Singer Celine Dion performs onstage during the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. Photo / Getty
Singer Celine Dion performs onstage during the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. Photo / Getty
Celine Dion has a poignant and unique way of remembering her late husband, Rene Angelil.
The My Heart Will Go On singer, 49, had a bronze replica cast of Angelil's hand after his death just more than two years ago. She opened up about a pre-show ritual she has inmemory of Angelil, who died at 73 in January of 2016 after a battle with lung cancer according to DailyMail.
Celine Dion's Wedding In Montreal, Canada On December 15, 1994-Celine Dion with husband Rene Angelil. Photo / Getty
'I shake my husband's hand and knock on wood with him every night before every show,' the 49-year-old songstress told Stellar Magazine, in excerpts published on the Sunday Telegraph. 'Even after he's gone, I still talk to him.'
In the revealing chat, Dion said that she remained performing during the time frame before Angelil's death - as a tribute to her late spouse.
'My husband wanted me to go back onstage before he passed, that's what he wanted the most,' Dion, who took off time to care for her ailing spouse, told the publication. 'So I went back onstage while he was still alive; he wanted to make sure I could keep going. So I did prove to him, yes, I could keep going.
'I told him I've got the kids and that he's got to trust me, he's got to relax,' said Dion, who shared three sons with the late music promoter and producer: Charles, 17, and twins Nelson and Eddy, seven.
'I guess before he left he wanted to make sure I was fine,' Dion said. 'I'm trying to prove to him every day I'm fine. Our kids are growing, we feel strong. We're good.'
The That's the Way It Is artist credited her late spouse for having 'taught [her] so much' and 'gave [her] his all' in their personal and professional dealings, noting, 'He mortgaged his house to pay for my first album,' the 1981 record La voix du bon Dieu.
'He did a great job,' she said. 'What he had been giving to me all his life and all my life will always be with me.'
Celine Dion and her late husband. Photo / Getty
In the Stellar Magazine chat, the veteran songstress touched on how she plans to celebrate a major upcoming milestone - she turns 50-years-old March 30 - by taking to the stage in her Caesars Palace residency in Las Vegas.
'I'm not a birthday girl, not even when I was 20,' said the French-Canadian artist. 'To be honest, I'd rather be doing a show. 'But five is my lucky number, so I'm quite excited to turn 50.'
