I Dreamed a Dream | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 23 November 2009 | |||
Recorded | 1999, July–September 2009 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 43:00 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Steve Mac | |||
Susan Boyle chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from I Dreamed a Dream | ||||
|
I Dreamed a Dream is the debut studio album by Scottish singer Susan Boyle. It was released on 23 November 2009 by Syco Music in the United Kingdom, and by Columbia Records in the United States one day later. In the standard edition, 11 out of the 12 songs that appear on the album are cover songs, plus the original composition "Who I Was Born to Be". It quickly became the world's biggest selling album of 2009, according to IFPI. The album had sold around 10 million copies worldwide since its debut. [1] [2]
The album entered the UK album chart at number 1 and became the fastest-selling debut album ever in the UK, selling 411,820 copies, beating the record previously set by Spirit by Leona Lewis and outselling the rest of the top five albums combined during its first week on sale. The album remained at the top spot for four weeks, becoming the biggest selling album in the UK in 2009. [3] In the U.S., I Dreamed a Dream debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 701,000 copies sold in its first week, breaking the record for the highest debut by a new solo female artist in the SoundScan era (post 1991). [4] I Dreamed a Dream became the biggest opening sales week of 2009 in the U.S., beating out Eminem's Relapse which sold 608,000. [5] It was the second-biggest selling album of 2009 in the U.S., with 3.1 million copies sold, right behind Taylor Swift's Fearless at 3.2 million copies. [6] In only six weeks of sales, it became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009. [7]
In August 2008, Boyle applied for an audition for the third series of Britain's Got Talent (as contestant number 43212) and was accepted after a preliminary audition in Glasgow. When Boyle first appeared on the show at the city's Clyde Auditorium, she said that she aspired to become a professional singer "as successful as Elaine Paige". [8] Upon this statement, most of the audience began to laugh. Boyle sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables in the first round of the third series of Britain's Got Talent, which was watched by over 10 million viewers when it aired on 11 April 2009. [9] Programme judge Amanda Holden remarked upon the audience's initially cynical attitude, and the subsequent "biggest wake-up call ever" upon hearing her performance. [10] Soon, the audition was widely reported and tens of millions of people viewed the video on YouTube. [9] Boyle was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the strength of this reaction. [11] After the appearance, Paige expressed interest in singing a duet with Boyle, [8] calling her "a role model for everyone who has a dream". [12]
Despite being the clear favourite to win the final, [13] she ended up in second place to Diversity; the UK TV audience was a record of 17.3 million viewers. [14] However, Boyle was quickly signed to Simon Cowell's record label and began the production of the album soon after the show. [15] Cowell compiled a list of around 150 songs that had in part been accumulated from "various A&R guys" who sent them to him. [16] He then whittled these down to 50 and presented the list to producer Steve Mac, so that he could try out the songs with Boyle to see which worked for her and which she wanted to record. [16] They then recorded 20 songs for the album, with 12 eventually making the final cut. [16] In an interview with HitQuarters, Mac talked about working with the singer:
"Susan had a big say in what she wanted to record. She’s an extraordinary artist – she’s an old school artist in that she can only sing what she feels in her heart. She’s not one of those singers that can make anything sound good, it’s only if she feels the passion of it and understands the lyric. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked with an artist that could do that." [16]
The album opens with a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" (1971), which Boyle described as "[o]ne of my personal favourites and an emotional release." She further stated that its "haunting theme" conjures up memories of her childhood amongst council estates, poverty and struggle in the first verse. [17] Her version of the popular American torch song "Cry Me a River" had been previously recorded in 1999 for a charity CD. [18] She also covered "You'll See" (1995), written and originally recorded by pop singer Madonna. Boyle stated that the cover of the song is her answer to the teachers who beat her regularly and the classmates who were aggressive and bullied her when she was growing up. "That was a statement I was trying to make, because I was bullied a lot at school: 'You may have done that to me when I was younger, but you can’t do it to me any more. I’m grown up now," she said. [19] Boyle had been a volunteer at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Blackburn, West Lothian, and recorded some religious songs, including "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art", a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg in Sweden in 1885. [20] The only original composition of the album is "Who I Was Born to Be", written by Audra Mae, Mark Linn-Baker, Johan Fransson, Tobias Lundgren, and Tim Larsson. [21]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 54/100 [22] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [23] |
