Real Music People

Celine Dion has been forced to cancel more concerts in Australia. She is suffering from a throat infection.

She has already put off shows in Brisbane and Melbourne, and not she has to postpone stops in Sydney and Perth.

Rocker Pete Doherty has hit hard times after splitting with girlfriend, Kate Moss, and is playing birthday parties for just $200.

Babyshambles frontman Doherty made one young female fan’s dream come true by turning up to her bash recently, and has been inundated with requests ever since.

A source said: “The birthday girl’s dad told him she was a huge fan and that he’d give him $200 to perform at her party. Pete was flattered and happy to oblige. He turned up and played his big hits. Everyone had a great time. Some partygoers asked him when he was going to start making dogs out of balloons. He took it in good humour. It made her day and now she’s a very popular girl with her pals. Her dad told the local paper and Pete has been bombarded with requests to play since.”

Since word started to spread about the cash-poor rocker being available for birthdays, weddings and other social occasions, he has been in huge demand. His agent has had over 500 requests for Pete to play hits such as F*** Forever at private functions.

It’s a far cry from the charges many other pop stars have charged for private gigs. The Sultan of Brunei paid Celine Dion $6
millions in 1997, Kylie Minogue got $2 millions for a 40-minute show for Barcelona businessmen in 2004, and Christina Aguilera got $2.5 millions for two songs at a 2005 wedding.

Forbes has come out with their list of 2007’s 20 highest grossing female musicians. The results are pretty surprising.

1. Madonna - $72 million
2. Barbra Streisand - $60 million
3. Celine Dion - $45 million
4. Shakira - $38 million
5. Beyoncé - $27 million
6. Gwen Stefani - $26 million
7. Christina Aguilera - $20 million
8. Faith Hill - $19 million
9. Dixie Chicks - $18 million
10. Mariah Carey - $13 million
11. Hilary Duff - $12 million
12. Avril Lavigne - $12 million
13. Martina McBride - $12 million
14. Britney Spears - $8 million
15. Carrie Underwood - $7 million
16. Nelly Furtado - $7 million
17. Fergie - $6 million
18. Jennifer Lopez - $6 million
19. Sheryl Crow - $6 million
20. Norah Jones - $5.5 million

Celine Dion snuggles up to manager husband Rene Angelil at the 2008 NRJ Music Awards held at the Palais des Festivals on Saturday in Cannes, France. Earlier in the day, the Canadian singer was seen arriving at an airport in Nice on her way to the awards show.

Celine is about to have her first concert in China on April 13 and it will be party of Beijing’s official celebration of the Olympic Games. The singer also submitted an entry for the Beijing Olympics theme song competition and I think she’s a shoe-in. She did sing the theme song for the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Celine Dion is the music industry’s epitome of a good girl but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know what all the bad girls do. The Canadian singer knows how to unwind and have fun without going overboard.

She recently had an interview in which the multi-platinum selling artists talked about experimenting with drugs and getting drunk. Here’s the deal, she’s never done drugs and only drinks occasionally. Champagne and a glass of wine she says. The most drunk she has ever been was at Vegas nightclub Pure when she had three double tequilas at a party. That’s one singer who would never need to go to rehab.

Celine Dion was photographer with her 6 ½-year old son Rene as she waved goodbye during the final run of her Las Vegas show ‘A New Day’ at The Colosseum at the Caesars Palace on Saturday night.

Since the show opened in March 2003, nearly 3 million people have watched the 39-year old songstress perform 717 live shows. Gross ticket sales have totaled a cool $400 million. For those that missed the show, you can still catch it on the newly released five-hour double DVD ‘Celine Dion: A New Day – Live in Las Vegas’.

Celine will be kicking off the North American leg of her concert tour next month.