ABC NewsCeline Dion may be a music legend, but she’s also a music fan. That’s why she stopped everything backstage at Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas to check out Cher‘s performance on a nearby monitor.
As Cher performed her huge hit “Believe,” Celine and all the reporters gathered around the monitor. Celine started to sing along, and so did all the reporters. Soon, everyone was singing and dancing to the song, which Cher performed before she accepted the Billboard ICON Award. It was the award that Celine herself received last year. Celine — as well as everyone else — marveled that Cher is 71 years old.
Celine gave a memorable performance herself, though: in honor of the 20th anniversary of Titanic, she performed “My Heart Will Go On” wearing an incredible white dress designed by Stephane Roland, with a deep plunging V and massive puffy shoulders that looked like clouds. Backstage, she told reporters that her stylist presented her with 15 racks of clothes to choose from. But, Celine says, “When I saw those clouds, I said ‘Done!'”
Celine also recalled that initially, when she first heard “My Heart Will Go On,” as performed by its composer James Horner, she hated it and didn’t want to record it. But her husband persuaded her to go into the studio and record a demo version, just to see what it sounded like. That’s the version that became the Oscar-winning hit we all know and love.
“I’m so glad that none of them listened to me that I didn’t wanna record it,” she told reporters. “Thank God.”
During her performance, she said, she thought there were technical issues because all of a sudden, she couldn’t hear herself very well. It turned out that was because the audience was singing so loud.
“Everybody was singing like the biggest choir in the world,” she said. “The people here tonight…they really made it.”
Afterwards, Rachel Platten made her musical dream come true when she approached Celine for a photo — she called her “my idol.”
Celine’s son Rene Charles was with her last night, and at one point, he came backstage himself so he could meet the son of another music legend: C.J. Wallace, whose father was the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. It would have been his 45th birthday yesterday. Rene and C.J. embraced and spoke about collaborating, but it’s not clear on what.
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INCREDIBLE MOMENT just now backstage at @BBMAs @celinedion stops to watch @cher perform and the press room joins in! #BBMAs pic.twitter.com/8M93HGh4fb
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 22, 2017
