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

The Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle, et de la vidéo (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, 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 English-language press. The author examines the English-language press coverage of the ADISQ controversy involving Dion, including coverage in Montreal's The Gazette. After outlining press coverage of Dion and ADISQ during the years prior to the controversy, the author identifies how the controversy began, how Quebec politicians got involved, and analyses the issues that dominated the coverage, including the reaction of some Anglophone Quebecers to Dion's original statement. The author also examines follow-up coverage of the controversy; he identifies how subsequent news stories on Dion, including some that were written several years later, linked the controversy to other issues.

Canadian Journal of Communication

Vol. 24

no. 4

515-538

Autumn 1999

en