Canadian chanteuse Céline Dion will belt out her smash hit “My Heart Will Go On” at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards to mark the song’s 20th anniversary.
Ahead of the performance, Billboard has published a fascinating oral history of the song, which is featured on Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love album and the soundtrack to the blockbuster Titanic.
“When I recorded it, I didn’t think about a movie; I didn’t think about radio,” Dion told Billboard.
“I thought, ‘Sing the song, then get the heck out of there.’”
Dion admitted she wasn’t pleased when her husband René Angélil (who died last year) promised that she would record a demo for the song.
“I wanted to choke my husband,” she recalled. “Because I didn’t want to do it.”
Worse, Dion revealed, she had menstrual cramps during the recording session for the demo.
The song was presented to James Cameron, the Canadian-born director of Titanic, who wasn’t even looking for a pop song to end his movie. But, after screening the film with “My Heart Will Go On” edited in with Dion and Angélil, Cameron was convinced.
In the Billboard feature, Dion recalls wearing millions of dollars worth of diamonds during her performance of the song at the Oscars and explains why she became grateful for the song.
Dion also joked about hearing that Titanic star Kate Winslet once said that every time she hears the song she wants to throw up. “I answered, ‘Thank God she didn’t have to sing it!’”
The Billboard Music Awards air Sunday night on CTV.