rohart are the four singers hired to bring Celine Dion's songs to life on stage. The quartet was chosen after a very long casting. About a hundred people were auditioned around the world.

Singer Catherine Pearson, a big fan of Celine Dion, already has a show in Quebec about the artist. "It's the biggest project of my entire career," she tells BFMTV. "I don't realize much. Everything is in a frenzy."

Celine Dion means a lot to her: "Each of her albums is linked to a period in my life: my first new car, my first heartbreak. I followed her looks, her outfits. She has always been my role model."

Following the model of Génération Goldman , Génération Céline will retrace her entire career. "We will go from her first songs to the phenomenon in Vegas. (We will talk about) her French period, her American period, with many anecdotes that happened in the studio," explains her musical director Erick Benzi.

"I have things to tell," insists Erick Benzi. This close collaborator of Celine Dion, who is an arranger, songwriter and producer, co-produced four French-language albums by Celine Dion: D'eux (1995), S'il suffisait d'aimer (1998), Une fille et quatre types (2003) and D'elles (2007).

"Everything is under construction, but we already have a good idea of ​​the order of the songs," he continues. He promises "a real dusting off of the old titles from the Canadian era, a bit old-fashioned": "It's going to be something quite new, maybe even more rock. But we still keep Céline's emotion."

A way for them to fill the absence of Céline Dion, who has been away from the stage since 2020. "There are very few artists whose absence is so great that millions of fans would really want to go see a show," says Richard Walter, producer of Génération Céline .

The superstar has been forced to stay away from the stage due to stiff-man syndrome , a rare autoimmune disease that causes fluctuating muscle stiffness. Including those in her throat, it has hampered her vocal abilities. But she returned to the spotlight in 2024 with a documentary about her battle with the disease, I Am: Celine Dion , and a breathtaking rendition of Hymn to Love to close the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July. But she has not announced a return to the stage.

The premiere of Génération Céline will take place in Beauvais on September 19. Then Génération Céline will be held on September 20 and 21, 2025 in Paris, at the Salle Pleyel. A tour is planned from 2026, from January 9 to February 17. Other dates could be added in case of success.