First impressions are the most lasting. That’s what everyone seems to say. In fact, it’s been found that first impressions happen faster than we think — that, less than one-tenth of a second after seeing your face, a stranger has already begun to form an opinion about you.
Some people, as it turns out, take this more seriously than others. Case in point: when one aspiring singer saw Canadian icon-in-chief Céline Dion climbing into the back of a chauffeured van in New York City yesterday, she decided to make herself unforgettable.
Which is to say, she burst out into song.
And not just any song, either. That would risk being forgettable. No. When Freida Solomon saw the legendary Céline Dion fabulously, elegantly, fashionably escaping the Four Seasons Hotel — wearing a show-stopping look from Richard Quinn’s new Moncler Genius line, which literally just hit the runway two weeks ago — she knew she couldn’t pass up the moment.
So she decided to sing Céline Dion’s 2002 hit, “I Surrender.”
A clip of the encounter went viral on social media. In it, you can see Céline Dion about to pull away from the hotel. But she hears Solomon’s voice, feels intrigued, and tells the driver to stop the car. She smiles at her superfan and offers her a fist bump.
“Thank you so much for that,” Dion says, her face framed like a painting by the car window, her eyes (maybe shedding a tear?) concealed behind chic sunglasses.
“You’ve sung for me my whole life, so I wanted to return it,” Solomon can be heard replying.
Watch: Rihanna gets blown away by fan singing her song. Story continues below.
In an interview with E! News, Solomon said she hadn’t initially planned on serenading her favourite singer of all time. Really, she just wanted to have a chat with her. But when she saw her moment escaping, she decided to do what she could to be remembered.
“I asked her to roll down her window, which she did,” Solomon told E! News. “I told her how I grew up listening to her sing with Andrea Bocelli and how she’s been an icon in my life, and out of nowhere, I started singing ‘I Surrender,’ one of her most famous songs.”
It takes a certain kind of bravery to sing, a cappella, in the streets of New York City, to one of the most iconic singers of all time — much less to serenade them with one of their own songs.
Some people have studied Céline’s reaction and transformed it into a meme, claiming her face as an expression of sassiness:
Still, it could just as easily be interpreted as an expression of pleasant surprise.
Céline has been interrupted by the serenade treatment before. Fans have, on multiple occasions, impressed her with covers of her songs. And her reaction is often calm, as though she’s stuck in her head, trying to understand how she’s inspired and moved so many people.
For your inspection:
And anyways, if you’ve spent enough time online, then you’d know this moment doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There’s a whole genre of viral video in which singers are visibly taken aback by the vocal abilities of their fans, often at concerts.
Beyoncé’s eyes widen when a fan hits that note in “Halo.”
Ariana Grande gleefully hugs a fan who has just done a shy rendition of “My Everything.”
Rihanna shares a brief duet moment with a fan, who blows her away when he belts out parts of “FourFiveSeconds.”
Céline Dion isn’t likely to forget Freida Solomon. Ever.
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