I Dreamed a Dream
Encyclopedia
"I Dreamed a Dream" is a song from the musical
Les Misérables
. It is a solo that is sung by the character Fantine
during the first act. The music is by Claude-Michel Schönberg
, with orchestrations by John Cameron
. The English lyrics are by Herbert Kretzmer
, based on the original French
libretto
by Alain Boublil
.
The song is a lament, sung by the anguished, dying and impoverished Fantine, who thinks back to happier days and wonders at all that has gone wrong in her life.
production from 1980, was entitled "J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie" (translated as "I had dreamed of another life"), and was originally sung by Rose Laurens
. The first English language
production of Les Misérables opened on the West End
in London
in October 1985, with the role of Fantine portrayed by Patti LuPone
.
She would later feature the song on her 1993 album Patti LuPone Live!
When the musical made its Broadway
début in New York City
in March 1987, Fantine was played by Randy Graff
. Laurie Beechman
would perform the role in the original U.S. touring production in 1988 and then on Broadway in 1990. That year she included the song on her album Listen to My Heart.
Debra Byrne
sang the song on the Complete Symphonic Recording. Ruthie Henshall
sang it on the Tenth Anniversary Concert Recording (1995). A Broadway revival in 2006 featured Daphne Rubin-Vega
(2006–2007), Lea Salonga
(2007) and later Judy Kuhn
(2007–2008), in the role.
The show — and the song — has been translated into twenty-one languages, including Japanese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Castilian, and Estonian, and there have been 31 cast recordings featuring the song. The London cast version is Triple Platinum in the UK, for sales of more than 900,000, and Platinum in the U.S., for sales of more than one million. The Broadway cast version is Quadruple Platinum in the U.S. (more than four million sold), where four other versions have also gone Gold.
s of "I Dreamed a Dream". Neil Diamond
recorded the song for his 1987 live album Hot August Night 2
, and released the song as a single. It peaked at #13 on the US Billboard
Adult Contemporary chart
in November 1987
and at #90 on the UK Singles Chart
. Diamond's version features a lyrical alteration at the end of the song; instead of "Now life has killed the dream I dreamed" Diamond sings, "But life can't kill the dream I dreamed."
Other male singers who have recorded the song include rock singer David Essex
on his 1987 album Centre Stage,
Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford
on his 1987 album The Phantom Unmasked and on his 1992 release "With Love",
LuPone's Evita co-star Mandy Patinkin
on his 1994 album Experiment,, British theater star Michael Ball
(Marius
in the Original London production of Les Miz) on his 2003 album I Dreamed a Dream and Neal Schon
, Michael Landau
on guitar and David Foster
on piano their 2001 album Voice
(instrumental version).
In 1991, Aretha Franklin
included a version of the song on her album What You See Is What You Sweat. Although not released as a single, Franklin has performed the song at various venues, including the 1993 inaugural celebration
for U.S. President Bill Clinton
.
Other female singers who have recorded versions of the song include English
singer and stage actress Elaine Paige
, from a 1993 performance at Birmingham Symphony Hall which was included on her 1995 album, Encore
,
original Annie
title cast member Andrea McArdle
in the 1996 recording On Broadway,
New Zealand
er singer Hayley Westenra
and British pop star Petula Clark
, each in 2001, Canadian
singer-songwriter Allison Crowe
in 2005, and Broadway actress Susan Egan
in 2008. In 2008 Italian rock noir
band Belladonna
covered the song in their London
show. In 2010 popera singer Rose Jang
covered the song for her "Songs of Hope" digital album by Mnet Media
The song was covered on the Glee
episode "Dream On
" by Shelby Corcoran and Rachel Berry, portrayed by Idina Menzel
and Lea Michele
respectively.
Josh Groban
& Michael Ball
sung a duet at the end of Nevermind The Buzzcocks (Broadcast 21 Dec 2010)
Joe McElderry
recorded the song for his second album Classic
.
Katherine Jenkins
released a French cover of the song in her 8th studio album Daydream
.
performed it as her audition for the third series
of the British reality television
programme, Britain's Got Talent
. Boyle's performance elicited a unanimous vote for passage into the next round of competition by judges Piers Morgan
, Amanda Holden
and Simon Cowell
, with Morgan giving Boyle "the biggest yes [he had] ever given" in his three years of judging the show. Elaine Paige
, Boyle's role model, later expressed interest in singing a duet with her. The programme received high ratings and Boyle's performance was quickly added to sites such as YouTube
, where millions of people viewed it in the first month alone. Boyle sang the song again during the finals of Britain's Got Talent on 30 May 2009, where she placed second in the competition behind British dance troupe Diversity
. Today, it is known as the song that catapulted her to super-stardom, and it helped sales of her album I Dreamed a Dream
. Currently, the album has been declared as the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK, and sold 701,000 copies in its first week in just the US, breaking the record for highest debut ever for a solo female artist.
