Celine Dion brings American Music Awards to tears in tribute to Paris
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.
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American Music Awards producer Larry Klein said the show decided to include a tribute to Paris to show solidarity.
`Celine`s performance will help us express our feelings through songs, when words do not suffice,` Klein told Billboard.
Piaf wrote Hymne a l`Amour 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 band`s 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.`
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Leto then paid tribute to his friend Thomas Ayad, who was killed in the massacre, before quoting from a viral Facebook post written by a man who also lost his wife at the concert hall.
`You will not have my hatred,` French journalist Antoine Leiris wrote. `I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you.`
`You want it, but to respond to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.`
Leto then continued by saying tonight they would honor victims of the `unimaginable violence` that has taken place in Paris and all over the world.
`France matters,` he began. `Russia matters. Mali matters. Syria matters. The Middle East matters. The United States matters.`
`The entire world matters, and peace is possible.`
Leto concluded by touching upon the recent Syrian refugee crisis in the US.
He told the audience that many in the country were `sons and daughters` of immigrants - including Steve Jobs and President Obama.