CELINE and Charice in New York: Watch me reach that note up there, too!

CHARICE Pempengco is the star of a segment in the documentary, “Through the Eyes of the World,” featuring global pop superstar Celine Dion.

Halfway through a concert at the Madison Square Garden, about 100 minutes into the docu, the Canadian singer announces “something special” that Oprah (Winfrey) told her about.

It is a someone, it turns out, “a girl who can literally blow the roof off” the famous concert hall, Dion says.

She proceeds to talk about the “very brave thing” that the girl has done – “escape her violent father” and “save her mother from a life of desperation.”

A bit over the top, maybe, but it works. Charice is enthusiastically welcomed by the audience.

Charice then leads Dion in a duet on a huge hit, “Because You Loved Me,” which proves the tear-jerking intro unnecessary. The girl gets by on sheer talent! It’s a proud moment for all music loving Filipinos.

I am not a Celine Dion fan, but I can certainly see why scores of others around the world are, and this docu is effectively helping my potential conversion.

It was filmed during Dion’s 2008-2009 “Taking Chances World Tour,” reportedly the second highest-grossing ever for a solo artist. “Celine: Through the Eyes of the World,” shows the consummate (the word is not wasted on her) performer on-stage and off while on tour. She steps into a den of lions, no kidding, in Africa; bats the breeze with sumo wrestlers in Japan; charms the curls off Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali. You get the picture.

BACKSTAGE with Charice’s mom Raquel

“The stage is her home,” says a local guest in the Tokyo leg. This does not escape director Stéphane Laporte. In fact, Dion onstage seems more real than Dion away from the lights, even with her husband and son.

Laporte’s team was allowed unprecedented access to the “best-selling Canadian recording artist of all time,” as she performed in five continents, 25 countries and 93 cities. Dion sold more than three million tickets on this tour.

“I let the cameras follow me everywhere,” Dion says in the docu. “It’s very personal.” The home version includes an additional hour of footage not seen in the limited theatrical run abroad in February, and is now available from Sony Music at leading music and video stores nationwide.