Commercial Performance
According to Perry, she and Aguilera's management had recommended "Beautiful" as the lead single from Stripped but that Aguilera insisted on releasing "Dirrty" instead. RCA Records stated that it had agreed with Aguilera to release "Dirrty" to attract attention; when the song only reached number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 (despite being successful elsewhere – it reached No. 1 in the UK), "Beautiful" was rush-released as the second single. The song peaked at number two on the U.S. Hot 100 largely because of its strong radio airplay; it was released as a 12" maxi single and at the time sales of this format were much lower than those of regular CD and CD maxi singles. "Beautiful" stayed in the U.S. Top Ten for 12 weeks and has become Aguilera's solo single that remained on the Hot 100 the longest with 27 weeks. To date, it has sold over 1.2 million digital copies in the US. It also topped many other Billboard magazine charts. In particular, it peaked at number 1 on Adult Contemporary, Mainstream Top 40 and Hot Dance Club Songs, number 9 on Adult Pop Songs and number 2 on Hot 100 Airplay. It was equally successful elsewhere, and reached number one on the charts in the United Kingdom (where it became her fourth number-one single), Australia (where it was her first) and Canada (where it was her second). In New Zealand, it peaked at number one too, and with 13 weeks in the Top 10, it became the 60th most successful song of all time there.
The single proved to be another international phenomenon for Aguilera, entering the Top 5 in almost every European country it was released in, including Germany, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and Austria. "Beautiful" stayed on the charts in Germany for 11 weeks, and for 42 weeks in Argentina's Top 100 Airplay, at #1. In the Pacific, "Beautiful" peaked at number one on the Australian Singles Chart, and got a Platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments of 70,000. In New Zealand, the single also peaked at No. 1, staying on the chart for 22 weeks. It was eventually certified Gold there. In 2004 "Beautiful" won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Linda Perry received a nomination for Song of the Year. The song was ranked number two in the "Readers' Top Ten Singles" list at the 2004 Rolling Stone Music Awards, and its video was also placed at number two in the "Best Video, Readers' Pick" category. The video was the recipient of the "Popular Female Video" award at the 2003 Channel Thailand Music Video Awards. A remix of "Beautiful" by Peter Rauhofer won a 2003 HX Award for "Dance Song of the Year". "Beautiful" went on to become one of the most played songs of the decade, with an audience impression of more than 6 billion.
Read more about this topic: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera Song)
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