If Celine Dion Reminds Herself Of Her Success, 2016 Will Be Less Tragic

When Celine Dion’s husband of 25 years and lifelong friend René Angelil died in January, that news was one of the first times we heard, read, or recalled the existence of the Canadian singer since the last person who gave the movie Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet another pass.

In a recent interview, Celine Dion gives details of the last day that her husband was still alive, saying the nurse found him and alerted her, saying he had apparently fallen from his bed.

She says that she leaned over and kissed him and he was colder than anything she had known, but she expressed the relief that he was no longer in pain and they would be fine.

“I’m fine, the kids are great, we’re gonna be okay.”

To lose someone to cancer makes the situation all the more tragic.

And there are certainly anxieties that tend to go with that kind of loss.

But in many ways, Celine Dion is right in that we certainly don’t have to worry because she’s going to be fine — everything is going to be more than just okay for her.

For one, she’s considered the richest pop artist in all of Canada at an estimated worth of $400 million (Robert Downey Jr. is only half of that), and since she’s pretty much internationally accessible, she will never exhaust the endless selection of stages and arena’s she has to perform on.

Tickets to see her are as rare to find as they are expensive since she doesn’t tour very much. And even when her now deceased husband had succumbed to his disease years ago, she had long taken herself out of show business to care for him in 1999 before returning in 2002 and stationing herself for frequent performances in Las Vegas for several years.

Since the beginning of the new millennia, however, Celine Dion has released five albums, and thus far, they were received well enough in the adult contemporary scene to keep her relevant. When she releases an album, she dominates the genre every time.

Why? Because all she has to do is hire the hottest pop artists of the moment to collaborate with, such as Sia or Adele, which will generate enough interest for her new albums to guarantee sales and position themselves at the top of the charts.

Celine Dion's best-selling albums and biggest Hot 100 hits #BBMAs https://t.co/AuKNj9uVyB

— billboard (@billboard) May 22, 2016

When it isn’t that, she’s recycling some of her own tracks or she leans on the work of other composers, as Farinelli in the days of yore or as other powerful vocalists always do.

And as tragic as the passing of her husband is, it’s harder for people to sympathize or relate when she has enough security to cushion her recovery, with little effort.

“I never wrote my songs. I didn’t even know how to read music or play an instrument,” she said. “I had a great manager who surrounded me with the best people.”

The quote is from an interview Celine Dion gave to People Magazine recently, where she talked about what it was like when she first got to know René at the beginning of her career when she was a teenager.

Celine Dion believes husband escorted brother to heaven https://t.co/l9TDLWjZOI

— People Magazine ?? SA (@People_SA) May 18, 2016

Obviously, years have passed since, and she should certainly at least know music by now, but even if she doesn’t, as the quote clarifies and as it’s already been pointed out in this post, she’s still surrounded by the best people.

Even the song Celine Dion is most famous for, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, was composed by Will Jennings and James Horner.

One only has to reference the article by USA Today about the song’s success back in 2012, 15 years after it became a hit, where it talks about how big the song has become ever since.

But let’s just get down to what this is.

Celine Dion got her break through the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988, just like Jamala did this year. Thanks to René Angelil, she’s positioned herself as a fully accessible pop singer of the likes of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

Her hit song is an example of everything else you’ll hear from her 11 albums, with multiple layers of instrumentation, hyper-climactic presentation, and posturing that is so fantastic it’s not even close to being modest or humble.

And with that kind of security in her success, it’s hard for regular people to connect with Celine Dion’s loss when they know that she’s going to be just fine.

[Image by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Images]