Elton John had an ulterior motive for making his latest album, Who Believes in Angels?, a collaboration with his good friend Brandi Carlile.
The icon wanted to help the nine-time Grammy winner expand her global footprint. “My ambition for her with this album was to break her internationally,” John told Billboard prior to the album’s release. “She’s a well-known artist in America, but in the rest of the world, she has a lot of work to do.”
Mission accomplished. The album, which came out April 4, debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. Official Albums chart, giving Carlile her first No. 1 on the tally and her first to reach the chart’s top 40.
“This is a major milestone and career highlight for Brandi,” says Phantom Management’s Catherine Carlile, Carlile’s manager and wife, who helped orchestrate the campaign. “This is her first ever No. 1 album, and to have achieved this honor with her absolute hero and friend Elton John makes this accomplishment even more profound.”
In the U.S., the album opened at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, marking the 22nd top 10 for John and the fourth for Carlile.
The album — produced by Andrew Watt and featuring songs written by John, Carlile and Bernie Taupin — also tops both Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts, and starts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales chart and Indie Store Album Sales chart, and No. 3 on Vinyl Albums chart.
Carlile began building her U.K. audience last July when she opened for Stevie Nicks at BTS Hyde Park before an audience of 60,000, then followed with her own headlining acoustic show at the 2,000-seat Drury Lane Theater.
Her extensive U.K. tour in June builds on those dates. “Brandi is a hugely successful touring artist in the U.S., but hasn’t toured in the U.K. for a long time, so we knew we needed to water that garden beyond those two appearances in London,” Catherine Carlile says. “We also knew that Brandi’s album with Elton would shine the spotlight on her globally, so we announced her U.K./[European] tour in February, which sold out instantly.”
The U.K. album campaign was orchestrated by Phantom in conjunction with John’s management team, John’s husband/manager David Furnish and Rachael Paley at Rocket Entertainment, as well as British publicity team DawBell and Universal U.K., and culminated in a live event at the London Palladium on March 26, which featured actor Dan Levy conducting a Q&A with John and Carlile, and the pair playing several songs with a full band. The evening aired on CBS in the U.S. on April 6, and will air on ITV in the U.K. on Saturday (April 19).
“The Palladium special was a total triumph and no small feat,” Catherine Carlile says. “Having partners like Fulwell Entertainment who know exactly how to capture the electricity of live music performances and deliver authentic and moving TV was a dream come true for us.”
The album’s two singles released in the U.K. — “Who Believes in Angels?” and “Swing for the Fences” — have reached a radio audience of more than 175 million, Catherine Carlile says, further building singer Carlile’s U.K. exposure.
Following this summer’s U.K. dates, which include a globally broadcast performance at the Glastonbury Festival, and playing in continental Europe, Carlile will “hopefully [play] other markets — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South America, etc.,” Catherine Carlile says. “It’s such a gift for an artist of Brandi’s stature to have an opportunity to reach an undiscovered audience outside of the U.S. at this stage in her career. And it’s a challenge she fully embraces.”
Carlile is working on her next solo album, which Catherine Carlile says has been teed up perfectly by Who Believes in Angels?.
“After being uplifted and endorsed by one of the greatest artists of all time, we cannot wait to show the world who Brandi is as an artist, performer, and songwriter,” she says. “This is her moment to shine on what will probably be the most highly anticipated album of her career.”
