Critical reception Upon its release,
This Is It received mixed to positive reviews from
music critics. Simon Vozick-Levinson of
Entertainment Weekly, praised the album and gave it an overall rating of a B+. Vozick-Levinson described the album's track "This Is It" as being an "uplifting ballad" and felt that "if you're feeling generous" you can "count the minimally distinguishable" orchestra version of "This Is It" having thought of it as being a "decent if slight addition to Jackson's songbook." Vozick-Levinson stated that while the album's second disc only contains four tracks that were unreleased, that included a "fairly unremarkable" spoken-word poem, after hearing Jackson "work out the vocal harmonies" for "
Beat It," he, in particular, felt that
This Is It was "well worth the price of admission (or at least a healthy chunk of it)." Brian Linder of
IGN described
This Is It as a "freshly designed" release of a greatest hits album, and that the album's tracks of an all-vocal arrangement of "Beat It" was "particularly awesome" and the acoustic version of "
She's Out of My Life" allows Jackson's "vocals to shine without the distraction of dated '70s musical underpinnings." Linder did note that he felt that the album was both a "fitting tribute" to Jackson and a "crass, commercial double-dip." Will Hines of
Consequence of Sound gave
This Is It a rating of four and a half out of five stars. Hines commented that, "On one level [of the album], it's an attempt to focus and draw attention to what Michael Jackson lived for, and not what he did. On a more superficial level, this is Sony milking his legacy. Any true MJ fan will already own 90% of the songs that make up this two-disc set. It is, however, that 10% which justifies this album's existence." Negative reviews from critics were mainly centered around them feeling that the album was released only for profit. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
AllMusic gave
This Is It two and a half out of five stars. Erlewine commented, "An important thing to remember when considering the soundtrack to This Is It: this entire film and CD project was never supposed to happen." He noted that Jackson's death had "created considerable demand" for his final rehearsal footage and that
This Is It was an "accompaniment" to the film. Andy Gill of
The Independent strongly criticized
This Is It describing it as being a "shoddy apology for an album" and felt that it was made just for a profit, commenting,
Commercial performance This Is It debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200, selling 373,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album had the fifth-best sales week for an album in the United States in 2009. marked Jackson's sixth number one entry on the chart.
This Is Its chart performance tied Jackson with several other artists for the most number-one albums on the
Billboard 200 chart; among the solo male artists, Jackson currently is tied with
Garth Brooks for second place with 51 entries. It has sold a total of 1,735,000 copies in the US as of August 2013. Its video is also being sold as USB flash drive by Kingston Company, first time ever in the company's history, according to a deal done with Sony Music, published as Limited Edition. Internationally,
This Is It had similar commercial reception. The album was released worldwide on October 26 and October 27, 2009, and debuted at number one in fourteen countries. The fourteen countries include Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands, the album stayed at number one in the Netherlands for two consecutive weeks. Other countries where
This Is It didn't debut or peak at number one were, placing at number two, Denmark, Australia and Switzerland, placing at number three, Norway and the United Kingdom, placing at four in Germany and sixth in Ireland.
This Is It sold 78,000 units in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. The album was certified 2× platinum by
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 4, 2009.
This Is It was certified Platinum by the
Australian Recording Industry Association for the shipment of over 70,000 units in Australia. The album was also certified Gold by the
Canadian Recording Industry Association for the sales of over 40,000 units in Canada and was certified 3× Platinum by the
Federation of the Italian Music Industry for the sales of over 210,000 units in Italy, as well as 2× Platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand for the sales of over 30,000 units in New Zealand. It was the third best-selling album of 2009 based on worldwide sales. By March 2010, the soundtrack had sold 5 million copies globally.
Accolades The title track, "This Is It", earned Jackson a posthumous Grammy nomination in 2011 for
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the
53rd Annual Grammy Awards. ==Track listing==