Canadian singer Celine Dion has released 138 singles in English and French as a lead artist, including promotional singles. According to Billboard, she is the world's best-selling contemporary female artist of all time. As of 2021, she has reportedly sold around 200 to 250 million records worldwide. Often described as the "Queen of Power Ballads", she has released numerous international hits. Her most successful single, "My Heart Will Go On" (the love theme from the film Titanic), has estimated physical sales of over 18 million worldwide, making it the 2nd best-selling physical single by a woman in history. The song reached over 117 million radio impressions at its peak, became the best-selling single of 1998 worldwide, and remains one of the best-selling singles of all time. "Because You Loved Me" is her biggest hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, spending six weeks at number one and selling six million copies in its first six months of release worldwide. Her French-language signature hit, "Pour que tu m'aimes encore", was the 4th biggest hit of the 1990s in France and has sold over four million copies worldwide.
As of 2018, Billboard ranks Dion as the 25th Greatest Hot 100 Female Artist of all time. She also ranks as the 43rd Greatest Adult Pop Songs Artist of all time, and the 40th Greatest Pop Songs Artist of all time. Her single "Because You Loved Me" is the 45th Greatest Hot 100 Song by a woman in the United States. Dion placed seven songs on Billboards list of Top Songs of the 90s, including "Because You Loved Me" (No. 27), "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (No. 66), and "The Power of Love" (No. 67). She is also widely referred to as the "Queen of Adult Contemporary". Dion has achieved 11 number-one hits on the US Adult Contemporary chart, the most for any female recording artist, and has spent 87 weeks at the top of the chart, the highest total for any artist.
At age twelve, Dion collaborated with her mother and brother Jacques to compose her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve", which was released as a single in Quebec, Canada on 11 June 1981. During the 1980s, she topped the Quebec chart with six singles, including "D'amour ou d'amitié", "Mon ami m'a quittée", and four tracks from the Incognito album (1987). In 1985, "Une colombe" received two Félix Awards for Song of the Year and Best Selling Single of the Year. Both "D'amour ou d'amitié" and "Une colombe" were certified gold in Canada. Elsewhere, "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi" won the Best Song Award at the World Popular Song Festival in Japan in 1982, and in 1983, Dion became the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for "D'amour ou d'amitié". Her breakthrough in Europe continued when she represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", which went on to win the competition.
In 1990, Dion entered the American market with Unison. The album included "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", which became her first single to reach the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number four. In 1991, she recorded "Beauty and the Beast" with Peabo Bryson. The song became her second top ten Billboard Hot 100 entry, her first top ten hit in the United Kingdom, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Her next single from Celine Dion (1992), "If You Asked Me To", also peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in Canada. Released in late 1993, The Colour of My Love produced Dion's first US and Australian, and second Canadian, number-one single, "The Power of Love". In the United States, the song was certified platinum and has sold 1.5 million copies. Another single from The Colour of My Love, "Think Twice", topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and has sold over 1.3 million copies there. It became only the fourth million-selling single in the UK by a female artist. "Think Twice" also reached number one in several European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Keeping to her French roots, Dion continued to release French-language recordings between each English album. After Dion chante Plamondon in 1991, D'eux followed in 1995 and achieved major success with the single "Pour que tu m'aimes encore". The song reached number one in France and remained at the top for twelve weeks. "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" also topped charts in Francophone countries and entered the top ten in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The next single, "Je sais pas", also reached number one in France and Belgium. In 1995, Dion released "To Love You More" in Japan, where it reached number one and sold 1.5 million copies. As a result, she became the first non-Japanese artist in twelve years to achieve a number-one hit on the Oricon Singles Chart.
Released in 1996, Falling into You included the US, Canadian, and Australian chart-topping single "Because You Loved Me", which has sold over two million copies in the US alone and remains Dion's biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit. Other successful singles from the album included "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "All by Myself", both of which reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" became Dion's third platinum single in the US, with sales of 1.6 million copies. In 1997, she released the most successful single of her career, "My Heart Will Go On". Serving as the love theme to the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic (and also included on Let's Talk About Love), the single topped charts worldwide and became Dion's signature song. "My Heart Will Go On" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and earned Dion two additional Grammy Awards: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year. The single was certified diamond, multi-platinum, and gold in numerous countries. It remains Dion's highest-selling release and one of the best-selling singles of all time, with global sales exceeding 18 million, including two million in Germany, 1.8 million in the US, 1.5 million in the UK, and 1.2 million in France. With "Think Twice" and "My Heart Will Go On", Dion became the first female artist to achieve two million-selling singles in the UK. She is also among the biggest-selling female singles artists in UK chart history.
In 1998, Dion released another French-language album, S'il suffisait d'aimer, and her first English-language holiday album, These Are Special Times. The latter included "I'm Your Angel", a duet with R. Kelly, which became Dion's fourth Billboard Hot 100 number one and her fourth million-selling platinum single in the US. Released in 1999, All the Way... A Decade of Song included the successful lead single "That's the Way It Is", which reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100. After a two-year hiatus, Dion appeared on Garou's single "Sous le vent", which reached number one in Francophone countries and was certified diamond in France. In 2002, Dion released A New Day Has Come. The first single, the title track, peaked at number twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 21 consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, breaking the record for the longest run at the top. The previous record holder was Dion's own "Because You Loved Me", which spent 19 weeks at number one. Dion has logged 87 weeks atop the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, the most for any artist. She has also achieved the most AC number ones â 11 â by a female artist. In 2007, the single "Taking Chances" gave Dion the record for the most top ten hits on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, with 21 during the 1990s and 2000s. Dion also holds the record for the most AC entries (43) and the most number ones among all artists since her debut. Dion's latest entry on the US Adult Contemporary chart is "Imperfections", from her 2019 album Courage.