Celine Dion ready with first new song since husband's death

Celine Dion (right) and her former manager-husband Rene Angelil. PHOTO: FACEBOOK/CELINE DION

NEW YORK (AFP) - Canadian pop superstar Celine Dion on Wednesday announced her first new song since the death of her husband and manager Rene Angelil as she mourns him through music.

The French-language song, Encore Un Soir, which means One More Night, will come out in several days as the first track of her next album, she said on her website.

The song is an homage to her late husband, the French celebrity site Tele Star said.

It is set to come out on May 24 as she opens nine concerts in Paris, the magazine Paris Match reported.

The bilingual star - one of the most successful artists of all time with more than 220 million albums sold - is also due to perform on Sunday at the Billboard Music Awards in her adopted home of Las Vegas.

Angelil died in January at age 73 following a long struggle with throat cancer.

The music producer had been so struck by Dion's voice when she was 12 that he took her under his wing and married her in 1994 when she was 26.

She returned to her concert residency in Las Vegas six weeks after his death in keeping with his wishes.

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday with ABC's Good Morning America, she said she thought of her late husband when singing The Show Must Go On. She said that in their last conversation, she told him not to be concerned about her or their three children.

"I started to talk to him and I said, you know what, I want you to just go in peace," she said. "I want you to not worry."

Dion's brother Daniel died of the same type of cancer two days later.

"I said to myself, 'For his birthday, my husband came and got my brother because my brother was too weak to fly on his own,'" she said.

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