Courage (Celine Dion album)
Courage is the twenty-seventh studio album and twelfth English-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released by Columbia Records on 15 November 2019. Dion worked on Courage with various writers and producers, including Sia, David Guetta, Greg Kurstin, Sam Smith, StarGate, Jimmy Napes, Lauv, LP, Jörgen Elofsson, Stephan Moccio, Eg White, Liz Rodrigues of The New Royales, and others.
Courage
15 November 2019
2017–2019
- AIR Studios (London, UK)
- Ballroom West (Los Angeles)
- Big Tree Studios (Los Angeles)
- Capitol Studios (Los Angeles)
- Castle Recording Studios (Franklin, Tennessee)
- Chateau Marouatte (Grand-Brassac, France)
- Departure lounge at Heathrow Airport (London, UK)
- Echo Studio (Los Angeles)
- Eg's Studio (London, UK)
- i Studio Borgen (Partille, Sweden)
- Maison de Musique (Santa Monica, California)
- Metropolis Studios (London, UK)
- MXM Studios (Los Angeles)
- Newman Scoring Stage (Century City, California)
- Penthouse (Lidingö, Sweden)
- Piccolo Studios (Montréal)
- Power Sound Studios (Amsterdam)
- Rocket Carousel Studio (Los Angeles)
- Skylar Grey Studio (St. Helena, California)
- The Stellar House (Venice, California)
- The Synagogue (Los Angeles)
- Studio at the Palms (Las Vegas)
- Troy House (Los Angeles)
57:00
- 9AM
- Johan Carlsson
- John Doelp
- The Elev3n
- Jörgen Elofsson
- David Guetta
- Hybrid
- DallasK
- Greg Kurstin
- Jon Levine
- Craig McConnell
- Stephan Moccio
- Jimmy Napes
- Denis Savage
- StarGate
- The Stereotypes
- Giorgio Tuinfort
- Ugly Babies
- Andrew Wells
- Greg Wells
- Eg White
- Dan Wilson
- Max Wolfgang
In June 2019, Dion ended her Las Vegas residency, Celine and released "Flying on My Own" as a gift to her fans. In September 2019, she embarked on the Courage World Tour and premiered three more new songs: "Imperfections", "Lying Down" and "Courage". The album, which includes 16 songs and four additional tracks on the deluxe edition, received generally favorable reviews from music critics. It debuted atop the US Billboard 200, becoming Dion's first number-one album there in 17 years. It also debuted at number one in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. Courage charted inside the top ten in many other countries, including number two in the United Kingdom, France and Australia, number four in Germany, Austria and Croatia, and number five in Ireland, New Zealand and Portugal.
Background and development[edit]
In November 2013, Dion released her previous English-language studio album, Loved Me Back to Life.[1] The next month, her husband René Angélil was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent surgery.[2] In June 2014, Angélil stepped down as Dion's manager to focus on his health and in August 2014 Dion postponed her show business activities, because of the worsening of her husband's health.[3][4] Angélil died on 14 January 2016.[5] On 22 May 2016, in her first public performance outside The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Dion performed "The Show Must Go On" during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, where she received the Billboard Icon Award.[6] In August 2016, she released her French-language album, Encore un soir to critical and commercial success.[7]
The next month, she premiered "Recovering", a song written by Pink in honor of Dion's late husband.[8] The song was marketed as the first track off of her upcoming English record which, at the time, was projected for release in 2017.[9][10] She performed it during the Stand Up to Cancer Live Event on 9 September 2016.[8] In March 2017, Dion's "How Does a Moment Last Forever" was released on the Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.[11] Dion also embarked on two summer tours in Canada and Europe in 2016 and 2017.[12][13] In 2018, she released "Ashes" from the American superhero film Deadpool 2 and toured Asia, Australia and New Zealand.[14][15] In September 2018, Dion announced the end of her Las Vegas residency Celine, with the final date set for 8 June 2019.[16]
