When I first moved to Las Vegas more than six years ago, Celine Dion was at the height of her domination of Strip entertainment. I never, ever in a million years would have guessed that someday I would meet her! My moment came this past Sunday, before her very last show at the Colosseum until the end of December. It was a huge show, and I couldn’t be more honored that she wanted to spend her time backstage before it with us.
In fact, she couldn’t have been more gracious in everything that she
did for us! As you can see here, this all came about because of her
being the cover star of our September issue of Vegas magazine.
Since I was meeting Celine on a Sunday evening, every salon was closed.
House-call it was! I didn’t mind the extra money — this was a very
important night. Not only was I going to meet the person who changed the
entertainment culture on the Strip forever, but it was also the party
at which I would first see people’s reactions to what I consider the
best issue of my career.
When I arrived at the Colosseum, rushing and late of course, I couldn’t
believe all of the tourists taking photos of Celine’s sign. These
weren’t necessarily fans taking photos to commemorate the night they saw
the show — it was an hour and a half before it began. These were mostly
tourists who were just so happy to see her theater!
At six pm, our little group of about 40 people were ushered
inside — in groups of 10, because that’s all the elevator down to
Celine’s green room would allow. Celine herself was scheduled
to arrive at 7 pm, giving us plenty of time to drink champagne and build
excitement. Me? I was so nervous! I stood in the corner and watched
people flip through the issue. The praise from the people in Celine’s
camp was tremendous. I couldn’t have been happier!
When she arrived, about ten minutes after 7 pm, Celine couldn’t have been more of a class act. Even
though I knew she opened her show in a glittering, floor-length Armani
Prive gown, the super-star songstress blew into the room in a hot little
pink/red number. Less than 30 minutes from her curtain call,
she worked the room like a pro. “Hi, how are you? Let’s take a picture!”
she said with such energy, as she made her way through our little
crowd. “You in the back? Why are you in the back? Let’s take a picture!”
She shook hands with every single person and somehow squeezed in at least 20 photos and a TV interview into 16 minutes. I swear it felt like an hour!
Yes, even though I lean towards super-chill vacations in Costa Rica and love adventure sports such as off-roading and even the gun range, my day job is building a magazine page-by-page, as editor-in-chief of Vegas magazine. When this wall is full, it is finally time for the magazine to come out.
We’ve gotten so much attention around the world for this issue, and I couldn’t be happier. She gave a wonderful and fascinating interview, Queen Celine, written by the enormously talented Marco della Cava. It can be so refreshing when the best writers are also the easiest and most thrilling to work with!
As we made our way out to the audience, everyone was on cloud nine. She was a few minutes late onto stage, and I couldn’t believe that that was because she agreed to our little party
on her “last” show for a few months. (We will miss her until December!)
I sat on the very edge of our group, seated right next to a super fan,
who gasped and talked throughout the entire show. (“What will she do
next? Ohmygod I can’t… No way, she did not.”) I almost wanted to tell
him that I was just with her!
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