France Album Sales: Celine Dion
S’il Suffisait D’Aimer (1998) Era
Most artists would dream to get an album selling 750,000 units within’ a calendar year in France. For Celine Dion Let’s Talk About Love was only a runner up, second to S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer September 1998 album.
Her first French album over three years after D’Eux, S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer was heavily anticipated, being also written and produced by Jean-Jacques Goldman just like its predecessor. The first single Zora Sourit wasn’t big, peaking at #20 only. It has to be said that it was released two weeks after the album, unlike most lead singles that are released before, to benefit even more the album. S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer easily went #1 in the album side for four weeks, only to be dislodged by monster Notre-Dame De Paris musical of which it remained the runner up for five weeks showing how high both were selling.
The title track was then used as second single barely letting time for the album to slow down. The single was a big hit, peaking at #4 during Christmas week and pushing the album to the same position. Despite this period was the most competitive of all-time in France, S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer never dropped below #16 in its first 51 weeks. In 1998, the set sold an impressive 1,1 million units.
In-between, Sony Music benefitted the French promotion ‘break’ to get Celine Dion recording a Christmas album for international market, These Are Special Times. As the French album was already being promoted here and since France never had the tradition of Christmas albums, no single has been issued here. The set thus peaked at only #23 selling 45,000 copies.
Just do the math: 1,100,000 + 750,000 + 75,000 (D’Eux) + 45,000 + her previous albums. Yes, in 1998 Celine Dion sold more than 2 million albums, the third time she did so within’ four years.
S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer remained high on charts most of 1999, helped by #17 single On Ne Change Pas. It sold 550,000 copies that year, pushing its total to 1,65 million. It wasn’t the only strong seller for Celine Dion in 1999 as we are going to see.
Top 3 Most Streamed Tracks on Spotify
- On Ne Change Pas – 2,874,000
- S’Il Suffisait D’Aimer – 1,415,000
- En Attendant Ses Pas – 189,000