Celine Dion Scores First No. 1 Album in Over 17 Years on Billboard 200 Chart
Pop superstar Celine Dion debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with her new studio album 'Courage.' It's her first No. 1 in over 17 years, and her fifth leader overall.
Pop superstar Celine Dion debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with her new studio album Courage. The set, which was released on Nov. 15 via Columbia Records, earned 113,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Nov. 21 in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music.
Courage marks Dion’s fifth No. 1 album, and her first chart-topper in over 17 years. She was last at No. 1 with 2002’s A New Day Has Come.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Nov. 30-dated chart, where Courage bows at No. 1, will be posted in full on Billboard‘s websites on Nov. 26.
Of Courage’s total unit start of 113,000, album sales comprise 109,000, SEA units equal 3,000 and TEA units total 1,000. Courage’s first week got a boost from album sales generated by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with Dion’s Courage World Tour.
Courage is Dion’s first English-language studio album since 2013’s Loved Me Back to Life, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (dated Nov. 23, 2013).
Here are some notable achievements for Dion with the arrival of Courage:
Five No. 1s: Courage is Dion’s fifth No. 1 on the Billboard 200. She has previously hit the top with Falling Into You (No. 1 for three weeks in 1996), Let’s Talk About Love (one week in 1998), All the Way… A Decade of Song (three weeks total, two in 1999 and one in 2000) and A New Day Has Come (one week in 2002).
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No. 1s in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s: Dion has now collected No. 1 albums in each of the last three decades. She’s just the 13th act, and fourth woman, to achieve the feat. The others: Backstreet Boys, Garth Brooks, Dave Matthews Band, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Metallica, Nas, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears and U2.
Over 17 Years Between No. 1s: Dion had to wait over 17 years for her latest No. 1 between A New Day Has Come’s lone week at No. 1 on April 13, 2002 through Courage’s premiere. That’s the longest spell between No. 1s for a woman ever on the chart. She surpasses the 16-year and nearly four-month gap tallied by Whitney Houston between the final week at No. 1 for the Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (May 29, 1993) and the debut of I Look To You (Sept. 19, 2009).
While Dion’s gap between No. 1s is extensive, it’s actually not the longest wait in 2019 for a new No. 1. On the Feb. 9-dated chart, Backstreet Boys returned to No. 1 for the first time in 18 years and nearly two months, as DNA debuted atop the chart. It was the group’s first week at No. 1 since Black & Blue spent its second and final week in charge on Dec. 16, 2000.
A solo artist waited longer than Dion for a No.1, but topped the chart a little over a year ago: Paul McCartney’s Egypt Station premiered at No. 1 on the Sept. 22, 2018-dated list. It was his first No. 1 in 36 years.
13 Top 10 Albums: Dion now has a lucky 13 top 10-charting albums on the Billboard 200. Her first title to visit the region was The Colour of My Love, which climbed to the top 10 on Feb. 25, 1994, when it rose 14-10 after debuting on the list dated Nov. 27, 1993. Colour was Dion’s third chart entry, following Unison (which peaked at No. 74 in 1991) and a self-titled album (No. 34 in 1992).
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Tory Lanez collects his fourth consecutive top five effort (the entirety of his charting albums), as Chixtape 5 debuts with 83,000 equivalent album units earned (with 9,000 of that sum in album sales). Chixtape 5 follows Love Me Now? (No. 4 in 2018), Memories Don’t Die (No. 3, 2018) and I Told You (No. 4, 2016).
The hip-hop artist’s set is the most-streamed album of the week, as it earned 73,000 in SEA units, which equates to 94 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s songs in its release week.
A quartet of former No. 1s are next on the new Billboard 200. First up, Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding dips 2-3 with 69,000 equivalent album units (down 4%) while Taylor Swift’s Lover climbs 5-4 with 56,000 units (up 48%, in large part due to sales generated by the set’s release on vinyl LP). The colored double-vinyl set, which was released on Nov. 15 exclusively via Target, sold 18,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 20. That’s also the biggest sales week for a vinyl album by a woman in 2019, and the largest for a woman since Jan. 9, 2016, when Adele’s 25 blew through 31,000 copies over Christmas week of 2015. (The biggest sales week of 2019 for any vinyl album belongs to The Raconteurs’ Help Us Stranger, which launched with 25,000 sold on the list dated July 6.)
Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get falls 1-5 in its second week with 55,000 units (down 68%) and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s AI YoungBoy 2 slips 3-6 with 44,000 units (down 13%).
Summer Walker’s Over It continues its sturdy run in the top 10, as the album spends its seventh straight week in the region, moving 4-7 with 42,000 units earned (down 12%).
DaBaby’s Kirk dips 7-8 with 37,000 units (though up 14%), Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? shifts 8-9 with 35,000 units (up 12%) and Kanye West’s Jesus Is King falls 6-10 with 30,000 units (down 21%).