Celine opened up about this unique custom to the Australian magazine Stellar, saying, “I shake my husband’s hand and knock on wood with him every night before every show. Even after he’s gone.” She continued, “I still talk to him. I’m trying to prove to him every day I’m fine. Our kids are growing, we feel strong. We’re good.” René even has a special seat at every one of her concerts, she explained, telling the magazine that he used to sit at the back of the soundstage. (Hello! Magazine)
She has spent the last few years performing in Las Vegas in her residency at Caesars Palace, and now she is embarking on an Asia Pacific tour, including stops in Australia and New Zealand.
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Still, René has not left her side.
“Not only is he in my heart, he performs with me. Everything that I am, and that I know, he taught me,” she said.
So it is no surprise that she has a tradition to keep her husband as part of her show. But this ritual may seem odd to many.
In spite of being gone for two years, René continues to be a part of Celine’s pre-concert ritual.
The “Power of Love” singer revealed that she clutches a bronze replica of her late husband’s hand before each performance.
“I shake my husband’s hand and knock on wood with him every night before every show. Even after he’s gone.” she shared with Australian magazine Stellar saying, “I still talk to him. I’m trying to prove to him every day I’m fine. Our kids are grown, we feel strong. We’re good.”
René even has a special seat at every one of her concerts, which hasn’t changed, since he used to sit at the back of the soundstage before his passing.
“He taught me so much. He did a great job; what he had been giving to me all his life and all my life will always be with me,” Celine said. “He gave me his all. He mortgaged his house to pay for my first album.”
The singer, who turns 50 on March 30 shares that she has no plans for the big day.
“I’m not a birthday girl, not even when I was 20. To be honest, I’d rather be doing a show. But five is my lucky number, so I’m quite excited to turn 50,” she said.
That night, instead, she will be on her stage in Las Vegas, doing what she does best, with her husband in her heart.
“My husband and I, we were a team and we’re still a team,” she said. “We were one. We always said that we were – when I was very, very young, – 50/50. He was very, very kind and I feel extremely fortunate that I had him as a husband and that he gave me three magnificent children and I see him through them every day, every day. But René will never, ever leave me.”
(Credits: dayspatch.com and Hello! Magazine)