Sophia Michaels
What happened to Celine Dion’s album, Courage?
Just last week, the Canadian legend’s latest offering perched itself at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. One quick week later, it’s fallen like a stone.
Here’s what happened to the singer’s short-lived success and other artists it’s happened to.
Dion’s album ‘Courage’ had just catapulted to No. 1 last week
Courage is the singer’s latest album, her first English-language album since the 2016 death of her husband and manager, René Angélil. Two days after his death, her older brother also died from cancer. It was a crushing amount of grief for anyone to carry.
Three years after that dark time in her life, the 51-year-old told USA Today in April this year, “I’m now part of production meetings, and bringing ideas. Before, Réne took the meetings, to protect me. ‘You sing the best you can and go rest.’ But it’s so fun. I’m discovering this. To be part of bringing ideas to the table, whether they are good or not.”
The album hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts on the week of Nov. 25. Her last No. 1 album was 2002’s A New Day Has Come.
“I’m so grateful to the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, and the musicians, who shared their incredible talent with me,” Dion said on Instagram last month. “And thank you to my amazing fans for your incredible support. You’ll never know how much it means to me. I love you!”
And then ‘Courage’ tumbled out of No. 1…badly
After its arrival at No. 1 in the last week of November, the album fell, within little more than a week, collapsing from No. 1 to No. 111 on the Billboard 200. It’s one of the worst falls in Billboard history, according to Chart Data.
And Showbiz 411 stated that the album sold over 100,000 copies, mostly as CDs and downloads. Part of Courage‘s downfall may have been the Recording Industry Association of America noting of Dion’s album’s sales as part of concert ticket packages. The lack of streaming of any songs off the album also contributed to its poor performance.
And now this week, Courage has disappeared off the charts, plunging 95%.
Albums by other artists that also dropped like rocks from No. 1
The album that up until now had fallen farther and fastest off the charts until Courage was Madonna’s Madame X, which was released in June of 2019. Shortly after its arrival at No. 1, the Material Girl saw her album fall more than 70 spots.
Bon Jovi’s This House is Not For Sale beat Madonna’s crash record. Released in 2016, it peaked almost immediately at No. 1, only to fall at No. 169. It then returned to No. 1 in large part because of a concert ticket bundle.
Despite all the rough and tumble with his band’s album, Jon Bon Jovi remained optimistic about their job on it, telling iHeartRadio in 2016, “I’m so proud of the record. We’ve worked so very hard on it. I believe it to be a seminal album in our career. And you don’t know that when you write it.”
“You feel great about the way that the recording came out. But you’re never a hundred percent confident in it. You’re just proud of it.”
Read more: The Surprising Remark Singer Michael Bublé Made About His Fans, Plus Here’s His Net Worth
Written by: CheatSheet
