Celeste Levis has sure come a long way from her humble beginnings as a student at Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault.

The talented musician is making her mark all across the country with her Francophone music.

So when the phone rang to invite her to Timmins’ Stars and Thunder Festival…well, you know the rest.

Levis received a standing ovation after her set on Day Two of the festival, a packed crowd that seemed to eclipse the Saturday performances.

(Originally, organizers wanted Levis on Saturday. But as of last August, they say she was already booked.)

Naturally, she was excited to be a part of the hometown festival and it gave the Levis family a chance to have a private party at Hollinger Park to re-connect.

One of them is Celeste’s brother Alex Levis, who is a Constable with the Timmins Police and was to the left of the stage the whole time.

Alex says he hasn’t seen his little sister sing live in about two years and says it’s “unreal” the amount of progress she’s made.

As for Sunday’s performance, he loved every minute of it.

“I’m tapping my foot, I’m smiling the whole way,” he said, “It was just a great performance all in all by my sister and all the performers, really.”

Course, with the fame comes starstruck fans and Celeste has many of them. Her Facebook account has over 22,000 likes and you can imagine just how many more supporters she’s garnered in the last few years.

For Alex, it’s a little weird at times because in the end to him, she’s still his baby sister.

“It’s hard when people come up and they’re all starstruck,” he said, adding he never envisioned how big she would become.

“Hopefully her career skyrockets from here because she’s doing extremely well.”

And Alex is always there to lend support however he can. He mentions Celeste’s surgery for a rare disorder—which you can see more details on in her bio for the Canadian Chiari Association—which took away her chance to play sports, but also allowed her to pursue her passion for music.

“She’s always been the strongest person I know,” Alex said.

“She’s a role model and I just always tell her to keep your head up, keep on going and whenever she gives me a call, I always have a little brotherly advice.”

And then with a smile, “And make sure all those boys stay away from her.”

David Wilcox headlined the second day of festivities, with Relic Kings, Scarlett Jane and Sass Jordan.

Team Italy finished off the night with a fantastic fireworks display.

Filed under: Local News, stars-and-thunder