Barnev Valsaint Becomes Top Back-up Singer with Celine Dion, Develops New Production Company

By Dale Kawashima

Barnev Valsaint

Canadian vocalist and writer/producer Barnev Valsaint has enjoyed stellar success during the past decade, with a #1 song in Canada, then touring and eventually settling in Las Vegas to work as Celine Dion’s top backup vocalist in her band. Valsaint is currently performing in Dion’s spectacular show, A New Day, to sold-out audiences at the 4,000 seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show has entertained over one million fans so far.

Valsaint recently took a break from his busy schedule to talk about his background and success in Canada, as well as working with Dion, who is now the biggest-selling female artist of all time. He also discusses his love for producing, which he continues, in addition to performing 200 shows a year with Dion.

Growing up in Montreal, where the population is divided between French and English as the predominant language, Valsaint started his education on the north side of Montreal, where he spoke French as his first language. “I went to school, which was taught in French and spoke French at home,” he recalled, then moved to west Montreal. “Once we moved to the west island, all my friends spoke English.”

Music, the universal language, was a large part of Valsaint’s entire family. “We got into music because of church. My parents, my uncles, my whole family were very gospel oriented. There’s not one person in my family who doesn’t sing.” However, Valsaint was the first in his family to pursue music professionally.

While in college, where he studied to become a teacher, he began to work with a group called Dubmatique. “They asked me to [write and sing] a chorus for one of their songs and that song became the #1 song in Canada.” The song, “Soul Pleurer,” said Valsaint, was a metaphor. “If you take the two words, they say ‘your soul is crying.’ It was dedicated to some friends of ours who had died in Montreal. It was a very touching, emotional song that a lot of people could relate to.” The song, which was a hip-hop/ R&B rendering, was not initially well received. “Hip-hop was very new to the Quebec culture. They were not ready for stuff like that. I was singing the R&B hook on the song. The radio stations didn’t want to play it, nobody wanted to play it, but we [didn’t give up]. The song finally played once on the radio and people just kept calling and it became the #1 hit in Canada. We toured Europe and Canada for so long, I dropped out of school and that’s when I knew what I wanted to do for a living.”

Once the tour with Dubmatique was finished, Valsaint released a record and toured with his R&B group, Nodeja. Shortly thereafter, in late 1998, Dion was looking for a male vocalist.

“Celine wanted me to come on tour because her former backup vocalist, Terry Bradford, decided he’d been touring long enough and wanted to do other things. They called me in for an audition and it was between me and another guy. They sent the videotape to Celine and she said, ‘I want Barnev.’ I was only supposed to be on tour with her during her Let’s Talk About Love  world tour. Basically, I was just filling in for Terry and was only supposed to go for that one tour. Then once that tour ended, they asked me to stay. They were such good people, and [at the same time] my group basically deteriorated because everyone wanted to do their own thing. I decided I might as well stay with Celine, and have been with her ever since.”

Barnev Valsaint singing a duet with Celine Dion.

Valsaint has nothing but the highest regard for Dion. “I’ve met and worked with a lot of artists, and I don’t think I’ve ever met an artist at the level that she is to be as grounded as she is. She just loves everyone who surrounds her. She’s thankful and she recognizes that she needs everybody around her. We make her look good and she knows that. She’s such a sweet person.”

Now that Dion has settled to raise her son and taken a respite from touring, Valsaint has accordingly made his home in Las Vegas. “At the beginning I loved touring because I was in a different city every week,” explained Valsaint. “But once it gets to the Celine level, you don’t see your family, you don’t see your friends or your girlfriend. Basically you have to fly people in to come and stay with you for a week or two, because there’s no way you can leave and go see them. That was the only negative aspect of the tour. Everything else is great. But being in Vegas, you do a show and you come home; that’s the best. You’re doing what you love, you’re performing and the show is sold out every night. You’re not in a hotel; it feels good. I like touring, but it started getting a little hard because I’m very close to my family.”

Valsaint is the only male backup singer in Dion’s show. He was featured with Dion on The Oprah Winfrey Show and is currently among 59 musicians, vocalists and performers in her New Day presentation currently at Caesar’s Colusseum. He performs all the duets with Dion. “I do all the duets she has. We have sung the R.Kelly song, ‘I’m Your Angel’ and the Peabo Bryson song, ‘Beauty and the Beast.’”  Because of the vast sets and choreography, the duets are not currently in the show, but Valsaint believes they may come back as the Colosseum show evolves.

Now that he has a “day job,” Valsaint is following his other passion- producing. “I’ve been doing it since the beginning,” said Valsaint. “Every record I’ve collaborated or participated with, I’ve produced one or two songs on the album. It’s something I’ve always loved to do. I decided to start my own production company (Polar Bear Entertainment) and started writing & producing songs.” Over the past couple of years he has been working with his partner Yacoub Moilim to prepare a catalog of songs. “We’ve been collaborating since the beginning on different projects.”

Moilim now resides in Las Vegas, so he and Valsaint can continue their project. “We have a studio in the house where we can continue with production. We did one song that a friend of mine really liked. So I gave him a copy and he sent it to a publisher in Los Angeles. The publisher liked it and arranged a meeting with actress Nadia Bjorlin, (who has starred in the soap opera, Days of Our Lives). We met with Nadia and agreed to produce her. She’s an amazing singer and she has a lot of potential.” Valsaint and Moilim have composed a number of songs, and have begun the process of attracting attention to their work.

Valsaint offers his advice for vocalists looking to achieve his degree of success. “Never give up. Never let anybody tell you that you can’t sing or you can’t make it. Because seriously, if Celine did it, if I did it, anyone can do it- if you have the talent. It’s a matter of persistence and believing in yourself. There’s not a method, there’s not a guideline, not a book to tell you how to make it. Just believe in yourself and keep on going until you can’t go anymore, because you never know. You could be in the right place at the right time. You could be anywhere and somebody might recognize the talent that you have. Keep your head up and keep trying and never burn your bridges. You never know who’s in front of you or behind you.”

Valsaint feels very fortunate to have achieved such a high degree of success in his career. “I’ve been blessed to have worked with all the people I’ve worked with. They’ve all been very professional and such good people. “Just two weeks ago, my parents met Celine. We spent time hanging out in her dressing room, having a ball. It’s very rare you see people like Celine in the music industry. For Celine, it’s all about who she surrounds herself with. She surrounds herself with family. The people who work with her become an extension of her family. She has her family close to her at all times. She makes sure that she’s around good people, and I get that same feeling from Nadia (Bjorlin).”