Artist News Business News Industry People

Tributes paid to Celine Dion’s husband and manager, Rene Angelil

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 18 January 2016

There were tributes last week for Rene Angelil, the husband and former manager of Celine Dion, who died on Thursday aged 73. He had been battling throat cancer.

Angelil managed Dion’s career for over three decades, famously remortgaging his house to fund the release of the singer’s debut album – ‘La Voix Du Bon Dieu’ – in 1981. Needless to say, it was an investment that paid off.

Angelil and Dion’s professional relationship led to a personal relationship in the early 1990s, and the couple married in 1994. Dion took two career breaks to look after her husband when he was diagnosed with throat cancer, the first in 2000. He formally stood down as the singer’s manager in 2014 due to ill-health, with former Cirque du Soleil executive Aldo Giampaolo becoming CEO of their company Feeling Productions.

A statement on Dion’s Facebook page on Friday read: “Surrounded by the love of his family and friends, René Angélil passed away on Thursday, 14 Jan 2016, on the eve of his 74th birthday. He will be remembered as a gentle man, generous and kind, an unprecedented visionary, a modern Pygmalion, a Renaissance man. All who had the privilege of knowing him and of working closely with him, whether personally or professionally, salute a leader and a man of great intelligence and wisdom”.

Recalling his first meeting with Angelil, Vito Luprano, the man who signed Dion to CBS Records – which subsequently morphed in Sony Music – told the Montreal Gazette: “Rene came in to see me at my office in 1986, and the first day I met him, it was like we were old friends, as if we had known each other for so long. With the first handshake we decided we were going to take Celine to the top. And, of course, so much happened after that, and we made so many albums together; there’s a long list of memories”.

Meanwhile the current President of Sony Music in Canada, Shane Carter, told reporters: “René was a remarkable colleague who over five decades, made a lasting mark on the music industry, on a global scale. He guided the careers of Celine Dion and his other artists with passion and devotion. My thoughts are with Celine and the family”.

Meanwhile Paul Farberman, who worked for Feeling Productions for seventeen years, also recalls his first meeting, as a CBS exec, with Angelil, in a statement published by Billboard.

He notes that, from early on, the veteran manager “often said that one day we would work together and, in January 1997, I left my job at 20th Century Fox and became a full time member of Feeling Productions, the management company for Celine. I worked exclusively with Rene and Celine for the next seventeen years and he truly was the most wonderful person to work with. He was brilliant in guiding Celine’s career and grateful and appreciative for the support he had from everybody around him. I couldn’t have asked for a better boss. He treated everybody with respect and kindness”.

As well as mourning her husband, Dion also confirmed this weekend that her elder brother Daniel Dion had died, just two days after Angelil. He had also been battling cancer.