Céline Dion fans are in raptures. Nine years after her last two appearances in Paris at the Stade de France, their idol is flying back across the Atlantic to sing in the French capital once again. Céline has been caught up in a whirlwind of activity since her last French concerts, pumping out a marathon run of her show A New Day in Las Vegas (where she assured no less than 723 performances in five years!) But the international diva is now back on the road again on her Taking Chances tour -which kicked off in South Africa with Céline playing the first of her eight South African dates in Johannesburg on 14 February 2008 and is due to run until 29 January 2009 when she performs a grand finale in Fort Lauderdale in the U.S.

French fans are currently getting excited about the eleven Céline Dion concerts planned in France, Switzerland and Monaco (between now and the beginning of July) and, needless to say, tickets have been selling like the proverbial hotcakes. All the more so as there is little chance of Céline agreeing to prolong the European leg of her tour no matter how warmly French-speaking fans greet her. Between the final date of the European leg of the tour (in Monaco on 12 July) and the first date of her American tour (on 12 August), comes the singer's annual month of vacation - a sacrosanct fixture in her working schedule!

Céline's legions of French fans, who have been almost as loyal to her over the years as those in her native Quebec, are preparing to celebrate their music queen's visit in style. A statue of the singer's beloved husband-manager, René, is due to be inaugurated by her side at the French waxworks museum, the Musée Grévin. And Céline has also been invited to the Elysée Palace where the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will lay on an appropriately glitzy ceremony and present her with one of the nation's most prestigious honours, the "Légion d’honneur."

Perhaps inevitably after five years in Las Vegas, Céline's Taking Chances tour is an all-American extravaganza which revolves around the singer performing on a central stage surrounded by an ultra-professional backing band and eight seriously athletic male and female dancers. Meanwhile, Céline deftly switches into all the possible incarnations of the international variety star that she is, segue-ing between her legendary chart anthems and songs from her new album, Taking Chances. And she proves herself to be equally at ease crooning soft, sentimental ballads as she is belting out the big showstoppers.

RFI Musique was lucky enough to attend the 'première' of Ms. Dion's European tour at the O2 Arena in London last week. And after the show the singer graciously accepted to field questions from a sea of French journalists. Smiling serenely at the comment that these days her voice seems significantly deeper and sounds less aggressive on the high notes and more agile at the lower end of the scale, Céline insisted that, "I've never taken the time – and I never will – to look back and see if there's been any difference or any change in tonality. I think it's normal that an instrument should change over the years. There are changes in one's body, in the texture of one's skin. There are gains in terms of wisdom and maturity and there are obviously changes in one's voice, too."

The Taking Chances show includes its fair share of Céline's greatest Anglo-American hits (and you don't have to be a committed Dion fanatic to know there are plenty of these!) But the singer is obviously out to enjoy herself on stage, too, launching into a tribute to Queen and the late great Freddie Mercury, via a reworking of We Will Rock You then The Show Must Go On. "If I listened to myself," Céline admitted, "I'd do a lot of songs by other singers. When you're a musician you just want to get out there and play everything. I think Freddie Mercury is one of the greatest performers that ever lived. He had the most amazing voice, the most amazing personal charisma… Delving into Freddie Mercury's deep dark velvet world is a little treat I'm offering myself. It's like if you buy a nice big ruby. It's not necessarily to prove to everyone else that you can afford it. Singing Queen live on stage is a gift from me to myself!"

The singer admits that her Taking Chances tour has also procured a number of more intimate emotions, too, one of her personal epiphanies having been My Love (a song specially written for her by Linda Perry). "I really don't understand why this song has had such an effect on me," Céline said, "whether it's because of the lyrics, the melody or the musical bridge... But it has struck a particularly sensitive chord with me. It's the first time in my career a song has made such a big impact on me on a personal level. I thought I'd sung everything - and I still don't know why but take after take I was incapable of singing 'My Love' in the studio. I don't know why I had to sort of harden myself before I could record it at all. People think that show business is all about artifice, staging and perfect control. But I really feel with this song that that woman has entered right into my soul… And even I don't have the key as to why. I decided to include the song in the new show but there are bound to be nights where I can manage it and nights where I can't. Believe me, it's worth trying, though!"

For her stop-offs in French-speaking countries (including eight dates in Montreal in August), Céline is planning to replace ten of the English hits in the show with ten songs in French. "I'm lucky enough to be able to do that," she said, "But I have to point out that ever since I started singing in the States, I've always had at least one French song in every show." At her London show Céline included Pour que tu m’aimes encore, her international hit penned by Jean-Jacques Goldman (a French song she remained unerringly loyal to during her five years in Las Vegas).

The singer was also asked whether her London stadium crowd had been significantly  different from audiences in Las Vegas. "There's no comparison," she laughed, "It's like chalk and cheese, but both experiences are equally intense. In Vegas, the show was the result of a real complicity between Franco Dragone and myself. I trusted Franco completely. It was amazing to turn round and see the songs I've always sung suddenly appearing in three dimensions like they were new again. For the first time in my career, my show had a real theatrical side to it. But going out on tour like this is a lot more rock’n’roll. I intend to use this tour as a means of lifting my feet off the floor and taking flight again. And I'm touched that people have allowed me to land where I choose."