Josh Groban ‘thrilled’ Celine Dion is back onstage, recalls meeting her at 17

TORONTO – Josh Groban says he’s “thrilled” to see his friend Celine Dion returning to the stage after a one-year hiatus to help her ailing husband.

Rene Angelil, 73, was diagnosed with throat cancer for a second time in 2013 and Dion subsequently halted her ultra-successful Las Vegas residency to tend to her husband and longtime manager.

She announced in March, however, that she would return to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace — on Angelil’s wishes — beginning Aug. 27.

“As a huge fan of hers, of course, I’m thrilled to see her back onstage,” Groban told The Canadian Press Wednesday in Toronto.

“For any of us that are lucky enough to have the stage as an outlet, we all know how helpful that can be to help us go through things. It’s better sometimes not to hermit away. It’s better sometimes both for yourself and for the person that you’re helping to get out, be in the world, share music and heal through music.

“So if that’s what is providing comfort for her and Rene, then of course myself and all her fans are 100 per cent for it.”

Groban, 34, has a long history with Dion.

When he was just a high school student and still very much an aspiring vocalist, Groban received an urgent call from Canadian producer David Foster, who had taken an interest in his fledgling career.

Foster called because Andrea Bocelli was about to miss his Grammy Awards rehearsal for his duet with Dion on their collaborative single “The Prayer.”

Could Groban, Foster asked, skip school, zip down to the Staples Center and take Bocelli’s place?

“I was just absolutely terrified,” Groban recalled. “I was pulled from history class. I was 17. I was thrown this SUPER difficult song — I was a baritone asked to sing this insane tenor song. My hands were shaking.

“And Celine’s like: ‘I will take your hand and it will be OK.’ We kind of got through it. That’s the beauty of a duet. When you have a really giving duet partner, it kind of takes you to another level.

“So that was Celine for me at that moment.”

Their connection endured.

Nine years after that brief, unlikely collaboration, Dion and Groban revisited “The Prayer” during Dion’s CBS TV special “That’s Just the Woman in Me.”

The live recording was subsequently released as a single and reached Top 40 status in Canada — still the highest peak of Groban’s singles career here.

“She’s somebody who’s been a friend and she’s somebody who’s been a huge supporter of me in my life,” he said. “She’s somebody who very early on showed me so much warmth and so much support and love when she didn’t have to.

“And that’s just Celine. As everyone around the world — and certainly in Canada — knows she’s the genuine entity. That’s who she is and she’s proven that.

“She’s just always somebody that when we crossed paths, I’ve got nothing but warmth from her,” he added.

“I’m proud to know her.”

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