Entertainment Weekly | (B-) [24] |
The Guardian | [25] |
The Independent | [26] |
Los Angeles Times | [27] |
MSN | [28] |
Slant Magazine | [29] |
The Times | [30] |
I Dreamed a Dream sold approximately 134,000 copies in the United Kingdom on its first day of release alone, and approximately 300,000 copies by Friday, 27 November. [31] Sales of 411,820 copies made it the largest first week sales of any debut album in UK chart history. [32] [33] The album debuted at No. 1 in Australia, selling 164,973 in the first week of release and has been certified 9× Platinum (630,000 units shipped). In New Zealand, the album was certified 3× Platinum for shipping over 45,000 copies after just one week of release while debuting at number 1; the album was certified 8× Platinum (120,000 units shipped) three weeks after its release. [34] The Japanese market regarded it as a classical music album, [35] and it debuted at No. 5 on the Oricon weekly comprehensive charts with around 36,000 copies, [36] and climbed to No. 3 the next week. [37]
In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with approximate sales of 701,000 units, becoming the best sales week for an album in the United States for 2009. [3] I Dreamed a Dream broke the record for the highest debut by a new solo female artist in the SoundScan era (post 1991)., [4] and the oldest artist to reach number-one with a debut album at 49 years old. It also became the biggest opening sales week of 2009 in the U.S., beating out Eminem's Relapse which sold 608,000. [5] It stayed at number one for five consecutive weeks, selling in excess of half a million copies each week, bringing her total U.S. sales over to 2.9 million copies. It is the fastest-selling debut album to reach two million in sales and was 2009's second biggest-selling album. In just 6 weeks it sold 3.1 million sold according to SoundScan; behind Taylor Swift's Fearless which sold 3.21 million [6] since being released one year prior on 11 November 2008. The album moved 3,974,000 copies in the United States to date. [38] The album sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide in its first three weeks of release,[ citation needed ] and by January 2011 sold 14 million. [39] It received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album but lost to Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster .
To promote the release, Boyle sang on several television shows. Her first performance was on the America's Got Talent final, on 16 September, where she performed "Wild Horses" before more than 13 million viewers in the United States. [40] On 10 November, she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" on Dancing with the Stars , during the performance of Chelsie Hightower and Tony Dovolani, and she also sang "Wild Horses" on The X Factor . [41] On 23 November, Boyle gave a live TV performance on the Today Show on the NBC television network which took place outside its studios on Rockefeller Plaza; [42] Boyle sang "I Dreamed a Dream", "Wild Horses", and "Cry Me a River". [42] After the show, Boyle attended a lunch with fans where she was presented with a handmade quilt made by over one hundred people from 28 countries including Mexico, Poland, Japan and Antarctica. [43] On 13 December 2009 she appeared in her own television special, "I Dreamed a Dream: the Susan Boyle Story", featuring a duet with her idol Elaine Paige. [44] The show achieved ratings of 10 million viewers in the United Kingdom. [45] In the U.S. it was carried on the TV Guide Network, becoming the highest rated special in the tiny cable network's history. [46] It was reported that Susan Boyle would be invited to perform "I Dreamed a Dream" for a small gathering at the birthday celebration of Michelle Obama on 17 January 2010. [47] "You'll See" was included in the international soundtrack to Ti Ti Ti , a Brazilian telenovela, which helping to propel "I Dreamed A Dream" up the charts in Brazil. [48]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Wild Horses" | The Rolling Stones | 4:53 | |
2. | "I Dreamed a Dream" | Patti LuPone, from Les Misérables | 3:12 | |
3. | "Cry Me a River" | Arthur Hamilton | Julie London | 2:41 |
4. | "How Great Thou Art" | Carl Boberg | Carl Boberg | 3:12 |
5. | "You'll See" | Madonna | 4:41 | |
6. | "Daydream Believer" | John Stewart | The Monkees | 3:18 |
7. | "Up to the Mountain" | Patty Griffin | Patty Griffin | 3:29 |
8. | "Amazing Grace" | John Newton | John Newton | 3:33 |
9. | "Who I Was Born to Be" |
| Susan Boyle | 4:08 |
10. | "Proud" | The cast of Britannia High | 3:20 | |
11. | "The End of the World" |
| Skeeter Davis | 3:13 |
12. | "Silent Night" | Franz Xaver Gruber | 2:59 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
13. | "Wings to Fly" | Kunihiko Murai | Akai Tori | 3:51 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Susan Boyle Story: Interview" | 11:19 |
