The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon hosts a number of crazy celebrity games, but The Wheel of Musical Impressions is where we see an A-Lister’s talent truly shine. From Ariana Grande to Christina Aguilera, countless top-tier singers have battled with Jimmy to craft the most spot-on and hilarious singing impressions imaginable. In 2016, Celine Dion was on the couch when Jimmy pulled out his musical impressions generator, urging Celine to hit it and send the artists and song titles spinning.
Celine’s first randomly generated song was the French nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques,” to be sung in the style of Cher. For a moment, Celine looked bewildered, incapable, before telling Jimmy in Cher’s iconic accent, “She’s my friend,” and slaying the musical impression. Jimmy was up next, singing “One Dance” in the style of Michael Jackson, but Celine’s additions as a backing vocalist were hilariously awful.
Next up, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in the style of Rihanna saw Celine ingeniously replace the lyrics of RiRi’s 2016 hit “Work” with the words of the nursery rhyme. The original rhythm, slurred delivery, and dance moves remained intact, extraordinarily matching the original.
Her last impression was the boldest of them all: “Hush, Little Baby” in the style of Sia, which saw Celine match the melody of Sia’s hit song, “Chandelier,” with phenomenal force, even flipping her hair over to cover her face for a 10/10 impression, eventually amassing over 46M views on YouTube!
Celine Dion (aged 48 at the time of this Tonight Show appearance) has been in the spotlight since her debut album “La voix du bon Dieu” dropped back in 1981. Her illustrious career has seen a total of 15 French-language studio albums and 12 English-language albums released up until “Courage,” her latest album, released in late autumn 2019.
Despite releasing such an insane number of records, Celine barely broke the commercial scene until switching to English-language music with her 1990 record “Unison.” Even then, her biggest claim to fame was set in stone back in 1997 with the international hit single, “My Heart Will Go On,” immortalised as the theme for the ’97 blockbuster, Titanic. The single hit #1 in an astonishing 29 countries, from Taiwan to Peru, Australia to El Salvador, while the album it came from, “Let’s Talk About Love,” hit the album charts in 21 countries across the globe.
Born in Charlemagne, Québec, Celine’s career has seen her sing in front of Pope John Paul II, win the 1988 Eurovision song contest, and perform the theme song for Disney’s 1991 animated film “Beauty And The Beast” with Peabo Bryson. She has picked up 23 awards and 78 nominations along the trail; among these, six Grammys and five American Music Awards within a ten-year stretch.