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When Celine Dion was presented with the icon award by her 15 year-old son, Rene-Charles, at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday she looked incredibly surprised and choked up. You could chalk that up to the powerful and emotional performance she just gave, but it turned out that Celine was totally surprised that Rene-Charles gave her the award. Producers set it up using a code word so that Celine wouldn’t know he was joining her on stage. In an interview backstage with ET Online, Celine said that she was working hard not to cry that night and to be strong for her family but she just couldn’t help it. She also explained to Extra that moments like these, when she’s accepting awards and in the public eye, are going to be her legacy after she’s gone. “When I’m gone, these are the moments that will stay, [that my children] will remember. I mean, they’re 15 and 5. When I’m gone, they’ll look at this. What you say and what you did, it’s important.” That really got to me, Celine is the real deal and her words pack an emotional punch. She just lost her husband a few months ago and the fact that she’s not going to be around forever either is fresh on her mind. Celine has her situation in perspective though, she told ET that she knows she’s not the only woman who has lost her husband. I love her so much.

Backstage, Dion opened up to ET’s Cameron Mathison about the emotional moment, and how finding strength in difficult times does not mean who have to conceal your feelings with those you love.

“You have to be strong, but I think it’s important as well to not hold everything,” she shared, admitting, “I tried to hold it in front of my 5-year-old twins, but my 15-and-a-half year old beautiful son is old enough to understand.

“Even though I did not want to cry, he understands it’s okay because it is therapeutic and you can’t take so much pressure,” she continued. “You can take so much strength and weight on your shoulders, but sometimes you can’t control everything.”

For Dion’s own performance, the 48-year-old songstress gave a heart-wrenching performance of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On,” which she told ET was her late husband’s “favorite song.”

“To try to perform that song without collapsing was big enough,” she explained, “and then I turned around and I saw my son. As a mother, I really, through this whole process of our new life, wanted to be strong.”

“I thought I was going to make it through the whole night without tears and show strength, and love won,” she said. “I just collapsed. I’m very thankful for the award and proud of my family so much.”

For Dion, the performance marked a “new chapter” in her life as both a mother and performer.

“I’m not the first woman and I’m not the last one who will lose her husband,” the singer shared. “It’s hard, but my family is helping me through it. I hope I think people know that I don’t do music, I don’t do my passion and sing to win an award. It’s never been the number one goal. It’s to share moments with fans and the celebration of music itself.”

[From ET Online]

Everyone is also talking about how handsome and grown up Rene-Charles is. It seems like he was a little boy with the long hair just a couple of years ago and now he’s a young man. E! had “Five Things You Don’t Know About” for Rene-Charles and he’s still in high school of course, he plays hockey, and he just seems like a normal kid judging by his Instagram. He also Instagrammed a photo with Rihanna backstage at the BBMAs. Look at how thrilled he looks! This just reminds me how fast kids grow up. My son is almost as tall as me now.

ET also reported that Celine stopped doing interviews to watch the tribute to Prince. She praised Madonna and Stevie Wonder’s performances and called them “wonderful.” She also told a story about how Prince had asked her how it was to perform in Vegas in a residency because he was considering it. Imagine how incredible that would have been.

What a night! #billboards2016

A photo posted by Rene Charles Angelil (@pavdarawse) on May 22, 2016 at 7:44pm PDT

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