A group of avid Celine Dion fans gathered outside of Rolling Stone headquarters in Midtown Manhattan on Friday, protesting the magazine for excluding the five-time Grammy Award-winning diva from its “200 Greatest Singers of All Time” list.
Video shared online shows protesters chanting and singing songs outside the headquarters, carrying signs with messages including “How could you forget Celine?” and “Rolling Stone, you’ve hit an iceberg,” KTLA sister station WJW reports.
The list, which was released on New Year’s Day, has caused plenty of social media uproar over its placement or exclusion of big industry names, most notably Dion.
Rolling Stone kicked off the list with a disclaimer that “this is the Greatest Singers list, not the Greatest Voices List.”
“In all cases, what mattered most to us was originality, influence, the depth of an artist’s catalog, and the breadth of their musical legacy,” the article goes on to say. “The singers behind it are here for one reason: They can remake the world just by opening their mouths.”
According to reports from Variety, the protesters made their way from Montreal to New York City for the demonstration. They’re part of the Dion fan club known as “The Red Heads.”
“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 you published last week,” one of the protesters told a Rolling Stone reporter.
Rolling Stone responded to the backlash, but only to comment on some of the protester’s signs.
“Celine Dion devotees sang and shouted and held signs outside our offices today,” Rolling Stone tweeted Friday. “Our personal favorite? ‘“’Rolling Stone is Stoned,’”’ which also was a popular chant in-between songs.”