Celine Dion albums and songs sales

Within a few weeks Celine Dion will be celebrating the 35th anniversary of her debut album. So deep into a career, the norm is to exploit the existing catalog. The Quebec superstar is still building it yet, as her recent Encore Un Soir French album is destroying the competition.

Many things happened in-between. The Eurovision Song Contest, the Soundtrack of Titanic movie, record breaking sellers in French speaking countries, child’s, worldwide smashes during the 90s, giant tours, unmatched Las Vegas residencies, Christmas records, Japanese mania and, more recently, the sad passing of her long-time manager and husband, René Angelil. The point that never changed is that she never stopped moving records.

If her life has been very rich, the specificity of Celine Dion catalog is the fact it contains three rather than one discography. Two of them are easily identifiable, being her English-albums list since Unison in 1990 and her adult French-albums starting by Dion Chante Plamandon in 1991. The third one is made of her earlier material issued from 1981 to 1987, mostly released in Quebec. That discography which features albums like La Voix Du Bon Dieu and Tellement J’Ai D’Amour has been extensively repackaged after the singer made it big. As the originals have been out of print for very long and never released in many countries, I’m going to encapsulate all those records and relative compilations into a single album, Early Material Album. Her remaining albums will be treated the same way as for other artists.

ChartMasters’ method: the CSPC

As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept (CSPC) in order to relevantly gauge the act’s results. It will not only bring you sales information for all albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming. In fact, it will really determine the act’s popularity.

If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, below is a nice and short video of explaining the concept. I recommend watching it before reading on and to the sales figures. You’ll get the idea in just two minutes.

And if you want to know the full method as well as formulas, you can read the full introduction article.

Now let’s get into the artist’s detailed sales figures!

Original Albums Sales – English Discography

Unison (1990)

Celine Dion (1992)

The Colour Of My Love (1993)

• America
  • US – 6,500,000
  • Canada – 1,800,000
  • Argentina – N/A
  • Brazil – 150,000
  • Mexico – 150,000
• Asia
  • Japan – 1,100,000
• Oceania
  • Australia – 625,000
  • New Zealand – 100,000
• Europe – 4,640,000
  • UK – 2,050,000
  • France – 345,000
  • Germany – 450,000
  • Italy – 225,000
  • Spain – 200,000
  • Sweden – 200,000
  • Netherland – 340,000
  • Switzerland – 70,000
  • Austria – 40,000
  • Finland – 41,000
• World – 16,600,000

Falling Into You (1996)

• America
  • US – 12,500,000
  • Canada – 1,700,000
  • Argentina – 100,000
  • Brazil – 200,000
  • Mexico – 225,000
• Asia
  • Japan – 925,000
• Oceania
  • Australia – 925,000
  • New Zealand – 190,000
• Europe – 8,070,000
  • UK – 2,375,000
  • France – 1,040,000
  • Germany – 1,350,000
  • Italy – 350,000
  • Spain – 300,000
  • Sweden – 240,000
  • Netherland – 650,000
  • Switzerland – 200,000
  • Austria – 110,000
  • Finland – 52,000
• World – 28,100,000

Let’s Talk About Love (1997)

• America
  • US – 10,850,000
  • Canada – 1,900,000
  • Argentina – 180,000
  • Brazil – 575,000
  • Mexico – 375,000
• Asia
  • Japan – 1,400,000
• Oceania
  • Australia – 480,000
  • New Zealand – 140,000
• Europe – 10,440,000
  • UK – 2,075,000
  • France – 1,610,000
  • Germany – 1,675,000
  • Italy – 1,150,000
  • Spain – 475,000
  • Sweden – 290,000
  • Netherland – 575,000
  • Switzerland – 340,000
  • Austria – 140,000
  • Finland – 98,000
• World – 29,800,000

These Are Special Times (1998)

A New Day Has Come (2002)

One Heart (2003)

Miracle (2004)

Taking Chances (2007)

Loved Me Back To Life (2013)

Original Album Sales – English Discography – Comments

Despite an extensive career, Celine Dion hasn’t issued that many English albums. In total, only 11 with two of them being of some distinct nature, the Christmas record These Are Special Times and the concept album Miracle.

Still, this was enough to move 116,3 million albums. I know many fans will block on both Falling Into You and Let’s Talk About Love albums being set under 30 million. After deeply going into all information available, excluding the wrong data that has been around for long – like Billboard clear typo on Let’s Talk About Love sales in Latin America, where it was on 1,2 million rather than 2 million by 1999 – figures listed previously are the most realistic you can get.

Apart from debates, what may be recorded from those sales is how she was able to sell 95,8 million albums with a mere five consecutive records, from The Colour Of My Love to A New Day Has Come.

Titanic Controversy: In And Out Celine Dion scope

More than debates around exact sales of her albums, the main subject of controversy around her relates to Titanic Soundtrack. A seller as big as the Falling Into You / Let’s Talk About Love pair, the record isn’t counted as part of Celine Dion discography despite the cult lead single My Heart Will Go On. I strongly defend this exclusion, a few of the reasons are listed below.

I) It is a James Horner album

Although Celine Dion was the singer of the single, she was part of nothing else from the album. That record featured 15 tracks, 14 instrumentals, all of them composed by James Horner. My Heart Will Go On itself was written and produced by the famous composer.

II) The song was included into Let’s Talk About Love

A strong argument to defend the inclusion in some way of Titanic into Celine Dion discography is to say buyers went for the single only. That argument would be valid if My Heart Will Go On wasn’t also included into Let’s Talk About Love. In fact, if the consumer wanted the single only because of Celine Dion, he would have pick her album rather than the Soundtrack.

III) Titanic was just utterly massive

Everything surrounding the movie in 1998 was just record breaking. The movie, the VHS, TV Viewers, magazines, posters, Leonardo DiCaprio… every little item linked with the Titanic was selling like hell. The phenomenon was way, way, way bigger than just a song, inclusively way bigger than Celine Dion herself at that point.

IV) It would be double counting

Looking in details Titanic and Let’s Talk About Love sales in various markets give two definitive arguments against the inclusion of Titanic  – in full or a share of it – into Celine Dion records. The main one is that both albums sold up to the market limit for international albums in most countries over a period of a few months only. In other words, most people who bought Let’s Talk About Love and Titanic are in common, which implies a clear case of massive double counting plus shows very well the explicit desire to buy the soundtrack as many buyers owned already the single from an other support.

V) Titanic helped Celine Dion as much as the other way around

In spite of her outstanding results, Celine Dion sales in Latin America were still relatively weak in Latin America and in various European markets. Thanks to the Titanic movie, she ended crossing over the general public in most countries she was failing to up to that date.

VI) Outside MHWGO, Titanic tops Let’s Talk About Love

“Nobody cared about those instrumentals, they bought Titanic only for Celine Dion‘s song” is what we hear. We will forget My Heart Will Go On song for a minute and check the remaining songs from both albums. Well, as unreal as it may seem, while the rest of Let’s Talk About Love songs – which includes Barbra Streisand and Bee Gees duets Tell Him and Immortality – add for 22 million streams at Spotify, instrumentals of Titanic Soundtrack combine for 35 million streams, 60% more. This is a fact true in 2016, now that the movie hype is long gone, while Celine Dion continued active up to date. Those figures suggest the public was indeed interested more by the Soundtrack than just the single, which explains why Titanic was the clear #1 for several months over Let’s Talk About Love in most countries.

And as I don’t count Titanic as part of Celine Dion‘s discography, here is the full CSPC analysis of the Titanic soundtrack.

Original Albums Sales – French Discography

Dion Chante Plamandon (1991)

D’Eux (1995)

S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer (1998)

1 Fille & 4 Types (2003)

• America
  • US – 30,000
  • Canada – 250,000
  • Argentina – N/A
  • Brazil – 15,000
  • Mexico – N/A
• Asia
  • Japan – N/A
• Oceania
  • Australia – N/A
  • New Zealand – N/A
• Europe – 1,110,000
  • UK – N/A
  • France – 845,000
  • Germany – 25,000
  • Italy – 15,000
  • Spain – N/A
  • Sweden – 10,000
  • Netherland – 10,000
  • Switzerland – 50,000
  • Austria – 3,000
  • Finland – 17,000
• World – 1,500,000

D’Elles (2007)

• America
  • US – N/A
  • Canada – 250,000
  • Argentina – N/A
  • Brazil – N/A
  • Mexico – N/A
• Asia
  • Japan – N/A
• Oceania
  • Australia – N/A
  • New Zealand – N/A
• Europe – 440,000
  • UK – N/A
  • France – 340,000
  • Germany – 10,000
  • Italy – 10,000
  • Spain – N/A
  • Sweden – N/A
  • Netherland – 5,000
  • Switzerland – 15,000
  • Austria – N/A
  • Finland – N/A
• World – 700,000

