Popular music and iconic artists in contemporary geographical analyses in higher education—learning and understanding tourism geographies through Céline Dion’s music and travel

Ioan Sebastian Jucu ()
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Ioan Sebastian Jucu: West University of Timișoara

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract International media recently revealed Taylor Swift (who was handed a 2024 Grammy award by no other than Céline Dion, an iconic music legend who impressed the entire world at the 2024 Paris Olympics) as a subject in academic curricula, arguing that legendary artists are important ambassadors who can be approached as means of learning the various cultural aspects of our lives and communities. Filling a gap in the academic literature focused on iconic artists in current academic learning, and using students’ music perception of certain music and artists, this paper provides a new perspective on how music and living legendary artists can be perceived and integrated into teaching activities in the study of tourism geographies. The research focuses on Céline Dion’s music and travels as an avenue for understanding tourism geographies and their related aspects. The study is based on media research methods using documentary films to reveal the close relation of places, cultures, and communities to popular music and legendary artists, with Céline Dion as a case study. A qualitative approach, utilizing focus groups, was employed to gauge students’ perceptions of tourism geography learning, drawing on Dion’s music and travels. The results highlight that legendary artists are highly appreciated for understanding various aspects of the world’s cultures and emblematic cultural places, often providing a high touristic interest. The findings also argue that such case studies on legendary artists in contemporary popular music culture used in an academic setting can represent a new successful avenue for learning about various cultures and understanding the cultural values of different places and regions of the world, through the lens of contemporary tourism geographies.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05530-3

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