Did Celine Dion sing My Heart Will Go On in one take?

The RMS Titanicmay have been referred to as “The Ship of Dreams” in the 1997 movie, but it took a little coaxing to get Céline Dion on board with the soundtrack — and she has no regrets.

In a Monday night chat with Andy Cohen on his late-night Bravo talk series, Watch What Happens Live, the legendary songstress, 51, admitted she wasn’t initially a fan of “My Heart Will Go On,” — the song that is now famously linked to the film and to her iconic career.

“It is true,” she confirmed to Cohen, 51, and his audience members, after being asked about her original thoughts on the song, adding that she’s “glad they didn’t listen to me” and recorded the song anyway.

The song, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on Feb. 28, 1998, propelled the Titanic soundtrack to a 16-week run at No. 1 and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. It went on to win Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards, and the Grammy Award for record of the year.

“It didn’t appeal to me. I was probably very tired that day — very tired,” Dion continued. “My husband [the late René Angélil] said, ‘Let’s hold on.’ He talked to the writer and he said, ‘Let’s try to make it, like, a little demo.'”

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“I sang the song once and they built the orchestra around it. I never re-sang it for the recording. So the demo is the actual recording,” she recalled, joking, “But after that, I’ve sang it about three gazillion times.”

James Horner (who died in 2015 in a plane crash at the age of 61) famously composed “My Heart Will Go On” in secret, after Titanic director James Cameron was initially hesitant about the idea of including a pop tune in his maritime blockbuster.

In what has since become a heralded snippet of cinema lore, Horner — working with lyricist Will Jennings — decided to take the film’s most memorable musical strain and commit words to it. The song ultimately came together in a vivid burst of creativity in the spring of 1997, just as Horner was wrapping up the orchestral tapestry that would eventually become the film’s soundtrack.

Finding a voice for the melody proved to be a no-brainer for Horner. “For me, the only person that could do it was Céline,” he once told Billboard.

RELATED VIDEO: Kate Winslet Reveals Her Most Special Memory From The Set of Titanic

Dion celebrated the song’s 20th anniversary in May 2017, when she took the stage in a stunning white gown and sang the famous ballad at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. The performance was particularly poignant, as Dion lost husband Angélil to a years-long battle with throat cancer in January 2016.

It was a return to the Billboard Music Awards for the singer, who has won seven previous trophies at the show — including six in 1998 after “My Heart Will Go On” was released.

“This song means a lot to me, and it has played such a huge role in my career,” she said in a statement prior to the ceremony that year. “I’m so grateful to the late James Horner, and to Will Jennings, for writing it and creating the opportunity for me to be part of Titanic — an amazing film whose legacy will continue for generations to come.”

Dion, who recently released her new album, Courage, previously told Cosmopolitan, “When I was ready to sing the song, I had tears in my eyes, and I could feel my knees shaking because I was getting very emotional. … Singing the theme was a magic moment for me.”

In the history of cinema, it is rare that a soundtrack gains just as much of a cult following as the film it was composed. for. My Heart Will Go On ends Titanic with a firework display of emotions and lyricism. The song, performed by Céline Dion, became a classic in the singer's repertoire, after the film's tsunami of success when it was released in 1997. Despite a career chock-a-block with hits, it is this song in particular that the public wants to hear at every concert. And for good reason, as well as being linked to the most epic and tragic love story in cinema over the last thirty years, the song itself is exceptionally powerful. The melody is instantly recognizable from the very first notes, the lyrics already memorized by every listener, and the entire song is catapulted by the voice of one of the greatest divas in the world. 

The song might have never seen the light of day

When James Cameron called on James Horner to compose the music for Titanic, he decided to only commission an instrumental score. The producers felt that a vocal artist would be too expensive for the film's already enormous budget. James Horner composed the entire soundtrack for the film, including the title The Portrait, which was intended to accompany the drawing Jack made for Rose on the night of the shipwreck. Despite the filmmaker's refusal, Horner was convinced by the potential of his melody to be transformed into a song and entrusted Will Jennings with the lyrics. When Horner was writing the music for the end of the film, "I wanted it to feel a little more timeless, and again you get to the end credits and what you hear is a reprise, a suite of old themes, and I felt: “The last thing I want is a reprise" So instead he decided to use a song, “I wanted to do something different, something elegant, tasteful, and contemporary.” When he played the melody on the piano to Céline Dion, the singer wasn't totally convinced and refused to record the song. But James Horner persisted and went back to the studio to create a demo which could be properly compiled with the singer's voice. From her very first attempt, the Quebec artist charmed the audience. But James Cameron still had to be convinced to include the title at the end of his film. James Horner said that he carried the tape in his pocket for four weeks, waiting for the moment when he caught Cameron in an unusually good mood.  Upon hearing the track with Dion's voice, he agreed to the song straight away. In total synergy with Titanic, My Heart Will Go On transcends the cinematographic experience offered by James Cameron. 

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