Céline Dion’s eight-year-standing residency in Las Vegas might be coming to an end this June, but her heart voice will go on with a new gig: L’Oréal Paris just announced the 51-year-old will be the new face of the brand. Surprisingly, despite her global acclaim, multiple Grammy wins, award-winning fragrance line, and her recent renaissance as a fashion icon (Paris Fashion Week, enough said), this is surprisingly the singer’s first-ever beauty contract.
“I’m at a stage in my life where I’m excited to use my voice to empower others to feel beautiful, confident, and to learn to embrace themselves,” she said in statement.
Lest you think her commanding presence is limited only to the stage or Paris Fashion Week, Dion gave an emotional performance at a press event for the brand in Vegas earlier this month. “L’Oréal Paris has been the biggest beauty brand in the world for over a hundred years,” she told the room. “When they asked me, I never thought in my whole life it would be possible. Especially, not when I was young and not feeling confident or pretty—I was having problems with my teeth, was very, very skinny, and being bullied at school. I never thought L’Oréal Paris was going to ask me at 51 to become an ambassador.”
In an inclusive move for the brand, Dion will be in ads for not only skin care, but also makeup and hair. Her first campaign for L’Oréal Paris’ Excellence Hair Color will hit TV later this month. On top her contract, the singer also has a clothing line and new music coming out later this year.
In Vegas, Dion went on to talk about confidence and how she’s happy she’s past her twenties and thirties (“I don’t want to go back there”), along with how beauty plays a role in how she feels about herself. “No one can say, ‘Oh it’s just hair,'” she said. “Don’t tell me that you don’t believe that feeling and looking good isn’t helping you to walk sexy, have a vision and say, ‘This is where I want to go because I have something I want to say.’”
“I want everyone to feel that they have the right to express themselves,” she continued. “Whether it’s through fashion and beauty, by using their voice or through something else that’s important to them.”
Also, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her answer was “dramatic.” Given these photos—and this performance—let’s call it mission accomplished.
Lindsay Schallon is the senior beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her @lindsayschallon on Instagram.
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