Celine Dion brings American Music Awards to tears by singing haunting Edith Piaf love song Hymne a LAmour in tribute to Paris
Celine Dion brought the theatre to tears at the American Music Awards, as she performed a tribute to the victims of the terror attacks in Paris earlier this month. The French-Canadian sang Edith Piafs Hymne a lAmour as a montage showing of Paris landmarks, including the the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, and the French capital uniting in the wake of the attacks, played behind her.
Several audience members at at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California, were visibly moved as Celine sang the emotional French classic in honour, of the 130 people who died in the attacks on November 13. Multiple guests of the American Music Awards were shown wiping away tears as they watched Celines powerful performance. As the grand finale neared Celine raised her arms in the air, as an image of the Eiffel Tower lit up in the French colors behind her. Terrorist organisation ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris, that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more, as well as the suicide bombings in Beirut that killed 43 people and injured more than 200, and the downing of the Russian jetliner carrying 224 people in Egypts Sinai Peninsula, all of which took place within the past month.
American Music Awards producer Larry Klein said the show decided to include a tribute to Paris to show solidarity. Celines performance will help us express our feelings through songs, when words do not suffice, Klein told Billboard. Piaf wrote Hymne a lAmour in 1949 for the love of her life boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was killed only months later while flying to New York from Paris to visit her. Celine was introduced by Jared Leto, who said his band 30 Seconds to Mars had played at the Bataclan months before 89 people last Friday during an Eagles of Death Metal show. It was beautiful, peaceful and unforgettable, Leto said of the bands impromptu summer show. What a difference a day makes. Seven months later on the evening of November 13, 2015 that same venue was under siege. One in a series of terrorist attacks on Paris that changed the world forever.
