LAS VEGAS: Rene Angelil was a former singer-turned-manager when he received an audiotape of a 12-year-old singer from her mother.

“At that time I had been in the business for 20 years,” Angelil recalled in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press. “In those 20 years, I had never heard or had a feeling come out of someone like this little girl I had in front of me. I had shivers all over, you know.”

The singer was Celine Dion, and in time her voice would become one of the most popular in the world, recalling big-voiced singers such as Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston. Dion has said that Angelil mortgaged his house to finance her first album. He was her manager for decades, and the two married in 1994 in an elaborate ceremony at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.

On Thursday, the 73-year-old Angelil died after a long battle with throat cancer in the suburban Las Vegas home in Henderson he shared with Dion and their three children. He died of natural causes under the care of a doctor, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said. No further investigation was expected.

Angelil was born in Montreal to a Canadian mother and Syrian father. He became the love of Dion’s life and the linchpin for her huge success, guiding her career for most of her life. He was constantly seen by her side.

Initially, Dion sang only in her native French, and while she was a huge star in her native Quebec, it didn’t translate to widespread international success. She had to learn English to gain success in the United States and other countries.

By the late 1990s and 2000s, her soaring voice had become dominant on the radio. The theme from “Titanic,” the smash “My Heart Will Go On,” has been her defining hit, and she has had other hits that have sold millions of copies around the world.