Top of the Charts!

WORLDWIDE SINGLE “WE WEREN’T BORN TO FOLLOW” LEADS TO #1 ALBUM DEBUTS IN CANADA, JAPAN AND GERMANY – #2 DEBUT IN UK (November 18, 2009 – New York, NY)

Legendary Island Records group Bon Jovi caps the celebration of their 25th year on record with a second consecutive #1 Soundscan debut – as their 11th studio album THE CIRCLE (released November 10th) sails into the top spot on first week sales of 163,000 copies.

“Coming after their #1-selling tour of last year, this #1 chart debut for Bon Jovi once again proves they have a loyal fan base that transcends every change in popular music,” said Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid, Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group. “After two and a half decades of uninterrupted success, Bon Jovi continues to stay at the top of their game, with no signs of slowing down.”

The new album’s success – which include #1 chart debuts in Canada, Japan and Germany, and a #2 debut in the UK – is fueled by the band’s current worldwide single, “We Weren’t Born To Follow.” Bon Jovi performed the song live at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on November 9th, at the gala 20th anniversary commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The perform¬ance was underscored by their appearance on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. “We Weren’t Born To Follow” stays inside the Top 10 at Hot AC radio formats, and the video is in its 4th week on the VH1 Top 20 Countdown.

Bon Jovi’s appearance in Berlin capped two weeks of international promotion in advance of THE CIRCLE’s arrival. On Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11th, the day after the album’s U.S. release, NBC Television “Artists-In-Residence” Bon Jovi performed live at the Today Show’s Rockefeller Plaza. Two days later on Friday the 13th, Bon Jovi launched the opening of the new Best Buy store on Union Square in Manhattan. Upcoming live TV performances include: Bravo’s Inside The Actors Studio with James Lipton (Nov. 16); Ellen DeGeneres (Nov. 23); NBC’s The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (Nov. 20); a return to the Today Show (Nov. 25); Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (Dec. 9); and Saturday Night Live (Dec. 12).

“We Weren’t Born To Follow” was written (and co-produced) by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, and was produced by John Shanks, who worked with Bon Jovi on their last two albums: Have A Nice Day (2005), which featured the Grammy winning single, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”; and Lost Highway (2007), which debuted at #1 on the Soundscan charts in the U.S. and around the world.

Bon Jovi’s 25 years on record is chronicled this year in filmmaker and photo¬grapher Phil Griffin’s documentary film Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful (produced by Radical Media); and the publication of its companion book, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful, the first ever officially authorized Bon Jovi book (HarperCollins, October 2009).

Bon Jovi’s “The Circle World Tour,” promoted by AEG Live, will kick off in Seattle on February 19, 2010. Over the next two years, the band will visit 30 countries for 135 shows. Bon Jovi’s last outing, the “Lost Highway World Tour,” was 2008’s top-grossing tour. Tickets for “The Circle World Tour” are on sale now for all North American concerts – information can be found at http://www.bonjovi.com/tour.

After reading this, I received a tweet from @BonJovi that says that the album is #1 on the US charts as well.

Way to go, guys!