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I Dreamed a Dream
Studio album by Susan Boyle
Released	23 November 2009
Recorded	July–September 2009 London, England
Genre	Vocal, pop
Length	43:00
Label	Syco, Columbia
Producer	Steve Mac[1] and Simon Cowell
Singles from I Dreamed a Dream
"Wild Horses" Released: 15 November 2009

I Dreamed a Dream is the debut album from Scottish singer Susan Boyle. It was released on 23 November 2009 by Syco Music in the UK, and by Columbia Records in the US one day later. In the standard edition, 11 out of the 12 songs that appear on the album are cover songs, with "Who I Was Born To Be" being the only original composition.

The album entered the UK album chart at no.1 and remained at the top for four weeks.^[2] It is the fastest-selling debut album of all-time in the United Kingdom (and the fourth-fastest selling album overall in the United Kingdom), selling 411,820 copies and beating the record previously set by Spirit by Leona Lewis. It also outsold the rest of the top 5 albums combined during its first week on sale, and became the biggest selling album in the UK in 2009. I Dreamed a Dream debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with 701,000 copies sold in its first week, breaking the record for the highest debut ever for a new solo female artist in the SoundScan era (post 1991).^[3] I Dreamed a Dream became the biggest opening sales week of 2009 in the United States, beating out Eminem's Relapse which sold 608,000.^[4] It was the second biggest-selling album of 2009 in the United States, with 3.1 million copies sold, behind Taylor Swift's Fearless which sold 3.2 million copies (although Swift's album was actually released in 2008).^[5] In only six weeks of sales, it became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009.^[6]

Production and songs

Boyle began the production of the album soon after the Britain's Got Talent tour, choosing the songs herself, most of them being covers.^[7] The album included "I Dreamed a Dream", the song that she sang on her audition and on the final which was composed by Claude-Michel Schonberg (music) and Alain Boublil (original French text, later adapted to English by Herbert Kretzmer) for the 1985 musical Les Misérables.

The first single on the album was "Wild Horses", a song originally recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1971 which she described as "[o]ne of my personal favourites and an emotional release." Boyle said its "haunting theme" conjures up memories of her childhood amongst council estates, poverty and struggle in the first verse.^[1] It has been covered by Guns N' Roses, Alicia Keys and Melanie Safka. "Cry Me a River", that she recorded in 1999 for a charity CD,^[8][9] and "You'll See", a 1995 song by Madonna. It also contains "Who I Was Born to Be", written by Audra Mae.

As a volunteer at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Blackburn, she recorded some religions songs, including "Amazing Grace", "How Great Thou Art", a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg in Sweden in 1885,^[10] with a melody based on the Swedish folk songs.^[11]

The album also included a version of "Proud", a song that album producer Steve Mac had originally written with Wayne Hector and Andy Hill for the Britannia High television series.

"The End of the World" was an international pop music hit by Skeeter Davis in the 1960s written by Arthur Kent with lyrics by Sylvia Dee,^[12] it has been covered by, amongst others, The Carpenters, Loretta Lynn, Herman's Hermits. The last track is the popular Christmas song, "Silent Night".^[13]

The album was produced and arranged by Steve Mac. For the recording, different studios were used, the orchestra was recorded at the Air Studios, in London, the choir at Sphere Studios and the final mixing was made at the Rokstone Studios, also in London.

Publicity

To promote the release, Susan played on several television shows; the first one was on the America's Got Talent final, on 16 September. She performed "Wild Horses" before more than 13 million viewers in the United States^[14] On 10 November, she sung "I Dreamed a Dream" on Dancing with the Stars, during the performance of Chelsie Hightower and Tony Dovolani, and she also sung "Wild Horses" on The X-Factor.^[15]

On 23 November, Boyle hosted a live performance on the Today Show on the NBC television network which place outside its studios on Rockefeller Plaza;^[16] Boyle sang "I Dreamed a Dream", "Wild Horses", and "Cry Me a River".^[16] After the show, Boyle attended a lunch with fans where she was presented with a hand-made quilt made by over one hundred people from 28 countries including Mexico, Poland, Japan and Antarctica.^[17]

On 13 December 2009 she appeared in her own television special "I Dreamed a Dream: the Susan Boyle Story", featuring a duet with her idol Elaine Paige.^[18] The show achieved ratings of 10 million viewers in the United Kingdom,^[19] and in the US was the TV Guide Network's highest rated television special in history.^[20] It has been reported that Susan Boyle will be invited to perform "I Dreamed a Dream" for a small gathering at the birthday celebration of Michelle Obama on 17 January 2010.^[21] Her debut world tour, beginning from Las Vegas, is being planned.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[22]
Entertainment Weekly	(B-)[23]
The Guardian	[24]
The Independent	[25]
Los Angeles Times	[26]
MSN	[27]
Slant Magazine	[28]
The Times	[29]

According to the Daily Mail, I Dreamed a Dream sold approximately 134,000 copies in the United Kingdom on its first day of release alone, and approximately 300,000 copies by Friday, 27 November.^[30][31] Sales of 411,820 copies made it the largest first week sales of any debut album in UK chart history.^[32][33] It recorded sales of 303,708, 274,148 and 352,612 copies respectively in its second to fourth weeks, remaining at the top of the album chart for four weeks consecutive. In its fifth week, it was displaced at number one by Michael Buble's Crazy Love.^{[citation needed]}

The album debuted at #1 in Australia, selling 36,474 in the first week of release and has been certified 8x Platinum (560,000 units shipped). In New Zealand, the album was certified 3x Platinum for shipping over 45,000 copies after just one week of release while debuting at number 1; the album was certified 8x Platinum (120,000 units shipped) three weeks after its release.^[34] It has also become the highest-selling debut album in New Zealand history.^[35] The Japanese market regarded it as a classical music album,^[36] and it debuted at #5 on the Oricon weekly comprehensive charts with around 36,000 copies,^[37] and climbed to #3 the next week.^[38]

In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with approximate sales of 701,000 units, becoming the best sales week for an album in the United States for 2009.^{[citation needed]} It stayed at number one for five consecutive weeks, selling in excess of half a million copies each week, bringing her total U.S. sales over to 2.9 million copies. It is the fastest-selling debut album to reach two million in sales and 2009's second biggest-selling album, with 3.1 million sold according to SoundScan, behind Taylor Swift's Fearless which sold 3.21 million.^[5]

The album sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide in its first three weeks of release, and has over 8 million to date.^[39] The album received a score of 57 out of 100 on aggregate review site Metacritic, based on seven reviews.^[40]

Track listing

^[41]

Charts

Chart succession

Sales and certifications

• GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) covers Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia & UAE.

References

External links

• Official website
• I Dreamed a Dream at Allmusic
• I Dreamed a Dream in The Susan Boyle Story