Canada’s number one giraffe look-a-like, Celine Dion, is set to perform a one off acoustic version of Darude’s timeless dance floor anthem Sandstorm during an unspecified show in The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, next month.
Dion, best known for thinking she’s French, is said to be “fucking chuffed” to have the opportunity to perform a track that has had such an impact on her career.
“It is a great honour for me to be able to sing Sandstorm during one of my shows,” claimed Dion with her plastic French accent. “There are two songs that have really helped to shape my career, one of them is Witch Doctor by Cartoons and the other is Sandstorm so it really will be a privilege to sing it for my fans, I just hope I can do it justice on the night.”
“Pretty much everything I’ve released since 1998 has been directly influenced by one or both of those songs,” continued the singer. “I actually wanted to re-record My Heart Will Go On in 1999 and use ‘Oh eh oh ah ah ting tang walla walla my heart will go on’ as the chorus but my label at the time wouldn’t let me. I got rid of them soon afterwards.”
“Then I heard Sandstorm for the first time in early 2000 and my life changed. It affected me so much that I had to take a break from music, I just didn’t think that I could ever make anything that could live up to the standards it set,” revealed Dion honestly. “I was ready to quit for ever but, after a chance meeting with Darude, I decided that I’d stop being afraid of the song and use it as inspiration.”
“I haven’t looked back since and I think my music has become better for it,” she continued. “My 2002 comeback album, A New Day Has Come, was very heavily influenced by Sandstorm and Darude actually co-produced a couple of the songs on it, it’s easily my best work to date.”
“I have to admit I am feeling a bit nervous about taking on such a monster hit,” claimed Canada’s biggest selling recording artist of all time. “Even though I’ve been singing it in private for the last sixteen years I still trip up over some of the lyrics, particularly the bit where the ‘de de de de des’ change to ‘do do do do dos’ but hopefully, with enough practice, I’ll be ok come showtime.”
According to Julius Constantine, a Caesar’s Palace spokesperson, the date of the Sandstorm performance will not be announced until twenty minutes before the show as to do so any earlier would almost certainly cause chaos on the Vegas strip.
