Brittany Hellmeister has had a reserved seat for
Celine Dion's upcoming Atlanta concert for a while now.
Never mind that the singer's not coming to town until 2009.
It turned out the
extreme Dion devotee didn't have to wait that long to see her musical
hero in person. Not with Oprah Winfrey involved.
Last month a covert camera crew arrived on the North Georgia College
& State University campus, under the guise of the college news, with
a secret message for the freshman.
It was a video invitation from Celine Dion herself asking Hellmeister to
join her for an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Banks County native was sitting in Donovan Hall with her fellow
coeds when Celine unexpectedly popped up on the lobby TV screen and
started talking directly to her.
“Tell all your
professors that you won't be in class for one day next week because
you're coming to Chicago to The Oprah Show,” said Dion. “ ... So go pack
your bags, and I'll see you in Chicago, girl!”
Naturally, Hellmeister accepted the invitation.
Or, more accurately, she screamed.
“All I heard was nothing but screaming,” she said.
And then she cried.
“The girls were crying too. I was crying. They were crying. We were all
crying,” said Hellmeister.
The aspiring actress was handpicked for the show after she responded to
Oprah's attempt to find the biggest Celine Dion fan in the world.
In response, she launched an all-out campaign by plastering her campus
with fliers asking her fellow students to tell Oprah of her obvious
Celine Dion devotion.
She even started a page on the social network of
Facebook.com called “Brittany wants to
meet Celine Dion.”
Her friends answered the call as they sent in letters and emails.
Indeed, Hellmeister's love of the Canadian songstress is well known
among her NGCSU friends, especially those that live in Donovan Hall.
“Oh my God, you don't understand,” said fellow student Angel Jones. “We
hear Celine all the time. All the time it's Celine, Celine, Celine.”
So, within a week, Hellmeister was in the front row of Oprah's studio
audience as Celine Dion herself invited her to the stage for a surprise
serenade.
In what had to be a surreal moment, she found herself sitting directly
in front of her musical idol.
In fact, she even momentarily forgot that the one and only Oprah was
sitting beside her the whole time; so much that when Winfrey touched her
hair, to admire her curly red locks, a startled Hellmeister reflexively
jumped and screamed.
“I screamed in Oprah's face,” she laughed.
Celine gave Hellmeister the pick of any song for a request, to which she
chose “I Drove All Night.”
She then happily sang along with the pop star.
On Monday, Hellmeister watched the national broadcast of the show in the
NGCSU Dining Hall with her fellow students.
“It was my dream,” she surmised. “And you know you have your big life
dream that you never actually thinks going to come true? That was it.”
So, now that the dream's a reality Hellmeister has another goal. “To be
famous,” she said. “Maybe an actress.”
Sure, this dream may take a little bit longer. But until then, there's
always 2009.
