Falling into You

Falling into You is Celine Dion's fourth English-language album and her fourteenth album overall.

The album was released in Australia on March 8, 1996. In Europe, the album was released on March 11, 1996.

In the United States & Canada, the album was released on March 12, 1996. In Japan, it was released on March 14, 1996.

Album Background
The album presented Celine at the height of her popularity, and showed a further progression of her music.

In an attempt to reach a wider audience, the album combined many elements such a ornate orchestral frills and African chanting, and instruments like the violin, Spanish guitar, trombone, the cavaquinho, saxophone and supreme string arrangements by Paul Buckmaster created a new sound.

Album Promotion
Celine's status on the world stage was further solidified when she was asked to perform the song "The Power of the Dream" at the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

She sang in front of more than 100,000 people around her (in addition to over three and a half billion of TV viewers from their homes).

She gave away the money she received for the occasion with a little extra to the Canadian team to support Canadian athletes.

The song was included on some limited editions of the album in Asia and Australia.

In the United States, the song was included as the B-Side to the single "It's All Coming Back to Me Now."

Celine went on the Falling into You Tour to support the album. In February of 1996, she announced the launch of her tour in support of a new album.

She and her band toured Australia, Canada, United States and many countries in Europe and Asia.

In all, the tour lasted more than a year with 149 shows in 17 different countries.

The sold out tour began on March 18, 1996 in Perth, Australia and continued to major cities around the world. It ended on June 26, 1997 in Zürich, Switzerland.

In June of 1997, Celine toured the biggest stadiums in Europe and sang before huge crowds ranging from 35,000 to 70,000 people.

Tracklisting
Asian Album Version Bonus Tracks European & Australian Album Bonus Tracks Canadian Album Bonus Track Japanese Album Bonus Tracks Spanish & Latin American Album Bonus Tracks
 * 1) It's All Coming Back to Me Now (7:37) (written by Jim Steinman; produced by Jim Steinman, Steven Rinkoff & Roy Bittan)
 * 2) Because You Loved Me (4:33) (written by Diane Warren; produced by David Foster)
 * 3) Falling into You (4:18) (written by Billy Steinberg, Rick Nowels & Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo; produced by Billy Steinberg & Rick Nowels)
 * 4) Make You Happy (4:31) (written by Andy Marvel; produced by Ric Wake)
 * 5) Seduces Me (3:46) (written by Dan Hill & John Sheard; produced by Dan Hill, Jones & Rick Hahn)
 * 6) All By Myself (5:12) (written by Eric Carmen & Sergei Rachmanioff; produced by David Foster & John Fields)
 * 7) Declaration of Love (4:20) (written by Michael Jay & Claude Gaudette; produced by Ric Wake)
 * 8) Dreamin' of You (5:07) (written by Aldo Nova & Peter Barbeau; produced by Aldo Nova)
 * 9) I Love You (5:30) (written by Aldo Nova; produced by Humberto Gatica & Jean-Jacques Goldman)
 * 10) If That's What It Takes (4:12) (written by Phil Galdston & Jean-Jacques Goldman; produced by Humberto Gatica & Jean-Jacques Goldman)
 * 11) I Don't Know (4:38) (written by Phil Galdston, Jean-Jacques Goldman & J. Kapler; produced by Steinman & Rinkoff)
 * 12) River Deep, Mountain High (4:10) (written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich; produced by Steinman)
 * 13) Call the Man (6:08) (written by Andy Hill & Peter Sinfield; produced by Steinman, Rinkoff & Bova)
 * 14) Fly (2:58) (written & produced by Phil Galdston, Jean-Jacques Goldman)
 * 1) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (3:40) (written by Jerry Wexler, Gerry Goffin & Carole King)
 * 2) To Love You More (5:28) (written by David Foster & Junior Miles)
 * 1) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (3:40)
 * 2) Your Light (5:12) (written by Aldo Nova)
 * 1) Your Light (5:12)
 * 1) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (3:40)
 * 2) Your Light (5:12)
 * 3) To Love You More (5:28)
 * 1) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (3:40)
 * 2) Sola Otra Vez (Spanish version of "All By Myself") (5:12)

Chart Performance
"Falling For You" was extremely successful worldwide and still remains one of the best-selling albums in history with more than 32 million copies sold worldwide.

In the United States, the album debuted at number two with 193,000 copies sold in its first week.

It reached the number one position in its 28th week, selling 132,000 copies.

The following week the album sold 130,500 copies, staying at number one. In its 31st week, it climbed back to the top with 136,000 copies sold. With this, the album spent three nonconsecutive weeks at the top.

Due to its incredible staying power on the chart, it was the third best-selling album of 1996 and 1997 on Billboard's year end charts.

It was certified Diamond and was later 11× Platinum by the RIAA for shipping 11 million copies in the U.S. The album has sold 11,778,000 copies.

In Europe, the album topped the European Top 100 Albums chart and after selling nine million copies, it was certified 9× Platinum by the IFPI.

Only three other albums have matched the figure with nine platinum awards, including Celine's album "Let's Talk About Love," The Beatles' album "1" and Adele's album "21."

In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one, and after shipping 2.1 million copies it was certified 7× Platinum.

In Germany, it sold 1.25 million copies and was certified 5× Gold.

Even though it just debuted at number twenty-four, it stayed on the chart for eighty-nine weeks, becoming the longest-running album on the German Albums Chart in her entire career.

The album also sold more than one million copies in Canada, France, Japan and Australia, where Dion became one of only six acts to achieved this feat.

It was awarded Diamond status in Canada and France, million in Japan and 12× Platinum in Australia.

In France, the album was the second best-selling album of 1996 (with "D'eux" being fourth and "Live à Paris" being tenth).

This made Celine the only artist in French history to have three albums hit number one and to have three top ten albums listed on its year-end chart.

Critical Reception
Elysa Gardner of the Los Angeles Times gave the album two out of four stars and commented that Celine "often falls back on her characteristic platform of polite, predictable schmaltz."

Stephen Holden of The New York Times criticized the album's "melodrama" and "formulaic romantic bombast."

Dan Leroy of Yahoo! Music found that "the results weren't much different than usual."

Although he panned "Declaration of Love" and the cover of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself," Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B rating and found "something compellingly eccentric about even the mushiest ballads."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album four out of five stars, writing:

"Although the album is formulaic, it's a well-executed, stylish, and catchy formula, accentuating her natural vocal charm [...] Though there are a couple of weak tracks, Falling into You is a remarkably well-crafted set of adult contemporary pop and Dion's best album."

Accolades
The album won three Grammy Awards including a Grammy Award for "Album of the Year" and "Best Pop Vocal Album" as well as various awards all over the world.

On April 17, 1997, Celine was the big winning star of the World Music Awards ceremony in Monaco.

She won three awards: Best-Selling Canadian female singer, Best-Selling Artist (all categories altogether) and Best-Selling Pop Artist.

They announced sales of 25 million for 1996 which was the second year in a row that she sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

During the ceremony, she sang "Call the Man" with a thirty-voice gospel choir.

Celine has also received other various awards such as:

Nominations
Celine was nominated for the following awards:

1997
 * Academy Award: "Best Original Song" (to Diane Warren) for "Because You Loved Me"
 * Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year," "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" and "Song of the Year" (to Diane Warren) for "Because You Loved Me"
 * American Music Awards: "Favorite Female Artist Rock\Pop" & "Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist"