Celine Dion’s new manager follows the lead of Dion and husband Rene Angelil

MONTREAL – Rene Angelil may be giving up the day-to-day managing of Celine Dion’s career but he’s not going to be far away.

While Aldo Giampaolo will be Dion’s new manager, Angelil and Dion will still make the big decisions when it comes to the pop superstar’s career.

Giampaolo, the new CEO of Feeling Productions, insisted in an interview with The Canadian Press on Thursday that he’s mainly going to be an administrator, handling the contracts and various requests that come in.

“It’s going to allow Rene to step back a little from the little details,” Giampaolo said.

Giampaolo will certainly offer his opinions and advice but he’s there mainly to carry out the power couple’s wishes.

“The bottom line is that I’ll do what they want,” Giampaolo said. “This is Celine’s career, it’s what they’ve built together . . . . Rene is always present but not on a daily basis.”

Angelil’s main job will be concentrating on his recovery from a second bout with throat cancer. A cancerous tumour was removed on Dec. 23 and he is in remission.

However, turning over the day-to-day management is something the couple, who married in 1994, have been considering for several years.

Giampaolo, who has been friends with Angelil for more than two decades, said he was first approached five years ago. At that point it was only a possible plan that would be used if Angelil was unable to continue as her manager.

“The (daily tasks) around Celine are just huge,” Giampaolo said. “She’s a worldwide artist. It’s a machine.”

There is no shortage of things to take care of, he adds.

“Rene is in remission from his second bout with cancer. He has his good days and other less good days like anyone in remission from that damned malady. He said, with Celine, ‘it’s best to approach Aldo.'”

Giampaolo was quick to add his friend is doing well and he’s “still playing cards.”

Giampaolo has had a lengthy career in the entertainment industry and worked with such organizations as Cirque du Soleil.

He was president and CEO of QMI Entertainment & Sports, owned by media giant Quebecor, before joining Feelings Productions. He feels his new job is a big vote of confidence from Angelil and Dion.

He added that his 25-year friendship with Angelil was a key factor in his decision, which will require him to relocate to Las Vegas, where Dion is performing at Caesar’s Palace through Aug. 15.

Her most recent album, 2013’s “Loved Me Back to Life,” topped the chart in Canada en route to going platinum four times over.

Dion has been a protege of Angelil’s since he discovered her and he guided her to international stardom.

The couple has three children together and Dion wants her husband to put all his efforts on his recovery. Giampaolo noted that the singer has also become more involved in handling her own career and knows where she wants to go.

“We’re not going to tell Celine to do something if she doesn’t like it,” Giampaolo said. “You don’t do that with an artist.”

Giampaolo, who started his entertainment career managing the auditorium in the Montreal suburb of Verdun, has a clear mandate in his new job: keep Dion in the ranks of the best singers on the planet.

“I never took a job to just be No. 1,” he said. “I worked to be more than No. 1, from the Verdun auditorium to here.”