Celine Dion didn’t know if she’d sing again after her husband died.
The ‘My Heart Will Go On’ hitmaker tragically lost her 73-year-old René Angelil – with whom she had René-Charles, 18, and eight-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy – in 2016 following a long battle with throat cancer and she admitted it was only knowing that the producer would have wanted her to get back on stage that she returned to performing.
She said: "If you look at the definition of courage, it’s a big, big word. It’s an important word and everything that I went through the last three years for example, even before any past, I was not even sure if I was going to go and sing again.
But [René] would want me to sing again, so I went back and forth and it was hard."
And even in his final days, the 51-year-old star admitted René wanted her to carry on performing when she just wanted to be by his bedside.
She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: "He wanted me to go back at Caesar’s [Palace in Las Vegas].
"I wanted to be by his bedside, and he really wanted me to go back on stage. He wanted to see me perform again and I did. It was hard but I did and he could let go after, peacefully.
"He did his will, and my will was to stay with him by his side. But the thing is we all go through tough times. Like I said today, we get sick, we lose people, we find out things, we have to find the inner strength and we all do, and it’s the courage. Life imposes things on you. You have no choice. You have to deal with them."
Celine – who will release a new album, ‘Courage’, later this year and embark on a world tour to support it – will end her Las Vegas residency in 2019 and admitted it is "bittersweet" because so much has happened in her life since she began performing in Nevada 16 years ago.
She said: "I was supposed to be there for a few months, it’s been 16 years. It’s my home in a way.
"While I was there I lost my husband, I’ve lost my father, I’ve lost my brother," she explained. "Many, many things happened there. It will be bittersweet because it’s my second home. My home away from home in a way. [Caesar’s] gave me so many opportunities to present my fans [with] the best shows with dancers."
Celine Dion didn’t know if she’d sing again
