Celine Dion Initially Didn’t Want To Sing This Now-Legendary 90s Movie Soundtrack Song

In 1997, Celine Dion released “My Heart Will Go On”, a song that went on to become one of the biggest hits of the 1990s. Part of the soundtrack for the blockbuster film Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On” was written by Will Jennings and James Horner. 

“My Heart Will Go On” spent 10 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming one of the best-selling songs of all time. It also became one of Dion’s biggest hits, which is a welcome outcome, since she initially didn’t want to record the song.

It was Dion’s husband and manager, René Angélil, who volunteered Dion to sing “My Heart Will Go On” before it was even finished.

“I was in a suite with a piano at Caesars Palace,” Dion recalls to Billboard. “[Horner] started to play the song. With all the respect that I have for James … he is not the greatest singer. I was making this sign like, ‘This is not possible.’”

To Dion’s dismay, Angélil stopped Horner while he was still playing, offering Dion’s voice for the song.

“‘James, James. Listen to me,’” Dion remembers her husband saying. “‘You’re not doing justice to the song right now. I’m going to make a deal with you. Let’s have Celine make a demo.’ I wanted to choke my husband. Because I didn’t want to do it! I just came out of ‘Because You Loved Me’, and then ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was, like, huge. Why do we need to break our nose?”

What Happened When Celine Dion Recorded “My Heart Will Go On”

To honor her husband’s word, Dion did go in to record “My Heart Will Go On”, although she admits she was not happy about it at the time.

“I was mad!” Dion remembers. “I don’t feel good. … I’m going to have a black coffee with sugar, which I never have on my studio days because it speeds up my vibrato. But I got to New York, and I do that. And [Horner] is explaining to me what is the movie all about. He said, ‘Just think about that and do it.’”

Fortunately for Dion and the rest of the world, she nailed her first performance of “My Heart Will Go On”. But she wasn’t the only one to convince to use the song. Director James Cameron notoriously didn’t want music in his movies, especially a song as big as “My Heart Will Go On”.

“I didn’t think that James Cameron is just going to buy this thing,” Dion shares. “James Cameron didn’t want to have a song in his movie. ‘My movie is big enough, I don’t need something bigger; I don’t need any singer.’ And I don’t blame him. But Horner says, ‘I’m not going to tell you who sang the song. Just please give me a favor and listen just one time.’”

“My Heart Will Go On” went on to win more than a dozen major awards, including four Grammys.

Photo by Timothy A. CLARY and VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty Images

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