My Heart Will Go On

This is Celine Dion 's 5th regular single and the soundtrack to the movie Titanic . It is undoubtedly the most famous song representing Celine Dion.[2] , is also the most famous song from the Titanic soundtrack. It is also the most successful song in pop history, to the point where there is even a formula called Titanic = Celine Dion.

Written by Will Jennings and composed by James Horner , this song is the theme song to the movie Titanic and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1998. In fact, this song, or to be exact, the version inserted in the Titanic movie, is not a song that Celine Dion wanted to sing, and was recorded in one go without any retakes, to be exact, just to sing it once for demo purposes . The one featured on Celine Dion's studio album is a different re-recording of her OST version.

The background to this is a bit complicated. During the production of Titanic, director James Cameron showed strong resistance to inserting a theme song with vocals, saying, 'I can't see a theme song like a pop song being inserted into a movie. '[3] , only the original score, meaning purely instrumental music, was wanted to be included in the film. However, as film production costs soared, investors, including 20th Century Fox , and key figures involved in film production had no choice but to think about how to make the film a box office success.

At first, the position of composer was offered to Enya from Ireland, but[4] Enya refused, and the position of composer went to James Horner.

Composer James Horner, who was in charge of Titanic's music, decided to add lyrics to My Heart Will Go On, which he was composing as score music, and asked Will Jennings to write the lyrics, resulting in the current lyrics.[5][6] The song created in this way was handed over to Celine Dion, who was known as the box office hit for movie theme songs at the time... Celine Dion actually refused to sing this song.[7]

This was not because she did not like the song, but because of Celine Dion's judgment as she did not like the image of a 'film music professional singer '. Celine Dion rose to global stardom with Beauty and the Beast , and once again became a guarantee of movie success with Because You Loved Me , the insert song of Up Close & Personal, and had a deep relationship with film music. However, at the time of her success as a singer, she felt that her image as a regular film singer was actually holding back her career.[8] So I flatly refused to sing this song. James Horner himself sang while playing the piano, but Celine Dion was not impressed by Horner's song and rejected it. However, the situation changed when Celine Dion's husband, producer René Angelil, who sensed the song's potential for success, grabbed the hem of his skirt and earnestly persuaded him to sing a demo .[9] Still, Celine Dion's thoughts did not change, so she sang the song, but she finished the recording in one go with the intention of just singing a demo .[10]

Anyway, the song was written and recorded, but since it was James Horner's arbitrary decision and not made with James Cameron's consent, it was necessary to persuade James Cameron again. In order to persuade James Cameron, who can never be said to have a good personality as a director, James Horner played a demo created when Cameron seemed to be in a good mood, and somehow received posthumous approval.[11] There is a reason why James Horner, upon winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1998, said to James Cameron in his acceptance speech , 'Thank you for making me feel good when I played the demo.'

In fact, James Cameron did not say anything, but he was worried about how to reassure film company executives about the excessively large production costs, so it was true that the theme song sung by Celine Dion, which was a guarantee of movie music box office success, was a good persuasive material to reassure film company executives and receive additional budget.[12] And that success... was proven by the movie's box office results. However, since the singer refused to re-record the demo song, which was roughly sung without much motivation, the initial demo could not be said to be in a very good condition, and the version inserted into the movie was edited to the level of a stopper. For this reason, there were voices of dissatisfaction within the film production team regarding James Horner's Academy Award win for Best Original Song, and the representative figure was producer Walter Afanasieeff, who directed the editing work.[13]

Afterwards, James Cameron invited Celine Dion to the movie premiere in advance, and after seeing Celine Dion cry after watching the entire movie, he asked her what she thought, and Celine Dion was said to be holding only a tissue damp with tears...

The collaboration between composers James Horner and James Cameron on Titanic can be said to be dramatic in many ways. This is because the two were originally close enemies. Ten years ago, in Cameron's film Alien 2, James Horner suffered from Cameron's perfectionism and had to create nearly an hour of orchestral music in 15 days. After finishing the work, he was very angry and declared that he would never work with Cameron again. did. # However, a few years later, Cameron was impressed by the beautiful music Horner created in the movie Braveheart , and Horner was moved by reading Cameron's screenplay for Titanic, resolving 10 years of resentment. As a result, the Titanic soundtrack was created, and James Horner set a record of winning both the Academy Award for Original Score and Original Score Award.

The version inserted into Celine Dion's single version differs from the movie OST in the arrangement and performance of some instruments.

It has sold approximately 6.9 million copies worldwide, making it the 10th best-selling physical single in the world and the 3rd best-selling physical single by a woman. It is undoubtedly Celine Dion's representative song. It ranked 13th on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart in 1998 . However, compared to the song's popularity, its two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 are relatively short, as the single was released some time after the movie was released and its popularity had waned to some extent.

It was world-famous for its comical cover by New Zealand comedian and singer Matt Mulholland.

And it is often used as a beacon in some nihilistic or humorous videos, both domestically and internationally.

It was revealed that Donald Trump played a live video of this song before his 2024 presidential campaign in Montana , and # Celine Dion's side immediately stated that it was an unauthorized use. Furthermore, because Trump used the movie theme song about a sinking ship at his campaign, he was ridiculed by not only Democratic supporters but also Celine Dion herself . #