When it comes to singer Celine Dion, most people fall into one of two categories: the ‘It’s the soundtrack of my life’ group or the ‘Please God, make it stop…MAKE IT STOP’ group. There is a third, smaller category of people though who don’t care one way or another about her music but just enjoy how delightfully, over-the-top cheesy she is. (There is a reason certain celebrities are satirized on Saturday Night Live.)

Friday night CBS aired Dion’s one-hour primetime special, Celine Dion: That’s Just The Woman In Me.  The show was taped in front of a live audience at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre back on January 12. It was the 5-time Grammy winner’s first concert since wrapping up her 5-year run in Las Vegas.

The title of Celine Dion’s new album, Taking Chances, describes the show fairly well. It was a one hour mix of glitzy dance numbers, power ballads, celebrity duets and cameos, a somewhat staged Q&A session and heck, even an appearance by one of the stars of High School Musical!

The opening act featured Dion in a sparkly, gold mini-dress in a very Vegas-esque song and dance routine. Her dancing features a lot of little kicks and chest pounding motions. One might describe it as spastic. One might even question why such an accomplished singer needs to be part of such an over-choreographed dance routine. But something about Celine Dion’s sincerity makes the whole scary scene a bit more forgivable.

Next Dion sang the title song from her new album, Taking Chances. This was the moment I questioned my entire identity because I actually really liked the song. It has a nice beat and her usually over-powering voice seems more moderated and subtle.

Now, the obligatory power ballad: Before announcing the song, Dion dedicated it “to two very special people in the audience”. I’m thinking it is going to be Rene Ange’lil and Rene-Charles, her husband and son?  But no, the dedication was to CBS’s Ghost Whisperer actress Jennifer Love Hewitt and her fiance Ross McCall. OK. Dion sang her 1995 hit “Power of Love” while cameras panned back and forth over Hewitt and McCall’s raptured faces. Ick.  Did I mention the show was on CBS?

After this, Dion took a not-so-unscripted question from High School Musical star Corbin Bleu. Bleu asked her something he says he always wanted to know: when did she know she could sing? Large French-Canadian family…center of attention…singing at parents restaurant. Blah, blah, blah, you’ve heard the rest.

Next it was duet time. Dion recounted a story 10-years ago when she was going to sing “The Prayer” with Andrea Bocelli at the Grammy Awards. Bocelli couldn’t make a dress rehearsal so the Grammy people brought in a then-unknown 17-year-old operatic singer named Josh Groban. Dion lovingly described the terrified Groban’s eyes as two balls of sunshine. I love it! Who says that? They sang the beautiful, heartwrenching song, hugged it out then Groban told the audience how wonderful Dion has been to him throughout the years.

Things got a bit weird after that. Dion introduced the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am with a disturbing attempt at beat box. They performed “Eyes On Me” together. All I can say about this performance is it was the only time during the show where Dion seemed a bit outdated and cougarish. Will.i.am just looked like perhaps he stumbled unknowingly into the wrong gig.

Next Dion acknowledged audience member Olivia Harrison, wife of the late George Harrison. Dion said when she learned that Mrs. Harrison and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh would both be at her show she decided to quickly arrange a Celine version of Beatles tune “Something In The Way…” and invite Walsh to accompany her on guitar. Their rendition while simple and understated sounded fresh and interesting. Too bad this one isn’t on her new album.

The remainder of the show included a question by composer, producer and arranger extraordinaire: David Foster. Foster asked Celine Dion who wears the pants in her family.  Dion, who has known Foster for 20 years and worked with him extensively, said Rene wears the pants, she is the boss and son Rene Charles makes all the decisions. That was a waste of time.

Dion then performed a rocking version of Heart’s “Alone”.  Finally she sang a bluesy song called “The Woman in Me”. Dion is nothing if not versatile. During this song she sounded almost like Janis Joplin at times. Now if she could just lay off the creepy facial expressions and awkward dance moves the nearly 40-year-old Celine Dion could almost reinvent herself for a new, younger audience.

As I mentioned before, I’m not really a Celine Dion fan. However the hour was fairly entertaining and mercifully went by quickly (thanks in part to a boatload of commercials, mostly for the show Dexter which premieres Sunday night on CBS).