As Celine Dion sang, "The Show Must Go On"—and go on it did.
At the 2016 Billboard Music Awards Sunday, the 48-year-old diva brought down the house with her cover of Queen's "The Show Must Go On." Celine received a standing ovation inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and to top it off, she received the ICON Award from her 15-year-old son, René-Charles Angélil. A surprised and emotional Celine thanked her fans, family, children, and "most importantly," her late husband René Angélil, "who I know will continue to watch over me from above." Celine added, "René, this one's for you. The show must go on."
Celine then made her way backstage to do interviews, but paused to watch Madonna and Stevie Wonder's tribute to Prince. She danced, sang along and snapped her fingers as they performed "Nothing Compares 2 U" (which Prince wrote Sinead O'Connor) and "Purple Rain." Afterward, Celine and E! News' Sibley Scoles shared a few tears while recounting the big night.
"Normally I feel pretty much in control. I don't necessarily like surprises. I like to be prepared; I thought I was," the Canadian singer 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 favorite 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. 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 favorite song that I do every night, [was why] I said 'OK, I'll go and it's going to work.'"
Celine was taken aback when René-Charles appeared on stage to give her the ICON award. Doing so meant putting himself in front of "so many people" and that could be "intimidating." As she explained to E! News, "This is what we do, and it's hard. For my son to say, 'I'm going to be doing this for my mom,' I was like, 'Wow, OK. Thank you, Billboard. You got me. Thank you."
The singer and Sibley shared a tender, tearful moment as they discussed Prince's impact. "Music is extremely therapeutic. It doesn't matter what kind of music you like," Celine said. "I've been singing 'Purple Rain' onstage for more than a year now…Prince wrote me a song a little while ago. It's called 'With This Tear'...I think Madonna an amazing job with Stevie Wonder tonight."
"I think we're at a moment of show business right now that needs to be recognized, and you know what? It's about time, I think. I'm excluding myself in saying that, but it's about time that the industry is recognizing the people that are making a difference in the industry before it's too late, before they have a hard time to talk, before they have a hard time to walk, before they barely recognize and remember what they've done," she said. "It's not worth it to wait so long to recognize them, so if you want to recognize them and give them an award, do it. Do it now."