Sarah Brightman - 2000–2004: Further International Success

2000–2004: Further International Success

Next came the album La Luna. For this album, Brightman chose songs drawing on influences as diverse as pop, vintage jazz, and high opera, in homages to Dvorak, Beethoven and Billie Holiday. La Luna also reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Top Internet Albums and peaked at No. 17, with 900.000 US sales reaching Gold. In 2000 Brightman’s PBS La Luna concert, she sang There for Me in a duet with an up and coming star, Josh Groban. At the end of 2001, Billboard magazine noted Brightman as the most important classical crossover artist from the UK.

In 2000, Brightman sold more records than Elton John and the Rolling Stones, becoming America's highest-selling and top touring British artist.

Brightman ventured for the first time into film acting in 2000 when she was part of the cast of the German film "Zeit der Erkenntnis", based on Rosamunde Pilcher book.

In 2001, Brightman released Classics, an anthology including highlights from three of Brightman's chart-topping releases along with seven new tracks; this was released worldwide except Europe. In the US the album peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard's 200 charts and promptly went Gold. It reached No. 2 on Billboard's Classical Crossover charts.

Her 2003 album Harem represented another departure: a Middle Eastern-themed album influenced by dance music. On Harem, Brightman collaborated with artists such as Ofra Haza and Iraqi singer Kazem al-Saher. Nigel Kennedy contributed violin tracks to the songs "Free" and "The War is Over", and Jaz Coleman contributed arrangements.

The album peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 charts, No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Crossover chart, No. 1 on the Swedish Album Chart, and yielded a No. 1 dance/club single with the remix of the title track. Some time later, another single from the album (the ballad "Free", cowritten with Sophie B. Hawkins) became a second Top-10 hit on this chart. A year later of the album's release, Harem was referred as a multi-million seller in EMI's annual music sales report.

The albums Eden, La Luna and Harem were accompanied by live world tours which incorporated the theatricality of her stage origins. In both 2000 and 2001, Brightman was among the top 10 most popular British performers in the US, with concert sales grossing $7.2 million from 34 shows in 2000 and over $5 million from 21 shows in 2001. In 2004 the Harem tour grossed $60 million and sold 800,000 tickets.