Celine Dion will begin an extensive world tour Feb. 15, but rather than try to top past outings, or her box-office busting run in Las Vegas, the artist is content to simply "have a good time."

"We would never attempt to beat anything we've done in the past, so we're not trying to do a better tour -- we're trying to do a successful tour," she tells Billboard. "When you're stable for a while, it's nice to move the furniture around and to vacuum under the sofa, to clean out the attic. So we want to have a good time and try new things, different things.

Dion describes the upcoming show as "very high-energy, very uptempo. There are quick wardrobe changes, there are treadmills, so now, before that begins, I want to rest -- I need to rest my voice."

In fact, Dion admits, "I hate to sing as much as I love to sing. I love it when I have my full strength, my full happiness -- but I hate to sing when it takes me away from my family, when I'm sick or not feeling good and can't do my best vocally. I hate to do it, because I know how fun it can be. And it's a struggle when you're not having fun. Singing is not just the vocal cords; it's your whole body, your soul. The night I lost my dad and had to sing, I tell you -- it hurt."

As she gets ready to hit the road, Dion is still marveling at her historic run at the $95 million, 4,100-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which grossed a staggering $385 million, drawing nearly 3 million people to 717 shows.

"We definitely took a chance on something that 99% of the industry said we would fail on," Concerts West co-president John Meglen says. "But the real truth of the matter is we proved something that works in that marketplace, that an artist can sit down in Las Vegas and allow the audience to travel to them instead of the artist traveling to each city."


Additional reporting by Ray Waddell, Nashville.