On 3 April 2019, she announced her 2019/2020 Courage World Tour, beginning in Quebec City, Canada on 18 September 2019.[17][18] Dion also announced a new English-language album of the same name, to be released in November 2019.[17][19] Explaining the name of the album, she said: "I think I went through a lot. And life had given me the tools… to find my inner strength, to find courage, and to keep going. The people that I love so much embraced the moments that were difficult. They gave me so much strength. And then a song came that was called "Courage", and it didn't take long for all of us to say, 'I think the album should be called Courage'".[17] Dion announced the tour in a video titled "Ciao for now Las Vegas", in which she leaves Las Vegas in a car full of drag queens.[20][19] Impersonator Steven Wayne stood in for Dion, alongside Bryan Watkins, Crystal Woods and Hot Chocolate as Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Tina Turner.[21][22] The promo also teased the new song, "Flying on My Own".[19] On 5 April 2019, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Dion promoted her upcoming tour, sang few lines from the song "Courage" and performed "Ashes".[23][24] On 7 and 8 June 2019, Dion performed "Flying on My Own" during her Las Vegas residency show and the live performance was released to various streaming platforms on 8 June 2019.[25][26][27]
Writing and recording[edit]
In April 2019, Dion revealed she had received 48 song contenders for the upcoming album and had to choose 12 of them.[28] The new album, Courage, would explore new musical directions while also keeping the familiar style that Dion's fans are used to.[29] After releasing Pink-written "Recovering" in September 2016, Dion recorded new music in October 2016 with Diane Warren, who wrote many of her hits, including "Because You Loved Me".[8][30] In April 2017, Dion mentioned that Sia had written three songs for her.[31] In April 2019, it was announced that the new album will include an appearance by Sia and that one of the songs written by her is titled "Baby".[28][32][33] In December 2017, Dion revealed she has recorded new music with Stephan Moccio and Maty Noyes.[34] Moccio wrote Dion's 2002 successful single "A New Day Has Come", and also co-wrote hits for other artists, including "Earned It" by The Weeknd and "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus.[35] Also in December 2017, Dion recorded the song "Flying on My Own" at the Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas. The song was written by Jörgen Elofsson, Anton Mårtenson and Liz Rodrigues. In October 2018, David Guetta mentioned that Dion recorded a song he co-wrote with Sia.[36] While announcing the Courage World Tour in April 2019, Dion revealed that she recorded a song called "Courage", which became the title track for the album, set for release in November 2019.[19] The promotional video for the tour features a fragment of the new song, "Flying on My Own".[20][19] On 20 May 2019, a fragment of another new song, "Lying Down", written by David Guetta and Sia was featured in Dion's episode of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.[37] "Flying on My Own" (Live from Las Vegas) was released as a digital download on 9 June 2019, the day after Dion ended her 16-year Las Vegas residency.[38] The studio version was released on 28 June 2019.[39] On 18 September 2019, Dion released three new songs, including "Lying Down", "Courage" and "Imperfections", shared the cover art for the album and announced the release date for 15 November 2019.[40]
Singles[edit]
In June 2019, Dion released "Flying on My Own" as a gift to the fans.[69] It reached number one in Quebec and top ten on the digital charts in Canada and France, and on the US Dance Club Songs chart.[70][71] On 18 September 2019, Dion released three more songs, including "Imperfections", "Lying Down" and "Courage".[40] The music video for "Imperfections" premiered on 26 September 2019 and the song was sent to radio on 30 September 2019.[72][73] On 19 October 2019, "Lying Down" was added under the A-list on BBC Radio 2 airplay playlist in the United Kingdom and became record of the week.[74] The music video for "Courage" premiered on 13 November 2019.[75] "Soul" was sent to Italian radio on 24 January 2020 as the album's fourth promotional single and became available worldwide on various streaming platforms, before it was only available in Japan, as the albums Japanese bonus track.[76] "Change My Mind" was released as the album's third promotional single in the United Kingdom on 15 February 2020. It was added to the BBC Radio 2 B-List on the same day.[77]
Notes