Mattel has turned one of the most-watched musical moments in Oscars history into a $60 collectible. The new Barbie Signature doll of Céline Dion copies the outfit she wore to sing “My Heart Will Go On” at the 70th Academy Awards on March 23, 1998: a long-sleeved navy gown and a necklace modeled on the “Heart of the Ocean,” the blue heart-shaped diamond from Titanic. It went on sale this week through the company’s Mattel Creations collector store.
“It is a true honor to join the Barbie legacy with a doll inspired by one of the most meaningful moments of my career,” Dion, 58, said in Mattel’s announcement. The company’s own sales pitch on social media was shorter: “she’s limited and she’s legendary.”
Why Mattel picked that night
Of all her stage looks, Mattel chose the one with the biggest built-in audience. The 1998 ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles drew an average of 57.25 million viewers on US television, the largest Oscars audience since ratings records began in 1974. Titanic went home with 11 awards that night, tying the all-time record, and the song Dion sang, written by composer James Horner and lyricist Will Jennings, won Best Original Song. For a generation of fans, the gown and the necklace are the picture that comes to mind when they hear the song.
The doll also places her in the music wing of the Signature line, which Mattel uses to honor designers, brands and famous performers. Earlier honorees include Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Aaliyah, Stevie Nicks, Diana Ross, Elton John, David Bowie and Elvis Presley. Aaliyah is a neat link: she performed “Journey to the Past” from Anastasia at the same 1998 ceremony, so two performers from that night now sit in the same collector series.
The timing matters too. Dion announced in December 2022 that she has stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, and said at the time that spasms were affecting her walking and her ability to sing the way she was used to. She returned to the stage at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, singing Édith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour” from the Eiffel Tower, and this fall she has been playing a residency at La Défense Arena near Paris, her first major concerts since the diagnosis. A doll pinned to her most famous performance arrives while she is back doing the job.
The clip: how the song’s Oscar was won
The Academy’s own YouTube channel has posted the segment from that ceremony in which Titanic collected both of its music awards, and it is a useful companion to the doll because it shows the people behind the song rather than the singer. The video runs a little under four minutes. Antonio Banderas opens it by presenting Original Dramatic Score to Horner, whose first Oscar this was after seven earlier nominations; he says he is close to speechless.
Madonna then reads out the Original Song nominees, a field that included Diane Warren’s “How Do I Live” from Con Air and Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery” from Good Will Hunting, and pauses before the envelope to joke about how little suspense there is. Horner and Jennings accept together. The first thanks in the speech go to Dion, followed by director James Cameron, credited for being in a good mood on the day the song was brought to him.
As a document of the night, the clip has limits. It does not include Dion’s performance itself, which is the moment the doll actually recreates, and the auto-generated captions garble several names. It also shows how much of the hit belonged to people the audience rarely saw. On the other hand, it is an official upload from the rights holder, it is short, and it captures the most-watched Oscars ceremony on record at the moment its signature song was rewarded.
Count from that March night to this week and the gown is 28 years old. The doll is available now from Mattel Creations at $60, and Dion’s Paris residency at La Défense Arena runs through October.
Further reading
Image: RepliCarter, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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