Céline Dion, the ADISQ Controversy, and the Anglophone Press in Canada

Abstract

ADISQ, the organization that honours excellence in the Quebec music industry, gave francophone singer Céline Dion an award for being the Anglophone Artist of the Year in 1990. At the ADISQ gala that year, which was televised live across Canada, Dion refused to accept the award. Dion’s decision to not accept the award, and the statement she made when turning it down, became the basis for a controversy that received a great deal of coverage in Canada’s anglophone press. This paper examines anglophone press coverage of the ADISQ controversy involving Dion. After outlining press coverage of Dion and ADISQ during the years prior to the controversy, the paper identifies how the controversy began and analyses the issues that dominated the coverage. The paper also examines follow-up coverage of the controversy; it identifies how subsequent news stories on Dion, including some that were written several years later, linked the controversy to other issues.