For 48-year-old Celine Dion, it was an emotional roller-coaster as she was honoured with the ICON Award by Billboard during its Las Vegas ceremony at the early hours of today.
Just coming out of her loss of husband René Angélil whom she had known since she was 12 to cancer, the Canadian diva was all shades of emotional as she belted her cover of Queen‘s ‘The Show Must Go On’ to a grand ovation.
‘I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for crying. I want to be so strong for my family and my kids. And I didn’t expect that. I’m so sorry,’ she said during her acceptance speech. ‘I don’t want to cry in front of you. You make me so happy. Thank you.’
E! News caught up with the mother-of-three after her emotional performance and she expressed her surprise at the Award organisers making her 15-year-old son, René-Charles Angélil present her the award.
‘Normally I feel pretty much in control. I don’t necessarily like surprises. I like to be prepared; I thought I was,’ Dion said. ‘From a mom who was prepared with her children at the funerals, to tell them that it’s fine, to be strong and all that, so for me I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to sing my favourite song,’ and they want to give me that award? Oh, my God. It’s not the reason why I’m doing that. It’s not the reason why I’m here.’
Celine went on to show her appreciation at the honour, calling it one of the important things that would serve as a legacy when she’s gone. ‘But they’re giving me a very, very important…iconic award…for my children when I’m gone, these are the moments that will stay. These are the moments that will be remembered, I think. For my husband, ‘The Show Must Go On,’ his favourite song that I do every night, [was why] I said ‘OK, I’ll go and it’s going to work’,’ she said to the publication.
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