How to go against public opinion and be happy: Celine Dion and Rene Angelil

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Once upon a time Celine Dion surprised the whole world with her incredible mezzo-soprano with a range of five octaves. She is still called one of the most influential voices in pop music, and the song from "Titanic", which she performed, won the hearts of millions of viewers. But even before that Celine Dion won the heart of Rene Angelil, whom she met when she was only 12. The music producer and "talent manager", as he was called in Canada, was already 38 years old.

One passion for two

Celine Dion was born in the small Canadian town of Repantigny to a large family and grew up surrounded by thirteen brothers and sisters. When she was only 12 years old, her older brother Michelle Dondalinge drew attention to how beautifully Celine sings. And he decided to record the girl's first song for music producer Rene Angelil. Out of thousands of producers, he chose Angelil only because his phone number was on the album of Ginetta Reno, multiple Juno Award winner.

The 38-year-old producer had probably listened to thousands of recordings of talented and not so performers before, he brought more than one musician into the orbit of fame, but this time he was struck in the heart. The voice of the young Celine Dion literally charmed him from the very first seconds. Rene Angelil immediately invited the talented girl to audition in Quebec. When she began to sing, he suddenly burst into tears. As Celine Dion would later say, seeing the tears in the eyes of the producer, she realized that she sang well.

He had not the slightest doubt about the talent of his young ward. He found it surprising that all the local record labels in 1981 did not see what he saw and heard himself. But no one agreed to release Celine's debut album La Voix du Bon Dieu, they considered the risks unjustified, because no one even knew the name of the performer until that moment.

This did not stop Rene. He knew for sure that Celine had a great future. Angelil was not too rich, he did not have the money to release the album. And he just mortgaged his house, and after the presentation of the album he took the young performer on a tour of Canada, Europe and Japan. Naturally, the teenage girl was accompanied on tour by her mother. In fact, Rene Angelil did everything to make an unknown girl with a strong voice a star of the first magnitude.

It is worth noting that by the time of the meeting with the producer Celine Dion did not even know how to read sheet music, she sang, perceiving music exclusively by ear. Thanks to her manager, the future star had the opportunity to learn a lot. At that time, their relationship was not even romantic, they were tied by one passion - for music.

Love of all life

When Celine turned 17, she began to understand that she felt for Renee not only a feeling of recognition and gratitude. At first, she did not even allow herself to think about it, fearing the reaction of her relatives. But love turned out to be stronger than all her fears. After the singer turned 19, she began dating a man whom she loved with all her heart.

Angelil reciprocated her, however, he, too, was initially afraid of condemnation from the public, because the age difference with Celine was very impressive, as much as 26 years. At first, they met in secret, and it seems that there were no happier people in the whole world. The decision to stop hiding the relationship was made by Celine. She was not afraid of condemnation, she loved and wanted to shout about her love to the whole world.

True, the performer unexpectedly faced disapproval from her own mother. She tried to influence her daughter in various ways, trying to get her to reject her relationship with Rene. But Celine could not be persuaded, she simply could not betray her feelings. By the way, all the other members of the Angelila family fell in love, but my mother still had to accept him as a son-in-law. On December 17, 1994, a lavish wedding took place at the Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.

As Celine later admitted in her interviews, the secret of their strong harmonious relationship was not only feelings. The spouses treated each other with great respect, they were united by common goals and dreams.

Through trials

Four years after the marriage, the family faced its first major challenge. Rene was diagnosed with throat cancer, and Celine chose to take a break from her career in order to devote herself entirely to her husband. It was not easy, because at that time the relationship between the spouses was quite tense. And yet they coped and two years later, in 2000, they were able to celebrate the victory over the disease by renewing their wedding vows.

Another test of the strength of their family was Celine's long-term treatment for infertility. For several years, all attempts to get pregnant ended in failure, and the disappointing predictions of doctors sometimes sounded like a sentence. But they were able to win in this too: in January 2001, their first-born Rene-Charles was born. And nine years later, the couple became the parents of the twins Nelson and Eddie, who were born after several IVF procedures underwent by the singer.

The kids were only three years old when Rene Angelil was again diagnosed with cancer. Celine Dion again put family first and devoted herself to caring for her husband after undergoing surgery to remove the tumor. Two years later, in 2015, she returned to touring, but at the same time considered her main task to reassure her husband, to convince him that she would cope with everything.

Rene Angelil knew for sure: he did not have long to live. He worried about his wife and children, how they would cope without him. And he dreamed of spending his last minutes holding Celine's hand. In January 2016, he was gone. Celine fulfilled her promise and was by his side in the last seconds of his life.

Celine Dion did it. She raises children, enjoying every minute of motherhood, she pleases her fans with new songs. But she still desperately misses her husband, who opened the whole world for her. Her love continues to live.

The story of Celine Dion is worthy of a poet's pen or a screen embodiment. The singer became one of those rare stars who managed keep the purity and integrity until the wedding itself.