Shortly after Boyle's audition aired on ITV
in April, the Original London Cast Recording of LuPone singing "I Dreamed a Dream" was downloaded to such a degree that the song entered music charts in the U.S. and UK. The U.S. Billboard magazine's Hot Digital Songs
and Hot Singles Recurrents charts for the week of 2 May 2009 had LuPone's 1985 recording at #61 and #20, respectively. LuPone's version also reached #45 on the UK Singles Chart on the week of 25 April 2009.
Susan Boyle's later 2009 recording rivaled pre-order sales records on Amazon.com in November 2009.
on 26 November 2009 at number 20. It also entered the UK Singles Chart
on 29 November 2009 at number 37.
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Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
. It is a solo that is sung by the character Fantine
Fantine
Fantine is a character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables.- Backstory :"Fantine was one of those beings which are brought forth from the heart of the people... She was called Fantine because she had never been known by any other name...""All four were ravishingly beautiful. As to Fantine,...
during the first act. The music is by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Claude-Michel Schönberg is a French record producer, actor, singer, songwriter, and musical theatre composer, best known for his collaborations with the lyricist Alain Boublil.These include the musicals:...
, with orchestrations by John Cameron
John Cameron (musician)
John Cameron is a British composer, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well-known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to 'pop' recordings, notably those by Donovan, Cilla Black and the group Hot Chocolate...
. The English lyrics are by Herbert Kretzmer
Herbert Kretzmer
Herbert Kretzmer OBE is a South African-born English journalist and lyric writer. He is perhaps best known as the lyricist for the English-language musical adaptation of Les Misérables.-Journalist:...
, based on the original French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Alain Boublil
Alain Boublil
Alain Boublil is a musical theatre lyricist and librettist, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg for musicals on Broadway and London's West End...
.
The song is a lament, sung by the anguished, dying and impoverished Fantine, who thinks back to happier days and wonders at all that has gone wrong in her life.
History
The song, as it appeared in the original ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
production from 1980, was entitled "J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie" (translated as "I had dreamed of another life"), and was originally sung by Rose Laurens
Rose Laurens
Rose Laurens is a French singer-songwriter, particularly famous for her 1982 smash single "Africa", number three hit in many European countries...
. The first English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
production of Les Misérables opened on the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in October 1985, with the role of Fantine portrayed by Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
.
She would later feature the song on her 1993 album Patti LuPone Live!
When the musical made its Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
début in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in March 1987, Fantine was played by Randy Graff
Randy Graff
Randy Graff is an American actress. Graff has been in feature films such as Keys to Tulsa and Rent as well as being in television shows such as NBC's Law & Order a number of times. In addition to film and television, Graff has been in several Broadway shows...
. Laurie Beechman
Laurie Beechman
Laurie Hope Beechman was an American singer. As a performer, she was known for her Broadway performances in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats, and Les Misérables...
would perform the role in the original U.S. touring production in 1988 and then on Broadway in 1990. That year she included the song on her album Listen to My Heart.
Debra Byrne
Debra Byrne
-Career:Byrne made her television debut on Brian and the Juniors, an early predecessor of Young Talent Time, which was hosted by a young Brian Naylor. She stayed with the show for 12 months. In 1971 she was cast as one of the original six Young Talent Time cast members...
sang the song on the Complete Symphonic Recording. Ruthie Henshall
Ruthie Henshall
Valentine Ruth Henshall , better known as Ruthie Henshall, is an English singer, dancer, and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Henshall attended the Laine Theatre Arts school in Epsom, Surrey before making her first professional appearance on stage in 1986...
sang it on the Tenth Anniversary Concert Recording (1995). A Broadway revival in 2006 featured Daphne Rubin-Vega
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Daphne Rubin-Vega is a dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known for originating the role of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical Rent, and the role of Lucy, in the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.-Biography:Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Vega, a...
(2006–2007), Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
(2007) and later Judy Kuhn
Judy Kuhn
-Life and career:Kuhn was born in New York City and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.She entered Oberlin College in 1976. Although she was very interested in singing and theater, she began Oberlin in the College, not the Conservatory. After taking...
(2007–2008), in the role.
The show — and the song — has been translated into twenty-one languages, including Japanese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Castilian, and Estonian, and there have been 31 cast recordings featuring the song. The London cast version is Triple Platinum in the UK, for sales of more than 900,000, and Platinum in the U.S., for sales of more than one million. The Broadway cast version is Quadruple Platinum in the U.S. (more than four million sold), where four other versions have also gone Gold.
