Near, no longer far. Celine Dion confirmed her official return to Las Vegas in a statement released to Us Weekly on Wednesday, Mar. 25, saying it was the wish of her ailing husband Rene Angelil.
"I am excited to finally tell my fans I am coming back to Caesars Palace," Dion, 46, said in the statement released by The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. "It was Rene's wish that I come back. While my family will always be my priority, my fans are just as important to me. I look forward to performing again for all of you starting August 27th, and more importantly having Rene there with me. Thank you for giving me this time I needed to spend with my family."
Dion's rep told Us Weekly recently that the singer planned to resume her residency, although the exact timeline remained unknown. Her rep told ABC News last week that Dion had plans to debut an entirely new act with her return.
Dion sat down with the network recently to describe her emotional and exhausting journey back to the stage. "Oh, come on," the five-time Grammy winner told ABC News' Deborah Roberts. "The fans, they know that I'm an open book. I sing. That's the only thing I know."
Dion's last performance at Caesars Palace was in July 2014. At the time, the singer — who has performed exactly 927 shows at the venue — was struggling with inflammation in her throat muscles. Later, she announced to fans that she was prioritizing her family and postponing her career "indefinitely" to tend to her ailing husband, who is currently battling throat cancer.
In the interview with ABC News, Dion revealed just how bad his condition was. "He can't use his mouth," she said, wiping away tears. "He can’t eat, so I feed him. He’s got a feeding tube. I have to feed him three times a day. I do this myself, and so I feed my husband and feed my kids."
The couple, who married in 1994, share three sons: Rene-Charles, 14, and twins Eddy and Nelson, 4. This is Angelil's second battle with cancer, after he was first diagnosed in 1999, and had to remove a tumor from his throat in 2013. "We are taking life one day at a time," Dion told ABC News. "[But] we are choosing to live."