Sans Attendre (2012)

• America
  • US – N/A
  • Canada – 300,000
  • Argentina – N/A
  • Brazil – N/A
  • Mexico – N/A
• Asia
  • Japan – N/A
• Oceania
  • Australia – N/A
  • New Zealand – N/A
• Europe – 980,000
  • UK – 5,000
  • France – 805,000
  • Germany – 10,000
  • Italy – 5,000
  • Spain – N/A
  • Sweden – N/A
  • Netherland – 5,000
  • Switzerland – 40,000
  • Austria – N/A
  • Finland – N/A
• World – 1,300,000

Encore Un Soir (2016)

Original Album Sales – French Discography – Comments

If it is already difficult to create a successful discography, creating two is even harder. It gets even more incredible when you do it in such an incredible fashion.

In comparison to global albums, those figures may seem low. Some perspective is needed. From 1995 to date, the biggest selling album in the US is Come On Over by Shania Twain at more than 20 million copies sold. In the same time frame, the highest selling album in France – indeed, the highest selling album ever – is D’Eux by Celine Dion at 4,21 million, ironically an other Canadian female star. The difference? Given respective markets, 4,21 million in France equals to some 34 million units in the US, more than what Michael Jackson‘s Thriller did.

S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer sales of 3,9 million are nowhere near D’Eux, but still enough to put it among the Top 3 best selling French albums ever, which shows the absolute madness created by those records in France, Quebec, Wallonia and such regions.

All in all, those albums shipped 16,9 million units, with Encore Un Soir likely to quickly sell its current shipments and to get new and big orders during the Christmas season.

Physical Singles Sales – English Discography

I know, I know, Celine Dion is an album seller. Well, she still has million selling singles in the US, in the UK, in Japan, in Germany and in France – each time with at least one different song.

Often, that million seller was the hit that made her explode in the country. Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore in France, To Love You More in Japan, Think Twice in the UK, The Power Of Love in the US. In each of those countries, Celine Dion was already known, already an OK-ish seller and she just went into an incredible success roll after those respective songs. This perfectly displays her unparalleled appeal during the 90s.

The fact she instantly moved into a huge album seller after her breakthrough hit obviously limited her physical single sales. At least two big hits in most countries though – the breakthrough plus My Heart Will Go On – plus a bunch of average sellers still created a cumulative tally of 32 million singles sold, counting English songs only.

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

Unison (1990) – 210,000 equivalent albums

Where Does My Heart Beat Now – 550,000
(If There Was) Any Other Way – 100,000
The Last To Know &  Have A Heart – 50,000

Celine Dion (1992) – 585,000 equivalent albums

Beauty And The Beast – 900,000
If You Asked Me To – 600,000
Nothing Broken But My Heart – 200,000
Love Can Move Mountains – 150,000
Water From The Moon – 100,000

The Colour Of My Love (1993) – 1,890,000 equivalent albums

When I Fall In Love – 200,000
The Power Of Love – 1,900,000
Misled – 300,000
Think Twice – 2,100,000
Only One Road – 200,000
To Love You More – 1,600,000

Falling Into You (1996) – 2,115,000 equivalent albums

Falling Into You – 450,000
Because You Loved Me – 2,900,000
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now – 2,200,000
The Power Of The Dream – 200,000
All By Myself – 1,200,000
Call The Man – 100,000

Let’s Talk About Love (1997) – 3,300,000 equivalent albums

Tell Him – 1,300,000
Be The Man – 150,000
The Reason – 50,000
My Heart Will Go On – 8,100,000
Immortality – 1,300,000
Treat Her Like A Lady – 100,000

These Are Special Times (1998) – 705,000 equivalent albums

I’m Your Angel – 2,300,000
The Prayer – 50,000

A New Day Has Come (2002) – 435,000 equivalent albums

A New Day Has Come – 600,000
I’m Alive – 800,000
Goodbye’s – 50,000

One Heart (2003) – 105,000 equivalent albums

I Drove All Night – 250,000
One Heart – 100,000

Taking Chances (2007) – 30,000 equivalent albums

Taking Chances – 50,000
A World To Believe In – 50,000

Orphan Album – 360,000 equivalent albums

That’s The Way It Is – 1,000,000
Additional Singles – 200,000

Physical Singles Sales – French Discography

At 6,8 million, French singles of Celine Dion have been quite good sellers overall. Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore is her French signature song.