Cover versions
Numerous popular singers have recorded cover versionCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of "I Dreamed a Dream". Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
recorded the song for his 1987 live album Hot August Night 2
Hot August Night 2
Hot August Night II is a live album by Neil Diamond. This is a follow up to Diamond's 1972 double album Hot August Night, which is also a live album.-Track listing:# Song Of The Whales # Headed For The Future# September Morn...
, and released the song as a single. It peaked at #13 on the US Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Adult Contemporary chart
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
in November 1987
and at #90 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. Diamond's version features a lyrical alteration at the end of the song; instead of "Now life has killed the dream I dreamed" Diamond sings, "But life can't kill the dream I dreamed."
Other male singers who have recorded the song include rock singer David Essex
David Essex
David Essex OBE is an English musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Since the 1970s, Essex has attained nineteen Top 40 singles in the UK , and sixteen Top 40 albums...
on his 1987 album Centre Stage,
Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford OBE is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City...
on his 1987 album The Phantom Unmasked and on his 1992 release "With Love",
LuPone's Evita co-star Mandy Patinkin
Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin is an award-winning American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. He is a noted interpreter of the musical works of Stephen Sondheim, and is best-known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park...
on his 1994 album Experiment,, British theater star Michael Ball
Michael Ball (singer)
Michael Ashley Ball, born 27 June 1962) is a British actor, singer, and radio and TV presenter who is best known for the song "Love Changes Everything" and musical theatre roles such as Marius in Les Misérables, Alex in Aspects of Love, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Edna Turnblad...
(Marius
Marius Pontmercy
Marius Pontmercy is a principal fictional character in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Misérables. He is young, intense, and in love with Cosette. He fights at the barricades with Enjolras and the Friends of the ABC when %C3%89ponine tricks him into going to the barricade and he resolves to die...
in the Original London production of Les Miz) on his 2003 album I Dreamed a Dream and Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, Michael Landau
Michael Landau
Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
on guitar and David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
on piano their 2001 album Voice
Voice (Neal Schon album)
Voice is a 2001 solo album by Journey guitarist Neal Schon. The album features instrumental versions of popular songs. It peaked at number 15 on Billboards Top New Age album chart in the same year. In 2002, Voice was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.-Track listing:#...
(instrumental version).
In 1991, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
included a version of the song on her album What You See Is What You Sweat. Although not released as a single, Franklin has performed the song at various venues, including the 1993 inaugural celebration
Bill Clinton 1993 presidential inauguration
The first inauguration of Bill Clinton as the 42nd President of the United States took place on January 20, 1993. The inauguration marked the beginning of the first four-year term of Bill Clinton as President and Al Gore as Vice President...
for U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
.
Other female singers who have recorded versions of the song include English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
singer and stage actress Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
, from a 1993 performance at Birmingham Symphony Hall which was included on her 1995 album, Encore
Encore (Elaine Paige album)
Encore is the title of a solo album released in 1995 by Elaine Paige. The album peaked at #20 on the UK Albums Chart in July 1995.It is primarily a compilation of material from earlier recordings but also includes three new recordings, all taken from the musical Sunset Boulevard, the London...
,
original Annie
Annie (musical)
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
title cast member Andrea McArdle
Andrea McArdle
Andrea McArdle is an American singer and actress best known for playing Annie in the Broadway musical Annie, as well as for her alto range and strong vocal belt.-Career:She was born in Philadelphia...
in the 1996 recording On Broadway,
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
er singer Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...
and British pop star Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, each in 2001, Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
singer-songwriter Allison Crowe
Allison Crowe
Allison Louise Crowe is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Nanaimo, British Columbia who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, communities spanning the breadth of Canada....
in 2005, and Broadway actress Susan Egan
Susan Egan
Susan Egan is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage.-Early life and career:Egan was born in Seal Beach, California. She attended Orange County High School of the Arts and UCLA. In the meantime she started her career touring with the performance group The Young...
in 2008. In 2008 Italian rock noir
Rock noir
Rock noir is a term used to identify a sub-genre of rock characterized by dramatic performances of theatrically rendered lyrical storytelling. It was originated by Italian band Belladonna, whose debut album Metaphysical Attraction is the first full-length Rock noir album ever released...
band Belladonna
Belladonna (band)
Belladonna is an Italian Rock noir band.- Metaphysical Attraction :Belladonna was formed on February 14, 2005 in Rome, Italy by Luana Caraffa and Dani Macchi. During the course of the following months Belladonna wrote and recorded many songs, eleven of which would become their first full album:...
covered the song in their London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
show. In 2010 popera singer Rose Jang
Rose Jang
Rose Jang is an acclaimed Korean-American pop opera artist who is well-known for singing operatic arias, musical and classic pop songs. She is the first Korean to release an album comprising operatic arias as well as hit musical songs. Her album is distributed by Mnet. Jang is PR ambassador for...
covered the song for her "Songs of Hope" digital album by Mnet Media
Mnet Media
Mnet Media is a South Korean entertainment company under the label CJ Group, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It produces, broadcasts, distributes and provides variety of music and entertainment. Once the home to top-selling groups such as Lee Hyori and SG Wannabe...
