"Because You Loved Me" is a smash hit from Céline Dion's Falling into You album, released as the first single on December 4 1995 in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Latin America. In other parts of the world it was the second single (after "Falling into You"), released in May 1996.
"Because You Loved Me" was written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster for the film Up Close & Personal.
The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1996 (Dion performed it during the ceremony), as well as four Grammy Awards. It won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (award went to Diane Warren), and was nominated for the Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The music video was directed by Kevin Bray and released in February 1996.
The B-sides of this single included unreleased at that time songs: "The Power of the Dream," "To Love You More" and "Sola Otra Vez."
"Because You Loved Me" is one of Céline Dion's biggest hits and her signature song. It reached #1 in the United States (six weeks at the top), Canada (one week), and Australia (three weeks). In all of those countries, it was her second number one song (after "The Power of Love"). The single set a record on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, where it remained at number one for nineteen weeks. It topped many other American charts as well, including Hot 100 Airplay (fourteen weeks at the top) and Hot 100 Singles Sales (six weeks), also Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks (for twelve weeks) and Top 40 Mainstream (five weeks). It was also #1 for six weeks on the U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40. "Because You Loved Me" was also a hit in the rest of the world: #2 in Ireland, #3 in New Zealand, Switzerland , Netherlands and Global World Chart, #4 in Poland, #5 in the United Kingdom and Belgium etc. Notable is the fact that this song spent 154 weeks (three years) on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary Recurrents chart.
"Because You Loved Me" sold 1,343,000 copies in the U.S. where it was certified platinum. It was also certified 2x platinum in Australia (140,000), platinum in New Zealand (10,000), gold in Germany (250,000) and silver in the United Kingdom (although it sold 420,000 and should be certified gold). Also in France it sold 193,000 and should be certified silver.
The song became a part of the All the Way... A Decade of Song compilation in 1999. Live version was included on the A New Day... Live in Las Vegas album, as Dion performed it five nights a week during her show A New Day... at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.
