Celine Dion “feels betrayed” after losing a $13 million (£9.8 million) legal dispute with her longtime booking agent Rob Prinz.
Dion parted ways with Prinz and his firm ICM Partners back in 2017, shortly after she signed a $489 million (£369 million) deal with concert promoters AEG for gigs including her lucrative Las Vegas residencies.
In 2017 the pop diva also split from manager Aldo Giampaolo, who had continued a deal her late husband Rene Angelil made with Prinz to be her booking agent that gave him 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent of her earnings. Dion then fired Prinz after he refused to reduce his rate, which the singer claimed was too high.
ICM initiated legal proceedings to retrieve the $13 million (£9.8 million) commission they allege she owes them for booking her concerts up until 2026.
Following an investigation, the California Labor Commission ruled that Celine must pay the fees, stating: “ICM Partners is due 1.5 per cent of the gross compensation earned or received from all Las Vegas residency performances, 3 per cent of all touring performances and 1.5 per cent from performances in her home province of Quebec.”
After the ruling, Celine released a statement, in which she stated: “I have paid Mr. Prinz many millions of dollars over the years. And when this all started, my team made an extremely generous offer to pay him and ICM many more millions for years to come, even though our old agreements were over and we had not made a new one.
“I’m not saying that Mr. Prinz did not do anything, but he’s taking much more credit for my career than he deserves. Mr. Prinz had never asked to be paid for 10 years for a few months’ work, and I never agreed to it.
“When Rene (Angelil, Celine’s late husband) was alive, he took care of my business and was always very fair with the people we worked with, and he taught me to be the same. Because he wasn’t here to stand up for me at the hearing, I feel like Mr. Prinz and ICM took advantage with their demands for money and revealing confidential information about my AEG deal. I feel betrayed.”