The song was covered on the Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
episode "Dream On
Dream On (Glee)
"Dream On" is the 19th episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on May 18, 2010. It was directed by Joss Whedon and written by series creator Brad Falchuk. Neil Patrick Harris guest-stars as former glee club star Bryan Ryan...
" by Shelby Corcoran and Rachel Berry, portrayed by Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...
and Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
respectively.
Josh Groban
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...
& Michael Ball
Michael Ball
Michael Ball may refer to:* Michael Ball , English singer and actor* Michael Ball , American football player* Michael Ball , English football player...
sung a duet at the end of Nevermind The Buzzcocks (Broadcast 21 Dec 2010)
Joe McElderry
Joe McElderry
Joseph "Joe" McElderry is an English singer and model. He won the sixth series of the ITV show The X Factor in 2009. His first single "The Climb" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and Irish Singles Charts. He was also crowned the winner of the second series of Popstar to Operastar, two...
recorded the song for his second album Classic
Classic (Joe McElderry album)
Classic is the second studio album by British singer Joe McElderry. It was released by Decca Records on 19 August 2011 in Ireland and on 22 August 2011 in the United Kingdom...
.
Katherine Jenkins
Katherine Jenkins
Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh mezzo-soprano. She is a classical-popular crossover singer who performs across a spectrum of operatic arias, popular songs, musical theatre and hymns.-Early life and education:...
released a French cover of the song in her 8th studio album Daydream
Daydream (Katherine Jenkins album)
Daydream is the 8th studio album by Welsh classical crossover artist Katherine Jenkins and was released on October 10, 2011. The album is her second with Warner Bros.- International edition :...
.
Susan Boyle version
The song had a resurgence in popularity in 2009 when Scottish singer Susan BoyleSusan Boyle
Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from ...
performed it as her audition for the third series
Britain's Got Talent (series 3)
The 2009 series of Britain's Got Talent was the third series of the programme. It began airing on ITV on 11 April. The 2009 panel of judges consisted of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan...
of the British reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
programme, Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
. Boyle's performance elicited a unanimous vote for passage into the next round of competition by judges Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....
, Amanda Holden
Amanda Holden
Amanda Louise Holden is an English actress and presenter. Among her roles are Mia Bevan in Cutting It, Sarah Trevanion in Wild at Heart, and the title role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award...
and Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
, with Morgan giving Boyle "the biggest yes [he had] ever given" in his three years of judging the show. Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
, Boyle's role model, later expressed interest in singing a duet with her. The programme received high ratings and Boyle's performance was quickly added to sites such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, where millions of people viewed it in the first month alone. Boyle sang the song again during the finals of Britain's Got Talent on 30 May 2009, where she placed second in the competition behind British dance troupe Diversity
Diversity (dance troupe)
Diversity are an English street dance troupe based in London. They are best known for winning the third series of Britain's Got Talent, famously beating Susan Boyle in the live final. They also won the Families United Positive Role Models at the Spirit of London Awards. The group, initially known...
. Today, it is known as the song that catapulted her to super-stardom, and it helped sales of her album I Dreamed a Dream
I Dreamed a Dream (album)
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 United Kingdom, and by Columbia Records in the United States one day later. In the standard edition, 11 out of the 12 songs that appear on the album are cover songs, plus...
. Currently, the album has been declared as the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK, and sold 701,000 copies in its first week in just the US, breaking the record for highest debut ever for a solo female artist.
Shortly after Boyle's audition aired on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in April, the Original London Cast Recording of LuPone singing "I Dreamed a Dream" was downloaded to such a degree that the song entered music charts in the U.S. and UK. The U.S. Billboard magazine's Hot Digital Songs
Hot Digital Songs
The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of...
and Hot Singles Recurrents charts for the week of 2 May 2009 had LuPone's 1985 recording at #61 and #20, respectively. LuPone's version also reached #45 on the UK Singles Chart on the week of 25 April 2009.
Susan Boyle's later 2009 recording rivaled pre-order sales records on Amazon.com in November 2009.
Chart performance
"I Dreamed a Dream" entered the Irish Singles ChartIrish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...
on 26 November 2009 at number 20. It also entered the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
on 29 November 2009 at number 37.
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|Scottish Albums Charts
Scottish Singles and Albums Chart
The Scottish Singles Chart and Scottish Albums Chart are charts compiled by The Official Charts Company, based on physical and digital sales in the STV North, STV Central and ITV Border regions....
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