Celine on the healing power of music

Thankfully, and no doubt in respect for Celine Dion, not one of the journalists from the seven Asian countries invited to interview her in Las Vegas dared ask her about her lovelife, not that there’s any rumor that she has found a new love two years after she lost her husband, Rene Angelil, to cancer.

In a voice that soothes the way it does when she sings, Celine turned somewhat sad when she said, looking around the room at the Colosseum where the intimate interview was held last January, “Even if he’s gone, Rene is actually always with me. He’s with me all the time anywhere I am and anywhere I go. I feel that we still live together although just differently. He is,” she added, pointing to an empty chair, prompting the journalists (from Japan, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines) to look there, seeing nobody, although it seemed that Celine was actually seeing Rene sitting there…presumably smiling!

— Photos courtesy of the Colosseum souvenir program

Celine insisted, “He’s here, he’s in the house, he’s there! He’s really, really here! I see him every day because we have three sons; he’s in the house active and moving around, dancing. He is part of every song I sing and every show that I do. But I’m happy that I have finally let him go.”

Rene will probably be with Celine when she embarks on a concert tour covering the seven countries mentioned earlier. In the Philippines, her shows will be on July 19 and 20 at the Mall Of Asia (MOA) Arena, presented by PLDT/Smart and produced by AEG with Renen de Guia’s Ovation Productions. (Ticket prices are P35,380; P32,210; P19,540; P16,370; P7,920; and P2,640.)

It wasn’t easy to, as Celine put it, “let go” of Rene who groomed her to become a superstar starting when she was 12 after Rene heard a demo tape of a song Celine co-wrote with her mom. Twenty-six years her senior, Rene became Celine’s sweetheart until they got married in 1994 at Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica in an elaborate ceremony celebrated throughout Canada. In remission for a few years after he was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1999, Rene died at age 73 on Jan. 14, 2016, at their family home in Las Vegas. He is survived by Celine and their children (Rene-Charles, and twins Nelson and Eddy). Not long after Rene’s death, Celine lost her brother.

Celine on her late husband Rene Angelil (photo): ‘Even if he’s gone, Rene is actually always with me. He’s with me all the time anywhere I am and anywhere I go. I feel that we still live together although just differently.’

“When you see someone who is fighting for his life so hard,” Celine recalled in a magazine interview, “it has a big impact on you. You have two choices. You look at your husband who’s very sick and you can’t help him, and it kills you. Or you look at your husband who is sick and you say, ‘I got you, I got it! I’m here. It’s going to be just fine.’ I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it.’ And Rene says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ And I assure him, ‘OK, fine! I’ll be there. You will die in my arms’.”

With an apparent lump in her throat, Celine added, “And finally, he’s resting in peace. I really wanted to devote all my strength and energy to Rene, so it was important for me to devote my time to him and our children.”

In 2014, Celine had to cancel her concert in Manila because, she said in a belated apology, “I had to be by Rene’s side. It wasn’t a hard decision to make at that point because I didn’t know if he was going to pass away or when.”

In fact, Celine also had to cancel her shows when we were there. We were scheduled to watch the show the day after the interview, at the 4,300-seater Colosseum at Caesars Palace which was built for her to the tune of $95M in 2003 when she started her residency there. It turned out that she underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct an inner ear issue. She revealed it only recently in an interview with a US magazine. “It’s been a while since we did a show where I had a little health issue. I’m extremely happy to be back (at the Colosseum). The stage is my home away from home. And I have to admit that I can barely stand on my feet tonight as I am a little nervous.”

Here are excerpts from our exclusive Conversation with Celine at the Caesars Palace last January:

How does music help you recover or get over whatever predicament you find yourself in?

“It’s really therapeutic, you know. I don’t know one person in the world who doesn’t listen to music. The people that I see, that I know, that I love, that I work with…they all listen to music whether hip-hop, pop, sentimental, country, rock ‘n roll, the oldies, the new generation, whatever kind of music. It means something. You and you and you, and me, we all listen to music.”

What about your children, do they love music, too?

“Yes, my children listen to music, too. They pick the songs that they love to hear. I know because I listen with them. You realize that music is in everybody’s life. People listen to music on their headphones, people hum songs, people sing in the shower. Music detoxifies us; it has a way of de-stressing us. When you sing…lalalalalala…you are like making some kind of stretching. It’s a therapeutic kind of meditation, of de-stressing yourself.”

No wonder you enjoy music not just as your profession but as a form of therapy.

“I feel very fortunate that it’s my paycheck, it’s my work, and I’m very lucky because not everyone does what he wants, not everybody loves what he does. Life is short and it’s unfortunate that you have to be educated to find a job. But if you are blessed, destiny puts you on a path that is exactly what you love to do. You are five years old and destiny already has something set for you. Today, I love singing much more than I did before because before, I had to prove myself, I had to prove to the family, the producers, the industry.”

You are, indeed, very lucky.

“Thank God that I didn’t have to knock on people’s door, you know, ‘Can you write a song for me?’ I didn’t do it. My husband did that with his partners. I was 12 years old and nobody would give me the money to do a record. My mom wrote songs for me and Rene knocked on doors to have me record those songs. He had to mortgage his house to finance my first album.”

Celine with her children (Rene-Charles and twins Nelson and Eddy): ‘I am proud to be a mother. My children are my best accomplishment. They are my rewards. When I come home from work and they embrace me, I get a wonderful feeling that is different from what I get when I am onstage performing, with the audience applauding me after every song.’

“I was singing in English and I didn’t understand what I was singing about.” (Laughs) “I began singing in French and my mom told me, ‘If you want to have an international career like Michael Jackson, you should learn how to sing in English.’ I’m a big fan of Michael Jackson up to now, and so are my kids, and I wanted to be like him so I followed my mom’s advice. I pursued my career in French and in English. My dream kept going and now, look, here I am!”

How are you as a mom?

“I’m the best…” (Applause from the journalists!) “…I’m the best for my children. No book should ever say how to raise a child. A mother does the best for her children. I do the best for my children and my style may be different from that of other moms. I love to sing but being a mother is, I feel, my best accomplishment. My children are my rewards.”

Wow, congratulations!

“When I come home from work and my children open their arms to welcome me, I get a wonderful feeling that is different from what I get when I am onstage performing. Their embrace warms my heart much more than the applause that I get for every song. My children make me strong, so I am proud to be a mother.”

With your Conversationalist during the exclusive interview at the Colosseum of Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)