For those who have forgotten just how “wacky” Céline Dion can be (even though it wasn’t that long ago that her commercial for Célinununu, her genderless kids’ clothing line, dropped), the latest edition of Carpool Karaoke is here to remind you. While James Corden is known for providing the perfect relaxed setting for “casual confessions” (like when Madonna–whose dad’s favorite singer is Céline–perhaps mistakenly admitted to sharing a kiss with Michael Jackson) via the tableau of a luxury sedan in which icons are encouraged to further bolster their egos by singing their own songs, Dion’s appearance was perhaps more than even he bargained for in terms of “drawing her out.”
Despite being known for her signature dramatic ballads, people tend to forget about her zany, humorous side, which was out in full effect as the duo cruised the streets of Las Vegas (where Dion currently has a residency, Celine, that will end in June after an eight-year run). Starting with arguably her best song, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” Dion led up to the first official karaoke of the ride by inserting her own ditties (and, at one point, Rihanna’s) as a reply every time Corden uttered a sentence of any kind. Kissing Corden at one point to his sheer delight, Dion spared no literal expense either to make it a memorable ride. For it’s when Corden brings up the fact that she owns ten thousand pairs of shoes that he tells her they have to give them away. Hence, her horrification when he says, “We actually spoke to your assistant–” “Oh no, those bitches.” He continues (suddenly correcting to the plural pronoun to infer she has far more than just one assistant), “And they said that they felt that we probably needed to have a slight cutoff of the shoes. So we’ve got some of your shoes.” “Fuck off!” she screams. Continuing to dig the fake plastic knife, he adds, “We thought we could give them away to people on the Las Vegas Strip.” She bemoans, “No, no, no, no, no, no,” as he assures, “Don’t worry, you’re still going to have nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-five pairs of shoes.” Oh sweetly hilarious in her “parodied” materialism Céline.
Screaming dramatically as the first pair are pried from her hands, Corden asks her afterward, “Did that feel good?” She responds, “I need alcohol.” While this is said in jest, it does appear as though she might like a shot when Corden broaches on the subject of her fame, remarking (poignantly enough, as they pass a street called Siren’s Cove), “I don’t know what it must feel like to be as famous as you.” She tries to downplay it with, “You don’t think about that, you don’t think about that–I don’t want to think about that.” Corden, not one for taking a hint, goes on to mention how her wedding was broadcast live in Canada, a phenomenon typically reserved for royalty in most countries. Admitting to her special treatment, she underscores that it isn’t all Clueless-esque closets with rotating shelves of shoes. No, the invasion of privacy is almost–almost–not worth the constant emotional violation. Namely, “I’m delivering my first child and I don’t even have him in my arms yet and I look to the left and there’s a TV there and the doctor is announcing live on television: ‘a beautiful, healthy boy…’ And I’m saying to myself, ‘My baby is on television, and I didn’t even get to hold him yet.'”
Corden, not wanting things to get too emotionally raw (for that’s not what Carpool Karaoke is about!), quickly diverts the subject with the “zinger,” “See now that you say that, I understand why my wife was annoyed that I Instagram Live’d the birth of our third child. I had a GoPro on my head.” But, of course, things with Céline can’t stay funny for too long, for her entire oeuvre is based on tragic balladry. So it is that they conclude their emotional rollercoaster of a car ride by leaving the vehicle to imbue “My Heart Will Go On” with the proper sense of drama that it deserves. Thus, Céline says, “I think I’ve got an idea” upon Corden remarking that their rendition doesn’t feel “big enough.” And they’re off to a makeshift Titanic boat set up amid the choreographed fountains of The Bellagio where Dion adopts the Rose position to Corden’s Jack, bringing just a little burst of light to a place that so recently had the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history (not to mention, of course, the blow of losing a second residency from Britney Spears).
How will Vegas go on without her once the Celine residency is over? The fountains at The Bellagio will just have to suffice.
