Public visitors, including fans of Celine Dion, paid their respects on Thursday to the Canadian singer's husband and manager Rene Angelil, who died last week following a long battle with cancer.

According to broadcaster CBC, Dion stood by Angelil's open casket in the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal during the day.

"We really don't know them on a personal basis, but from knowing them for all these years ... you see them and you follow them all your life and it feels like it's your family," Jimena Valdez, a fan of Dion's music visiting from Mexico, said.

"So this is a difficult time for them and you want to be here for them ... in good times and bad times, like family."

Angelil died aged 73.