CSPC: Renaud Popularity Analysis
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Nobody would seriously expect a 65 year old singer to register the best selling album of the year with fresh new material in any given relevant market. However, the French singer Renaud did just that in 2016 in his native country. Even ferocious competition from CĂ©line Dion wasn’t enough to stop him.
Ironically, Renaud had never had the #1 top selling album of the year in France in spite of 3 gigantic albums, all featured inside the all-time Top 100 best selling albums in the country. His Morgane de Toi was blocked by Michael Jackson‘s Thriller in 1983. Both Dire Straits‘ Brothers In Arms and Jean-Jacques Goldman‘s Non HomologuĂ© beat his Mistral Gagnant in 1985, while the same album was topped by Daniel Balavoine‘s Sauver L’Amour in 1986. The tremendous smash of Boucan d’Enfer in 2002 would have guaranteed the #1 spot in most years, but Patrick Bruel‘s Entre Deux prevented this feat.
Just like every other country the music market in France isn’t limited to pure album sales, as the country is quickly morphing into a streaming-axed market. Compilations still sell well and live albums are especially strong. The iconic song by Renaud, the 1985 ballad Mistral Gagnant, is available through more than 30 supports in total. For this reason, it is time to apply the CSPC to a non-international act for a change.
Among French artists I had five main choices. The first two are Francis Cabrel and Jean-Jacques Goldman who sold terrific amounts of records in relatively few eras. The largest part of the former’s discography just arrived on Spotify while the latter isn’t available still, which prevents me from applying relevant formulas to combine compilations into their original studio albums. Then there is MylĂšne Farmer who also sold tons of units with her original albums plus compilations and live sets. Her popularity in some foreign countries like Russia distorts the ratio of Spotify too as we will see later which excluded this possibility. The case of Johnny Hallyday would be fascinating but let’s be honest, his Elvis-like discography makes it a nightmare. So, that leaves us with our local Bruce Springsteen, the rock giant Renaud and his impressive catalog.
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge his results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Renaud‘s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
Let’s go!
Love your articles on local acts (even the ones I’m not that familiar with), hope to see more of them in the future!
This is great! I hoped for some local acts. Renaud is also among my favorite French artists, so this is perfect! Thank you so much!
Thank you very much! How high would he rank in an all-time french singers chart ? Considering Goldman isn’t on streaming platforms (which is a crying shame), maybe Cabrel and Johnny will top him as the best-selling male singer ? I think Florent Pagny and Patrick Bruel must be rather high too. Pagny’s been selling his records like hotcakes for nearly 25 years and he keeps releasing new albums. Sardou must be up there too. Except for MylĂšne Farmer, I don’t see any other female singer selling so many records.
Hi Rell!
Johnny is the clear #1 with Sardou at 2 and Goldman at 3. Cabrel and Michael Jackson should be slightly ahead of Renaud in terms of CSPC in France while the likes Claude François, Pagny and Bruel are lower inside the Top 10.
Must say I’m really surprised that Mistral Gagnant isn’t his #1 song. It has become his signature song and has been getting more reurrent airplay than Manhattan Kaboul. Not to mention the fact that it seems to be one of the most loved songs in France.
Hi IE! Yes, I was myself expecting Mistral Gagnant at #1, so much that I put inside the top tracks page the pic of this bench due to the lyrics at the beginning of the song (“A m’asseoir sur un banc cinq minutes avec toi…“). It is kind of normal still due to the market mechanics. Mistral Gagnant was big in 85/86, the two worst years for album sales in France from 1974 to the end of the 2000s while 2002/2003 was the all-time peak of French market. The gap was almost 3 to 1 between both periods. Mistral Gagnant… Read more »
Never heard of him, went to Youtube to get some idea. It’s sad that such talented people never get wide recognition due to the language.
Hi Dan!
It’s very good to know that you discovered him thanks to our website, various of his songs / albums are really brillant đ
What a pity that great french music artist never achieve international superstarom due to language barrier And markets size, time eras, I start to listen french music because of Celine Dion’s singles, her duex is the first Top 10 album and single in English language countries?
Hi Karalady!
Other songs managed to chart high in foreign countries, Gainsbourg had international hits, then Joe Le Taxi or the Soeurs Sourire were big in the UK and the US respectively. The two main classics of Edith Piaf Non Je Ne Regrette Rien and La Vie En Rose are also widely popular Worldwide. So was/is Carla Bruni’s Quelqu’un M’A Dit.
This being said, D’Eux is indeed way ahead of any other French-speaking album in terms of overall success both in France and Worldwide.
Pretty interesting to look at……….although I’ve never heard of him before.
30 million is incredibly respectful for French only artist
It’s very interesting seeing French acts I’m unfamiliar with on here. You should consider doing AlizĂ©e too!
Alizee outsold