2. | "I Dreamed a Dream" (original audition) | 3:11 |
Production and recording
| Instruments and vocals
|
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
All-time charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [103] | 10× Platinum | 750,000 [104] |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [105] | Gold | 10,000* |
Belgium (BEA) [106] | Platinum | 30,000* |
Canada (Music Canada) [107] | 5× Platinum | 400,000^ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [108] | Gold | 15,000^ |
France (SNEP) [109] | Platinum | 100,000* |
GCC (IFPI Middle East) [110] | Platinum | 6,000* |
Germany (BVMI) [111] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
Greece (IFPI Greece) [112] | Gold | 3,000^ |
Hungary (MAHASZ) [113] | Gold | 3,000^ |
Ireland (IRMA) [114] | 8× Platinum | 120,000^ |
Italy (FIMI) [115] | Gold | 30,000* |
Japan (RIAJ) [116] | Platinum | 250,000^ |
Mexico (AMPROFON) [117] | Gold | 40,000 [118] |
Netherlands (NVPI) [119] | Platinum | 50,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [120] | 11× Platinum | 165,000^ |
Poland (ZPAV) [121] | Gold | 10,000* |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [122] | Gold | 30,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [123] | Platinum | 40,000‡ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [124] | Platinum | 30,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [125] | 7× Platinum | 2,100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [126] | 4× Platinum | 4,000,000^ |
Summaries | ||
Europe (IFPI) [127] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Number Ones is a greatest hits album by American singer Michael Jackson. It was released on November 18, 2003, by Epic Records. Number Ones was Jackson's first standalone compilation album with Epic Records, after the release of the first disc of HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995. The album included Jackson's singles that reportedly reached number 1 in charts around the world, hence the album's name. Number Ones also features the last original single released during Jackson's lifetime, "One More Chance", released four days after the release of the album.
Whitney is the second studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released on June 2, 1987, by Arista Records as the follow-up to her debut album. Whitney is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with sales of over 20 million copies worldwide. The album features five top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, which also became international hits. The album's first four singles—"I Wanna Dance with Somebody ", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"—all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100, making her the first female act to achieve four number-one hits from one album.
The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album is a soundtrack album from the film of the same name, released on November 17, 1992, by Arista Records. The album's first side features songs recorded by American singer Whitney Houston, who starred in the film, while side two features the work of various artists. Houston and Clive Davis were co-executive producers of the record.
Life for Rent is the second studio album by English singer Dido, released by Arista Records on 29 September 2003. The album was produced by her brother Rollo Armstrong and American songwriter Rick Nowels. Work on the album began in mid-2002. It was certified 9× Platinum by the BPI, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide, making it the fourth best-selling album worldwide of 2003. The album became the seventh best-selling album of the 2000s in the United Kingdom, making Dido the only singer to have two albums in the top 10 list.
Coast to Coast is the second studio album by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released on 6 November 2000 by RCA Records. Five hit singles were released from the album: "Against All Odds", "My Love", "What Makes a Man", "I Lay My Love on You" and "When You're Looking Like That". The album was a commercial success in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, selling 1.8 million copies in Britain alone. The album was the third-best selling of 2000 in Britain. As of October 2001, it sold seven million copies worldwide.
The Ultimate Hits is the third compilation album by American country music artist Garth Brooks, released by Pearl Records on November 6, 2007.
Rockferry is the debut studio album by Welsh singer Duffy, released on 3 March 2008 in the United Kingdom by A&M Records. It was released in the United States by Mercury Records. Taking four years to record the album, Duffy worked with several producers and writers including Bernard Butler, Steve Booker, Jimmy Hogarth, and Eg White. Primarily a soul recording musically, Rockferry is composed of ballads, torch songs, and up tempo songs in the style of 1960s pop music. It was well received by music critics, who praised the record's musical and lyrical depth and occasional darkness, Duffy's vocal performance, and the record's contemporary instrumentation and production which created a warm sound. Music critics favourably compared Duffy's work on Rockferry to the music of Dusty Springfield and Duffy's contemporary Amy Winehouse.
