Courage (Celine Dion album)
Courage is the twenty-seventh studio album and twelfth English-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released by Columbia Records on 15 November 2019. Dion worked on Courage with various writers and producers, including Sia, David Guetta, Greg Kurstin, Sam Smith, StarGate, Jimmy Napes, Lauv, LP, Jörgen Elofsson, Stephan Moccio, Eg White, Liz Rodrigues of The New Royales, and others.
In June 2019, Dion ended her Las Vegas residency, Celine, and released "Flying on My Own" as a gift to her fans. In September 2019, she embarked on the Courage World Tour and premiered three more new songs: "Imperfections", "Lying Down" and "Courage". The album, which includes 16 songs and four additional tracks on the deluxe edition, received generally favorable reviews from music critics. It debuted atop the US Billboard 200, becoming Dion's first number-one album there in 17 years. It also debuted at number one in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. Courage charted inside the top ten in many other countries, including number two in the United Kingdom, France and Australia, number four in Germany, Austria and Croatia, and number five in Ireland, New Zealand and Portugal.
Background and development
In November 2013, Dion released her previous English-language studio album, Loved Me Back to Life. The next month, her husband René Angélil was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent surgery. In June 2014, Angélil stepped down as Dion's manager to focus on his health and in August 2014 Dion postponed her show business activities, because of the worsening of her husband's health. Angélil died on 14 January 2016. On 22 May 2016, in her first public performance outside The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Dion performed "The Show Must Go On" during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, where she received the Billboard Icon Award. In August 2016, she released her French-language album, Encore un soir to critical and commercial success.The next month, she premiered "Recovering", a song written by Pink in honor of Dion's late husband. The song was marketed as the first track off of her upcoming English record which, at the time, was projected for release in 2017. She performed it during the Stand Up to Cancer Live Event on 9 September 2016. In March 2017, Dion's "How Does a Moment Last Forever" was released on the Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Dion also embarked on two summer tours in Canada and Europe in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, she released "Ashes" from the American superhero film Deadpool 2 and toured Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In September 2018, Dion announced the end of her Las Vegas residency Celine, with the final date set for 8 June 2019.
On 3 April 2019, she announced her 2019/2020 Courage World Tour, beginning in Quebec City, Canada on 18 September 2019. Dion also announced a new English-language album of the same name, to be released in November 2019. Explaining the name of the album, she said: "I think I went through a lot. And life had given me the tools... to find my inner strength, to find courage, and to keep going. The people that I love so much embraced the moments that were difficult. They gave me so much strength. And then a song came that was called "Courage", and it didn't take long for all of us to say, 'I think the album should be called Courage'". Dion announced the tour in a video titled "Ciao for now Las Vegas", in which she leaves Las Vegas in a car full of drag queens. Impersonator Steven Wayne stood in for Dion, alongside Bryan Watkins, Crystal Woods and Hot Chocolate as Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Tina Turner. The promo also teased the new song, "Flying on My Own". On 5 April 2019, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Dion promoted her upcoming tour, sang few lines from the song "Courage" and performed "Ashes". On 7 and 8 June 2019, Dion performed "Flying on My Own" during her Las Vegas residency show and the live performance was released to various streaming platforms on 8 June 2019.