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

Early Matieral Album (1981-1987) – 510,000 equivalent albums

D’Amour Ou D’Amitié – 800,000
Une Colombe – 100,000
Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi – 300,000
Additional Singles – 500,000

Dion Chante Plamandon (1991) – 135,000 equivalent albums

L’Amour Existe Encore – 50,000
Ziggy (Un Garçon Pas Comme Les Autres) – 400,000

D’Eux (1995) – 660,000 equivalent albums

Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore – 1,600,000
Je Sais Pas – 600,000

S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer (1998) – 240,000 equivalent albums

Zora Sourit – 200,000
S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer – 400,000
On Ne Change Pas – 200,000

1 Fille & 4 Types (2003) – 75,000 equivalent albums

Tout L’Or Des Hommes – 200,000
Et Je T’Aime Encore – 50,000

D’Elles (2007) – 21,000 equivalent albums

Et S’Il N’En Restait Qu’Une – 70,000

Orphan Album – 411,000 equivalent albums

Calling You – 20,000
J’attendais – 50,000
Sous Le Vent – 950,000
Je Ne Vous Oublie Pas – 200,000
Tous Les Secrets – 50,000
Additional Singles – 100,000

Digital Singles Sales – English Discography

Some 24,9 million download sales with her English songs. Spread over so many songs, this tally is not impressive, but not too bad either. Closing in the 4 million mark, My Heart Will Go On is the clear leader among her discography.

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.

Unison (1990) – 30,000 equivalent albums

Where Does My Heart Beat Now – 150,000
Remaining Songs – 50,000

Celine Dion (1992) – 240,000 equivalent albums

Beauty And The Beast – 1,000,000
If You Asked Me To – 300,000
Remaining Songs – 300,000

The Colour Of My Love (1993) – 360,000 equivalent albums

The Power Of Love – 1,500,000
Think Twice – 600,000
Remaining Songs – 300,000

Falling Into You (1996) – 870,000 equivalent albums

Because You Loved Me – 2,600,000
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now – 1,400,000
All By Myself – 900,000
Remaining Songs – 900,000

Let’s Talk About Love (1997) – 705,000 equivalent albums

Tell Him – 300,000
My Heart Will Go On – 3,800,000
Remaining Songs – 600,000

These Are Special Times (1998) – 405,000 equivalent albums

I’m Your Angel – 300,000
The Prayer – 600,000
Remaining Songs – 1,800,000

A New Day Has Come (2002) – 420,000 equivalent albums

A New Day Has Come – 1,300,000
I’m Alive – 800,000
Remaining Songs – 700,000

One Heart (2003) – 150,000 equivalent albums

I Drove All Night – 700,000
Remaining Songs – 300,000

Taking Chances (2007) – 315,000 equivalent albums

Taking Chances – 1,100,000
Remaining Songs – 1,000,000

Loved Me Back To Life (2013) – 60,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 400,000

Orphan Album – 165,000 equivalent albums

That’s The Way It Is – 700,000
Additional Singles – 400,000

Digital Singles Sales – French Discography

At 1,85 million, digital sales of Celine Dion French songs are quite low in absolute terms. In relative terms yet, giving the weakness of France digital market which never really took off, this total is way more impressive than the English one.

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.

Early Matieral Album (1981-1987) – 15,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 100,000

Dion Chante Plamandon (1991) – 15,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 100,000

D’Eux (1995) – 105,000 equivalent albums

Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore – 300,000
Remaining Songs – 400,000

S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer (1998) – 38,000 equivalent albums

On Ne Change Pas – 100,000
Remaining Songs – 150,000

1 Fille & 4 Types (2003) – 15,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 100,000

D’Elles (2007) – 15,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 100,000

Sans Attendre (2012) – 38,000 equivalent albums

Parler A Mon Père – 150,000
Remaining Songs – 100,000

Encore Un Soir (2016) – 15,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 100,000

Orphan Album – 23,000 equivalent albums

Remaining Songs – 150,000

Streaming Sales

The table below lists Spotify streaming of all songs from the five albums we are studying. The Comprehensive Streaming is reached by multiplying Spotify figures by 68/26. In fact, as shown in IFPI 2015 Report, there were 68 million paying subscribers to all streaming platforms by the end of 2015. While the exact count of Spotify paying subscribers by the end of 2015 is unknown, that figure reached 20 million in June 2015 and 30 million in March 2016, thus an estimated 26 million is used as of the end of 2015.

