Popular singer-songwriter Renaud has topped the French charts with his eponymous album which has sold more than 285,000 copies in its first week of release.
Such first week sales figures have been unmatched in France for 14 years and shows Renaud bucking the market trend, as French industry revenue was down 2.2 per cent in 2015, according to IFPI figures published earlier this week.
Renaud is the 16th studio album from the veteran artist, whose recording career started in the early 1970s. Many of Renaud’s songs have become standards in France, including “Dès Que Le Vent Soufflera”, “Laisse Béton” and “Mistral Gagnant”. He is known for his powerful lyrics about social and political issues.
The album was released on 8th April and has proved popular across physical format sales and digital channels. It has already reached Triple Platinum sales in France, where it accounted for more than half the chart albums sold last week, including 60 per cent of physical chart albums and 35 per cent of digital chart albums. Renaud has also reached Gold in Belgium.
Thierry Chassagne, president of Warner Music France, says: “Renaud is one of the most beloved artists in France, but even so the sales of his latest album are amazingly strong. We haven’t seen first week sales for an album as strong as this for more than a decade. I think Renaud is in French people’s hearts, they feel he is a genuine artist and person.”