Writing and recording
In April 2019, Dion revealed she had received 48 song contenders for the upcoming album and had to choose 12 of them. The new album, Courage, would explore new musical directions while also keeping the familiar style that Dion's fans are used to. After releasing Pink-written "Recovering" in September 2016, Dion recorded new music in October 2016 with Diane Warren, who wrote many of her hits, including "Because You Loved Me". In April 2017, Dion mentioned that Sia had written three songs for her. In April 2019, it was announced that the new album will include an appearance by Sia and that one of the songs written by her is titled "Baby". In December 2017, Dion revealed she has recorded new music with Stephan Moccio and Maty Noyes. Moccio wrote Dion's 2002 successful single "A New Day Has Come", and also co-wrote hits for other artists, including "Earned It" by The Weeknd and "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. Also in December 2017, Dion recorded the song "Flying on My Own" at the Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas. The song was written by Jörgen Elofsson, Anton Mårtenson and Liz Rodrigues. In October 2018, David Guetta mentioned that Dion recorded a song he co-wrote with Sia. While announcing the Courage World Tour in April 2019, Dion revealed that she recorded a song called "Courage", which became the title track for the album, set for release in November 2019. The promotional video for the tour features a fragment of the new song, "Flying on My Own". On 20 May 2019, a fragment of another new song, "Lying Down", written by David Guetta and Sia was featured in Dion's episode of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. "Flying on My Own" was released as a digital download on 9 June 2019, the day after Dion ended her 16-year Las Vegas residency. The studio version was released on 28 June 2019. On 18 September 2019, Dion released three new songs, including "Lying Down", "Courage" and "Imperfections", shared the cover art for the album and announced the release date for 15 November 2019.Critical reception
Courage received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 68 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Mike Wass from Idolator rated Courage 4.5 out of 5 stars, describing it as Dion's most eclectic album, which is truly remarkable at this stage in her career. He felt that while the production of songs is inventive, the subject matter couldn't be more traditional, as Dion examines matters of the heart. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic rated the album 4 out of 5 stars calling Courage a transformative, cathartic release for the powerhouse vocalist that carries listeners through her process of healing and moving on. According to him, the album is buffered by a heavy dose of mid-tempo bloodletting that serves as therapeutic processing for Dion and as vulnerable confessionals to her fans. Nick Smith from MusicOMH also rated Courage 4 out of 5 stars. He pointed out that the themes of the album are coherent: inner strength, courage and self-reflection, and that Courage marks an impressive return.Rolling Stone writer Brittany Spanos praised both the album's contemporary, upbeat dance-pop tracks, as well as the ballads, stating "across the LP, the dance-pop moments thrive best when there's a touch of campiness, which is where Dion's excellent performance skills shine", and "as with anything Dion does, the throaty ballads where she flexes her multi-octave mezzo-soprano are the true gems". In a summary, she compared Courage to Cher's 1998 album Believe, writing "consider Courage to be Dion's version of Cher's Believe: an album that arrived at exactly the right time and proved to a new generation that she's worth revisiting and recognizing as a diva very capable of keeping up with the times". According to Alexis Petridis from The Guardian, the best songs on Courage are ballads, which stick close to the music that made Dion famous, like the title track. Alexandra Pollard from The Independent wrote that the most affecting moments on the record seem to face the loss of a loved one, like in songs "For the Lover That I Lost" co-written by Sam Smith and "Courage". Michael Cragg of The Observer wrote that Courage, recorded in the aftermath of Dion's husband's death in 2016, is suffused with lyrics about loss and rebirth.
Jason Lipshutz from Billboard wrote that Dion's 2013's Loved Me Back to Life was a winning effort, but Courage is even more vital, with a "propulsive" opener in "Flying on My Own", a "devastating" title track, and many "worthwhile reflections in between". According to him, Dion's focus on Courage on loss, recovery and personal empowerment makes it one of the most mature and impressive pop releases of 2019. Courage was chosen as one of the best albums of 2019 by Billboard staff. In his review for Variety, writer A.D. Amorosi gave the album a mixed review, stating "the most glorious, and authentic, moments on Courage then, address bereavement, fear and finality in that pearl-clutching, gasping-for-air singing style that is Dion's, and Dion's alone". He criticized some songs on the album, such as "Flying on My Own", "Lovers Never Die", "The Chase", and others arguing that they make Dion sound "robotic and dull". He summed up his review writing "one could argue that Courage is the sound of Celine Dion unbound and unwound, ready to experiment beyond her usual theatrical soundscapes, and play in the fields with her tween chart contemporaries. That's fine. Get it out of your system now. At least half of the album is fantastic. But don't let her make a habit out of this". The Cavalier Daily wrote a positive review saying that Courage is Dion's best work to date and named "Falling in Love Again" and "How Did You Get Here" as the best tracks on the album.