And Winter Came... is the seventh studio album by Irish singer, songwriter, and musician Enya, released on 7 November 2008 by Warner Bros. Records internationally and by Reprise Records in the United States on 11 November 2008. After recording new Christmas songs for her fourth EP Sounds of the Season: The Enya Collection (2006), Enya started work on a Christmas album of traditional carols and original tracks, but the idea was changed to a collection of songs with a Christmas or winter theme as it better suited the style of the new material. It was recorded with her longtime collaborators, arranger and producer Nicky Ryan and his wife, lyricist Roma Ryan.
I Am... Sasha Fierce is the third solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on November 12, 2008, by Columbia Records and Music World Entertainment.
The Fame is the debut studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining KonLive Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop record that displays influences from 1980s music. Lyrically, it visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity. The album was primarily promoted through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances, and was reissued as a deluxe edition with The Fame Monster on November 18, 2009.
Michael Jackson's This Is It is a posthumous two-disc soundtrack album by American singer Michael Jackson. Released by MJJ Music on October 26, 2009, This Is It features previously released music, as well as six previously unreleased recordings by Jackson. This Is It was released to coincide with the theatrical release of Michael Jackson's This Is It, a concert film documenting Jackson's rehearsals for the This Is It concert series at the O2 Arena in London. This Is It is the sixth album to be released by Sony and Motown/Universal since Jackson's death on June 25, 2009.
The Element of Freedom is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys, released on December 11, 2009, by J Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during May to September 2009 at the Oven Studios in Long Island, New York. Production was primarily handled by Keys, Kerry Brothers Jr., and Jeff Bhasker. Departing from the classicist soul music of Keys' previous albums, The Element of Freedom has a mid-tempo, low-key sound and features mostly love songs.
My Christmas is the thirteenth studio album and first Christmas album released by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Need You Now is the second studio album by American country music trio Lady Antebellum. It was released on January 26, 2010 through Capitol Nashville. It is the follow-up album to their 2008 self-titled debut album. The production on the album was handled by Paul Worley and Lady Antebellum.
Italian pop tenor and crossover artist Andrea Bocelli has released seventeen pop, classical, and Latin studio albums, including one holiday album; three compilation albums; twenty two singles; four collaborative albums; eleven complete opera recordings; three live albums, and nine live video releases.
The Gift is the second album and first Christmas album by Scottish singer Susan Boyle, which was released on 8 November 2010. Boyle hinted that the album has a 1960s feel "because that was [her] era". Despite having a mixed critical reception, the album debuted at number one on both the British and American album charts and received a nomination at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
The discography of Susan Boyle, a Scottish singer, contains seven studio albums and sixteen singles, thirteen as a solo artist, and three as a featured artist. Boyle achieved global attention after auditioning for Series 3 of Britain's Got Talent in 2009. After much attention, Boyle signed a record deal with British record producer Simon Cowell, releasing her worldwide multi-platinum selling début album I Dreamed a Dream. The album's first two singles, "Wild Horses" and "I Dreamed a Dream" were successful, both reaching the top forty of the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, Boyle's album charted at number one on the Billboard 200 album charts. The singles were a success in the United States, with "Wild Horses" making ninety-eight and "I Dreamed a Dream" making sixty-two.
The Beginning is the sixth studio album by American group the Black Eyed Peas. The album was released on November 26, 2010 by Interscope. It is a prequel to the group's previous album The E.N.D. (2009) and their last credited as the Black Eyed Peas. The lead single, "The Time ", was released on November 9, 2010. The second single was "Just Can't Get Enough" and it was released on February 18, 2011. The final single was "Don't Stop the Party" and was released on June 24, 2011. The album debuted at number six on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 119,000 copies. The Beginning was the final Black Eyed Peas album to feature Fergie as a member of the group, as well as the last before the group's five year hiatus.
Someone to Watch Over Me is the third album by Scottish singer Susan Boyle, released on 7 November 2011 in the United Kingdom and 1 November 2011 in the United States. The album has been described as a "diverse mix of music" which includes songs inspired by the stories of Boyle's fans who write letters to her.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is the soundtrack for the 2009 film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Released on December 1, 2009, the album features performances by the Chipmunks and Chipettes, along with contributions from artists such as Honor Society, Queensberry, and Charice. The soundtrack achieved commercial success, selling approximately 650,000 copies and earning Gold certification from both the Recording Industry Association of America and the Australian Recording Industry Association.
Releases first album I Dreamed A Dream through Simon Cowell's label. Sells 10 million copies worldwide.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)