Songoftheday 5/1/23 - I was waiting for so long for a miracle to come, everyone told me to be strong hold on and don't shed a tear...
"A New Day Has Come" - Celine Dion
from the album A New Day Has Come (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
Today's song comes from Celine Dion, who returned to the American pop top ten in the spring of 2000 with "That's The Way It Is", from his hits collection All The Way...A Decade In Song. Capping her most successful decade, and one of the biggest hit streaks of that decade, Celine took time away from music for a couple of years when she had her son René-Charles, though she did pop up for charity work after the events of 9/11. In 2002, Dion returned with her seventh English-language album on Epic (which 550 Music was folded into), A New Day Has Come. The title track was released as the lead single for the set. Written by Canadian artist Aldo Nova (who had a top-40 hit in America in 1982 with "Fantasy") and Stephen Moccio, the song's lyrics detail coming out of the dark funk of futility with a renewed hope, which Celine took personally with the birth of her child. The original production from Nova and Walter Afanasieff was remixed by Ric Wake to seem like if Taylor Dayne and Enya merged into one Frankenstein of adult-pop. The most striking thing about the record is Celine's very restrainted delivery of the vocals, almost to the point of a melodic whisper, though she does flourish a little at the end. This brings the level of the song up quite a bit, making a more pensive listen for pensive times. The music video has the usual turn-of-century laughable special effects, as well as somehow enhancing everyone's face (including Celine's) to the point of retro-AI goings on...
"A New Day Has Come" became Dion's sixteenth (and so far last) top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in May of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #25 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart, and #19 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, while spending a hefty twenty-one weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") airplay list (a record at that time). The dance remixes of the track helped it pop on to Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #44. Internationally, the single topped the radio charts in Poland and the Czech Republic, and reached the top ten on the singles charts in Switzerland (#2), Hungary (#2), Romania (#2), Denmark (#3), Sweden (#3), Norway (#3), Canada (#4), Germany (#6), the United Kingdom (#7), Portugal (#7), Greece (#8), Austria (#9), Italy (#10), and Ireland (#10). It also hit the top-40 in Spain (#12), Belgium (#13 Wallonia/#14 Flanders), Finland (#17), Australia (#19), New Zealand (#20), the Netherlands (#21),and France (#23). The New Day Has Come album, released in March of that year, topped the Billboard 200 sales tally for a week, spending over a year on the list, going on to sell over three million copies.
The second single from the record was "I'm Alive", written by the Swedish team of Kristian Lundin and Andreas Carlsson, with the former producing. It was included in the movie Stuart Little 2, but despite it spending a half-year on the Adult Contemporary radio chart with a high of #6, it missed the Hot 100 entirely, "bubbling under" at #111. It did much better overseas, going to #1 in Poland, Romania, and Czech Republic, and reaching the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. That was followed by "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)", written and produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange, which spent a solitary week on the Adult Contemporary list at #27, though it was a top-40 hit in the UK at #38. Finally, her remake of the classic "At Last" (made popular from Etta James) climbed to #16 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart.
A year after the release of A New Day Has Come, Celine returned with her next studio album One Heart, which spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 and sold over two million copies. The lead single from the set was a remake of "I Drove All Night", which had been a top ten hit for Cyndi Lauper in 1989 (and originally recorded by Roy Orbison). The cash-grab aspect of the sponsorship by Chrysler may have impacted the muted response to the single, which just missed the Hot 100 top-40 at #45, though the dance remixes of the track helped the song take a week at #2 on the Dance Club Play chart in the U.S.. Also in 2003, Dion released a new French-language album 1 fille & 4 types which was an international success.
She also had a hugely profitable residency at the Caesar's Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, and a companion live album, A New Day...Live In Las Vegas, came in at #10 on the Billboard 200 in 2004. Later that year, Celine put out Miracle, a book/CD tie-in with photographer Anne Geddes. The book/record combo went to #4 on the Billboard 200, and two tracks from the set made the Adult Contemporary radio chart, with a cover of John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" hitting #18.
After another French release in D'Elles, Celine put out Taking Chances in 2007, which spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million copies. Title track "Taking Chances" went to #54 on the pop Hot 100, while getting to #36 on the Adult Top-40 list, and #6 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart. Dance remixes of the song helped it top Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for a week, her first since 1994's "Misled".
Dion again oscillated to another French disc in Sans Attendre in 2012, followed a year later by Loved My Back To Life, which came in at #2 on the Billboard 200, with two songs reaching the Adult Contemporary radio chart. After another French set Encore Un Soir, and the death of her husband Rene Angélil, Dion came back like a phoenix with the song "Ashes" from the movie Deadpool 2, which topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, and hit #22 on the Adult Contemporary radio list. While it only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #117, it deserved much better.
Celine's most recent studio album Courage arrived in 2019. topping the Billboard 200 for a week. From the record the single "Imperfections" just missed the top ten on the Adult Contemporary radio chart at #11. And last month she returned with another soundtrack single, "Love Again" from the movie of the same name that she stars in.
(6/10)
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And lastly, from her New Day residency...
Up tomorrow: Rapper mogul has some needs.
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