René Angélil remembered for making mark on culture in Quebec and beyond
MONTREAL— The late René Angélil is being remembered as a “great Quebecer” who “influenced the world.”
In Angélil’s hometown of Montreal, Mayor Denis Coderre said flags at city hall would fly at half-mast to honour the man who “influenced the world with Québécois music and the culture of our nation.”
Angélil, 73, died Thursday at his home in Las Vegas after a long battle with throat cancer, said Francine Chaloult, a spokeswoman for Angélil’s wife, Céline Dion.
Parti Québécois Leader Pierre Karl Péladeau called Angélil “a world monument of show business. He was a great Quebecer who never forgot his roots.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “My condolences to Céline Dion, and to the children, friends and loved ones of René Angélil on his passing.”
"He was a great Quebecer who never forgot his roots."
PIERRE KARL PÉLADEAU PQ LEADER
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard called Angélil “engaged, passionate, talented and courageous.
“Those are the words that come to me to describe his professional career. Throughout the years, we learned to know him, to appreciate him and especially, to love him,” Couillard said in a statement.
Angélil had undergone surgery for cancer in April 1999, fought it successfully, but underwent another operation in December 2013.
While Dion and Angélil’s entourage insisted he was doing well, Angélil stepped back from the day-to-day management of his wife’s career in June 2014. He turned it over to longtime friend Aldo Giampaolo, a noted impresario himself in Quebec, but remained involved in key decisions.
Just a month after that announcement, Dion said Angélil was focusing on his sons and “working really hard on his health.”
“He’s being a dad at the house, which I’m really happy about,” she told a news conference in Montreal at the time.
In March 2015, she announced she was resuming her residency at the Colosseum in Las Vegas. She said Angélil has a feeding tube and that she was helping him to eat three times a day. Despite his illness, it was Angélil who encouraged her to return to the stage. “He wants me back, he wants me strong, he wants to see me again because I’m his favourite singer,” Dion said at the Billboard Music Awards in May. “So he wants me out there, and I have to say that I’m ready. It’s hard, but we’re ready.”
One year after announcing she was putting her career on hiatus to dedicate her time to helping her husband in his recovery and tend to their family, Dion returned to Vegas in August 2015.
“I didn’t want to be here at first, I don’t need it,” she told USA Today. “Don’t get me wrong. I love singing for people, but I have priorities.
“But René really gave me a gift,” she added. “All my grieving, it was during this last year. I think I’ve got this. For now. When it hits me, it’s going to hit me. But my biggest job is to tell my husband, we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch us from another spot.”
As she returned to Las Vegas, Dion said doctors weren’t able to say how long Angélil had, but that he’d already planned his funeral and told his wife he wanted to die in her arms.
“René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms,’ ” Dion said.
Dion and Angélil have three children: René-Charles, who was born in 2001 and twins Nelson and Eddy, born in 2010. Angélil also had three children from his previous two marriages.
A longtime friend and collaborator of Angélil said he felt a strong bond with Dion’s husband from the moment they met.
Vito Luprano signed Dion to what was then known as CBS Records in 1986. He recalled forming an instant connection with Angélil as they worked toward a common goal: catapulting the Quebec chanteuse to international stardom.
“René came in to see me in the office in 1986, and the first day I met him I thought like we were old souls, as if we knew each other for so long,” Luprano said in a phone interview from Montreal on Thursday.
Luprano first teamed with Angélil and Dion on the 1987 French-language album Incognito. He was responsible for organizing and overseeing the production team that
“When it hits me, it’s going to hit me. But my biggest job is to tell my husband, we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch us from another spot.” CÉLINE DION ON HUSBAND AND LONGTIME MANAGER RENÉ ANGÉLIL’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS
worked on more than 20 albums with Dion.
“The first (hand)shake I had with him I thought we decided we were going to be partners in the venture of taking Céline to the top. . . . Then, of course, there’s so much that happened. We made so many albums together so there’s a long list of memories.”
Quebec talk show host Guy A. Lep- age, another close friend of Angélil’s, also took to Twitter as news of his friend’s death spread.
“My poker partner has died. He was kind and cheerful. And attentive. And loving. And generous. And I am sad,” he wrote.
Rodger Brulotte, another long-time friend and a former Montreal Expos baseball broadcaster, said: “He always took care of us, always made sure we were having a good time. I don’t remember once in 50 years that I even had an argument with René Angélil. He was a great Quebecer.”
Quebec singer Ginette Reno wrote on her Facebook page: “It was an honour to work with such a great person whose art achieved what I call ‘the sacred fire.’ Long live the king, long live René.”
Famed Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan also sent his condolences to the Dion family, writing on Twitter, “René Angélil touched the stars, now he joins them.”
Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas issued a statement Thursday night saying Dion’s performances planned for Saturday and Sunday were cancelled.
The couple, who were 26 years apart in age, married in an elaborate ceremony in1994 at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal that drew throngs. The nuptials were compared to the Royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana.
After a brief career with a singing group, Angélil teamed with friend Guy Cloutier in 1972 to manage several up-and-coming Quebec artists including René Simard and Ginette Reno.
He later struck out on his own and in 1981 received an audio tape in the mail from Dion’s mother, who encouraged him to “listen to it carefully. It’s my 12-year-old daughter.”
Struck by the voice of the young woman, Angélil quickly took her under his wing. He reportedly mortgaged his home to finance her first album.
Success came quickly and Angélil won Quebec’s Félix Award as manager of the year in 1987 and 1988. He gave Dion an image makeover when she turned 18 and launched her first English-language album — Unison — in 1990, which established her as an international pop star.
World tours and megastardom followed under his guidance. Dion’s most recent album, 2013’s Loved Me Back to Life, topped the charts in Canada before reaching platinum certification four times over.