This being said, those figures are valid for English songs. In France, the dominating streaming service is the national platform Deezer with roughly 50% of all Streaming revenues generated. In the other side, Spotify represents only 11% of France Streaming market. From its 38% globally to 11% locally, it is difficult to weight properly Celine Dion French songs. In fact, while they are mostly known in France-speaking countries, their appeal is larger thanks to the artist global popularity. Thus, for all her French songs, I’m going to cut the share halfway between both figures at 24,5%.

The equivalent album sales is the division of the comprehensive streaming figure by 1500 as it is now the norm in the new industry model.

Streaming Part 1 – Early Material

I won’t lie – those figures aren’t impressive. From her Quebec years, no Celine Dion song reached even 1 million at Spotify. The closest one is Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, the song that enable the artist to win the Eurovision song contest in 1988.

Streaming Part 2 – French domination

Most figures here do not look that good. That’s a mistake. With Spotify share being tiny in France, reaching more than 10 million streams with Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore is mind-blowing. In fact, among pre-2000 French songs, the pair of Edith Piaf cult songs Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and La Vie En Rose are the only ones ahead of Celine Dion signature song in this language.

Unsurprisingly, the entire track list of D’Eux registers impressive results. In terms of album sales equivalence, those figures are quite notable as well.

Streaming Part 3 – French slowdown

Whatever the language, music industry rules remain the same: hits sell. Naturally, the lack of them prevents from selling well. 1 Filles & 4 Types was already is huge step back from Celine Dion 90s sales but still enjoyed some solid songs.

In the other side, everything from D’Elles failed to impact the general public. Although lead single Et S’Il N’En Restait Qu’Une went #1, it was barely thanks to an irrelevant Singles Chart with awfully low figures. This appears clearly here as the song is completely forgotten already. You can extract sales from a fan base, this doesn’t create success though.

Streaming Part 4 – France Loves Her Encore

While the curve of success was slowing down has it happens for all artists at some point, the phenomenon completely changed direction. The song Parler A Mon Père seduced French public again, not only providing its relative era great streaming results but also set back the perfect context to smash again, what Encore Un Soir is currently doing. This latter album streaming results may not seem huge but they are just getting started as of now.

Streaming Part 5 – The Rising Global Superstar

Unison big hit is on 2,8 million, Celine Dion one is up to 18 million, both The Colour Of My Love strongest tracks combine for 35,7 million. Once again streaming tells many facts, perfectly highlighting which albums have the biggest strength.

Overall figures are not too good yet with album tracks being pretty weak. This explains why after All The Way compilation release in 1999 catalog sales of studio albums of the artist went down tremendously.

Streaming Part 6 – These Are Special Times

Yes, these are special times. Selling so many records in so few years isn’t a regular achievement. Incredibly enough, Falling Into You and Let’s Talk About Love album tracks are still weak in the streaming world, just like previous albums. It can be summarized by hard core fans listening to all her catalog while the general public is interested in a few big hits only. Even old smashes like Tell Him or Immortality aren’t very strong, Falling Into You album ending being Celine Dion only album with three memorable songs.

Obviously, her signature track is My Heart Will Go On and streaming results tell very exactly this story with a huge tally of nearly 71 million streams. In terms of album sales equivalence, each of those three albums generated figures in six digits but those results are still hardly relevant in comparison to their original pure album sales.

Streaming Part 7 – A Bad Day Has Come

Ironically, after singing I’m Alive Celine Dion years as a mega selling global artist were pretty much dead. The fall from Let’s Talk About Love to A New Day Has Come to One Heart to Miracle was atrocious, which is very well represented on their streaming results. Absolutely nothing remains in the map from Miracle which gets an abysmal 5,600 album sales equivalent from streaming.

Streaming Part 8 – Last Chances

If she hasn’t been able to recover her hey-days results in a global scale as she did with her French records, Celine Dion still tried to do so with a couple of albums in recent years. The last one has overall better results since it was released in 2013 when Spotify was already growing a lot, but as a general note those streaming figures are still pretty low. The top song from Taking Chances is under One Heart lead single while Loved Me Back To Life barely edges over 10 million.

Streaming Part 9 – Orphan Album

Among all songs released outside her original studio albums it is pretty much of the same with some big hits getting only a few million streams like That’s The Way It Is and To Love You More, while album tracks are largely forgotten by now.

