Both Goldman and Dion must have been gobsmacked by the incredible success of their initial collaboration on Dion’s album “D’eux” (“The French Album” in the US) that was released in 1995 and written by Goldman. It became the best-selling French language album in history. Goldman wrote virtually all of the songs on the album and the years following its success were times of close collaboration between the two artists. For example, in 1998, he wrote the song “On ne change pas” for Céline’s album “S’il suffisait d’aimer,” as well as most of the other songs on the album. It was also released in 1999 as a single. In 2005 “On ne change pas” became the title of a 2-CD album of Dion’s French language “greatest hits” featuring songs recorded between 1981 and 2005. A video with the same name appeared in 2005 as well. They also produced an album in 2003 called “1 fille et 4 types” (“One girl and four guys”).

Both Goldman and Dion came from modest beginnings. Dion was born in 1968, the youngest of 14 children in a small town in Quebec, Canada. She became a teen star during the 1980s under the mentorship of René Angélil, whom she later married. Goldman was born in Paris in 1951, the third of four children by immigrant Jewish parents. Although Goldman was older than Dion, their string of music successes occurred about the same time during the early-mid 1980s when they rose to the pinnacles of the music industry in their respective countries. Through some invisible dynamic of serendipity, their careers intersected in the mid-1990s at a time when Goldman grew weary of the stresses of public performance and media coverage. Never comfortable with the inconveniences of public fandom, for him it was a smooth transition to sublimate his exceptional song-writing talents in a pygmalianesque collaboration with a rising star whose sole childhood dream was to become a singer. Later, the release of Dion’s 2005 album “On ne change pas” coincided with Goldman’s own unexpected decision in 2004 to retire entirely from the public concert tour business.

The subject of most of the song is the first-person plural “we” (“on”) with Céline as the narrator. Midway, Céline switches to “Je” and “moi” and conjures a vision of herself as a thin little girl (“une petite fille maigre”), thankless and lonely, who walks beside and speaks softly to her mature self. Already a star, Céline seems to be seeking to establish her stable identity through connection with her former self.

The first video below provides a revealing look “behind the scenes” at the close collaboration between Goldman and Dion on portions of the studio production of the song. It is followed by the live video of the full song in concert at The Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, 2008.

NB:

1. “tout juste:” means “barely,” “narrowly,” “just.”
2. “d'un rêve, d'un songe:” there is no clear distinction between the words “rêve” and “songe” which both mean “dream.” Some believe that rêve refers specifically to sleep-related dreams while “songe” can refer to a conscious activity (“daydreaming”) tinged with an affective quality of “wishful thinking.”
3. “Et les toucher du doigt:” literally this means “touch of a finger” but conventionally it means to “put your finger on” something and experience it first-hand. In context, the point of reference in the song (“les”) seems to refer to “rêve” and “songe.”
4. “On attrape des airs:” to “prendre des airs” means to behave deceptively to impress someone; act with affectation. “Attraper” means to “catch” or “snatch” something.
5. “On se donne le change:” this esoteric expression (“donner le change”) has roots in hunting and means to “divert,” “re-direct” or “deceive.” A smart, hunted animal like a deer seeks to throw pursuers “off the scent” by mingling with others of his/her own kind and to effectively disappear in the crowd.
6. “Marche à Charlemagne:” Charlemagne, Quebec, was Céline Dion’s birthplace and childhood home town

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