We’ll cut to le point. On January 6, 2022, a group of serious Celine Dion fans, some of whom reportedly belong to a Facebook group called celinedionaddicts and go by the name “The Red Heads,†stood outside Rolling Stone’s office to protest Dion’s exclusion from the magazine’s recent listicle “The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.†The ranking, which also didn’t include Cher, Jennifer Hudson, or Nat King Cole, to name a few, received intense backlash on Twitter after its publication on January 1. But Dion’s fans took it very personally. Variety (which operates under Penske Media, the same umbrella corporation as Rolling Stone) reported that around 15 followers of the artist traveled “over six hours from Montreal†to the Manhattan office and held signs that had messages like “Save Celine,†“Les Derniers Seront Les Premiers†(which translates to “The Last Will Be the Firstâ€), and “We Want a Recount.â€
Rolling Stone then went meta, ventured out onto the streets, and interviewed some of the protesters themselves. One protester said, “We hope that Rolling Stone will admit that they made a mistake.†Another said, “Well, we are here to express ourselves, in the name of Celine, because obviously you made a big mistake forgetting her name on the big list that you published last week. So, we wanted to make sure you understood that you missed the best singer in the world.†Editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman even joined in: “of all the days to WFH.†He also tweeted Rolling Stone’s article about the protest at Rolling Stone’s office:
Now we wait to see if Rolling Stone will amend its list — or if Countess Luann De Lesseps stans will also have to start making posters.