Full Length related records Sales

Full Length Migration Part 1 – English Compilations / Lives 1

How to understand this table? If you check for example All The Way compilation line, those figures mean it sold 22,9 million units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all songs included on this package add for almost 185 million streaming plays on Spotify as of September 19th 2016.

The second part at the right of the table shows how many streams are coming from each original album plus the share it represents on the overall package streams. Thus, streaming figures tell us Let’s Talk About Us songs are responsible for 38% of the All The Way track list attractiveness, which means it generated 8,8 million of its 22,9 million album sales and so on for the other records.

Both Let’s Talk About Love and Falling Into You unsurprisingly dominate track lists of all those records, generating an impressive number of million sales.

Full Length Migration Part 2 – English Compilations / Lives 2

Although those latter compilations sold less than the previous batch, patterns among studio albums are the same. Falling Into You and Let’s Talk About You are the clear leaders for most releases, Celine Dion, The Colour Of My Love and A New Day Has Come are quite decent while remaining albums have very little impact among those packages.

Full Length Migration Part 3 – French Compilations / Lives

If you check in details the list of albums in front of A L’Olympia live package, you will see all English albums mentioned as “Excluded”. In fact, all those albums sold mostly in French-speaking countries, almost exclusively thanks to their French songs. The fact Spotify is worldwide and largely favorable to English songs make it look like the few global hits included are responsible of almost all sales of those records, which is obviously not true. Thus, for all those packages I focused on French songs only among track lists.

D’Eux proves its status of absolute monster with a share ranging from 49% to 95% of all those compilations attractiveness.

Full Length Migration Part 4 – 90s Music Videos

Bis repetita on this list with a set of music videos, several of them also seen previously on their CD version. Let’s Talk About Love still securing large amounts of sales.

Full Length Migration Part 5 – Post 2000 Music Videos

One more new rule here with the move of Through The Eyes Of The World into the Orphan Album. Of course it includes live performance of several songs, but often cut to a few seconds only, mostly used to densify the documentary. Thus, to not complete exclude those DVD sales, I moved it into the Orphan Album folder.

Celine Dion Career CSPC Results

So, after checking all figures, how many overall album sales equivalent each Celine Dion album achieved? Well, at this point we barely need to do the addition of all figures defined all over this article!

In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. If different, pure sales are listed between parentheses.

'Av.' stands for Average, 'LD' for Last Day.

As a reminder:

• Studio Album: sales of the original album
• Other Releases: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album
• Physical Singles: sales of physical singles from the album (ratio 3/10)
• Download Singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1,5/10)
• Streaming: equivalent album sales of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)

Artist career totals

See where the artist ranks among remaining singers

This is it!

The first part of the table displays the artist French discography, which totals an impressive 28,1 million album sales equivalent. The most outstanding result is clearly the one of D’Eux, which is responsible for 12,4 million of those sales. In spite of being released in 1995, the record is the biggest French album in every category, including digital sales and streaming.

With English albums, a real wave-like curve is highlighted by figures. From 3,9 million to 7,6 million to 22,6 million to 41,9 million to 46,1 million, the climb of Celine Dion from 1990 to 1998 reached the sky. If Fall Into You and Let’s Talk About Love fell short of matching several albums we previously studied like Led Zeppelin‘s IV at 55,5 million, Celine Dion is still the first with back-to-back 40 million-plus sellers, a terrific achievement. The closest performance we have seen so far is Madonna albums Like A Virgin and True Blue at 39 million and 36 million respectively.

In a more negative note, it has been four albums in a row now that Celine Dion failed to reach 5 million equivalent album sales, with the last one under 2 million. A return to her best form seems complicate in the future in spite of her success with her French albums. This feeling gets even bigger when we notice how CSPC sales follow massively pure album sales for this artist. While other acts, like Coldplay, saw their album sales slowdown barely because their success got transferred to other formats, it isn’t the case of Celine Dion who’s left with very little to work with outside the album sales area.

In any case, Celine Dion has nothing left to prove. Overall, she sold the astonishing total of 193,4 million equivalent album sales. Of course some may say it is a long way from Madonna total of 246 million, but let put it that way – full discographies of Britney Spears, Rihanna and Amy Winehouse combine for roughly the same as Celine Dion alone. She is also close to Adele, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga combined. Yeah, Celine Dion results are *that* incredible.

As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!

Sources: IFPI, Spotify, Chartmasters.org.

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