As the previous singles from the album, it was a successful top ten hit, though it was the less-selling one.

When reviewing the new singles releases, Music & Media stated that "J'ai peur" "creates the kind of international unity that politicians around the world can only dream of.

[2] In spite of this lower peak position than those of the previous singles, it allowed Feldman to record what was at that time a feat on the French Singles Chart: he thus became the second artist - after Elsa Lunghini and her 1988 eponymous album - to obtain five top ten hit singles from a same album, a feat later broken by Michael Jackson with his album Dangerous, which provided seven top ten hits.

[3] "J'ai peur" entered the European Hot 100 Singles at number 84 on 16 March 1991, reached a peak of number 31 three weeks later,[4] and remained for non consecutive 14 weeks on the chart.

It was regularly played on radio, reaching number 29 on the European Airplay Top 50 on 4 May 1991,[5] and charted for a total of eight weeks.