This two-CD set collects most of Celine Dion's essential recordings from her pre-superstar years, when she was a very young French singer, popular in Canada and France. This set starts with the heavily synthesized Euro pop of the 1988 Eurovision contest winner "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi," which was the song that introduced the singer to international audiences, and is something of a milestone in her career. Many of the songs on this set are fair, and differ from the processed teen pop of the late 1990s because of the ever-present sincerity in Dion's voice. Highlights include the elegant ballads "Tellement J'ai D'amour Pour Toi," "Benjamin," and "La Voix Du Bon Dieu"; the shimmering "Avec Toi" and "Du Soleil Au Coeur"; and the anthemic "C'est Pour Vivre."

Despite being designed specifically for the US market, The Collector's Series, Volume One sells over 3 million copies worldwide. It includes several new or rare songs, such as Céline’s previously unreleased performance of The Power of the Dream at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. The album contains 16 songs in five different languages. Two of the songs are in Spanish: Amar Haciendo El Amor and Sola Otra Vez, the latter of which is a breathtaking interpretation of All By Myself. Two are French titles: Pour que tu m’aimes encore and Un garcon pas comme les autres (Ziggy). One is an Anglo-Italian duet: The Prayer with Andrea Bocelli. Another is a Japanese version of Be The Man. And finally the album includes some of Céline’s most beautiful English-language ballads, such as Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Tell Him, Only One Road and Falling Into You.

Celine Dion began work on Encore un Soir in the summer of 2015 when her husband Rene Angelil was quite ill. He passed away in January 2016, around the midpoint of the sessions, so it could stand to reason the album was a way for Dion to work through her grief, but this French-language record isn't quite as simple as that. For one, Dion's art isn't strictly autobiographical; she may pour herself into her performances but a correlation between her personal life and her recordings isn't easy to draw. Secondly, Encore un Soir is evenly divided between pop tunes and ballads, not too dissimilar from her usual albums.

Her first English-language effort following a pair of mid-decade personal tragedies, Celine Dion's 12th set Courage is a transformative, cathartic release for the powerhouse vocalist that carries listeners through her process of healing and moving on. While the deaths of her husband and brother inform much of the album, they do not completely define it. Rather, Dion's phoenix-from-the-ashes power shines and reveals a confident rebirth as she rebuilds life and reclaims herself. Paired with its intentionally uplifting French-language predecessor, 2016's Encore un Soir, Courage continues to track Dion's grief, just with a contemporary pop angle. While the comforting Encore was suffused with traditional pop-guitar backing, Courage grasps the spirit of the late 2010s with vigor, recruiting a team of co-writers including David Guetta and Skylar Grey.

Her first English-language effort following a pair of mid-decade personal tragedies, Celine Dion's 12th set Courage is a transformative, cathartic release for the powerhouse vocalist that carries listeners through her process of healing and moving on. While the deaths of her husband and brother inform much of the album, they do not completely define it. Rather, Dion's phoenix-from-the-ashes power shines and reveals a confident rebirth as she rebuilds life and reclaims herself. Paired with its intentionally uplifting French-language predecessor, 2016's Encore un Soir, Courage continues to track Dion's grief, just with a contemporary pop angle.

Sony Music Entertainment Canada/Columbia Records have released LOVE AGAIN (Soundtrack from The Motion Picture). The 14-track album features five new Celine Dion songs, including the title track, “Love Again,” and the latest song, “I’ll Be.”

For her 34th studio album, Anne Murray recorded a set of duets with many of her favorite female singers, from Nelly Furtado to Sarah Brightman. There are a number of country duet partners here, such as Shania Twain, Emmylou Harris, and Martina McBride, but there are even more pop-oriented women singing with Murray, encompassing the likes of Celtic Woman and Celine Dion. This makes perfect sense, as Murray's always straddled the pop-country fence effortlessly. Her singing on Duets: Friends and Legends is just as effortless. Now in her fifth decade as an active recording artist, her voice hasn't lost a beat, sounding just as pure and clear as it did on 1970s "Snowbird" (done here with a surprisingly relaxed, easy vocal from Brightman, sounding for all the world like a young Olivia Newton-John). The majority of these songs are ones which have been sizeable hits for Murray in the past, most of which work nicely recast as duets, or at least showcases for harmony singing.