They say the longevity and true impact of an artist can be ascertained through the sale of their albums and not singles. Plenty of Popular artists in history have proven it as a fact, as their albums sales have often been exemplary of their mass appeal, notwithstanding how their singles have fared on the charts.
Artist who have a discography filled with catalog-sellers continue to be ranked up high, whenever ‘all-time’ lists are drawn. And that serves the basis for the list we’re drawing out today.
From Whitney Houston to Celine Dion – here are the all-time top selling albums by female artists, constituting of their overall worldwide sales:
5) Adele – 21 – 31 Million
Adele’s award winning effort, that catapulted her to another level of stardom. After her debut solo album, 19, which was a decent commercial success internationally, but showcased her amazing vocal talent greatly, Adele went even more ‘diva-ish’ as she belted out, what can now be deemed her signature ballad – ‘Rolling In The Deep’ as the lead single for this critically acclaimed LP. The result was the birth of this generation’s ‘superstar.’
4) Celine Dion – Falling Into You – 32 Million
Celine is another one of those artists, who may not boast of too many #1 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 – but has still managed to become one of the best selling artists of all time. That’s a legacy artist with a hardcore fan-following for you. Celine’s 1996 released award-winning album ‘Falling Into You’ – which boasted of tracks like ‘Because You Love Me’ and ‘All By Myself’, remains her best-selling effort till date with sales of over 32 Million, worldwide.
3) Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill – 33 Million
One of the greatest female songwriters of all time, this Canadian songbird’s massive critical and commercial success – ‘Jagged Little Pill’, released in the year 1995 made her one of the most formidable forces in Pop music around that time. With sales of over 33 million worldwide, the album’s hit songs like ‘You Oughta Know’, ‘Hand In My Pocket’ and ‘Ironic’ – remained on rotation on MTV for years.
2) Shania Twain – Come On Over – 40 Million
The first female artist to hold the title of having 3 Diamond-selling albums in the United States by the RIAA. That is, 3 albums that sold over 10 million units in the United States alone. One of them was her 1997-released massively successful ‘Come On Over’, which featured iconic hits from this Country-Pop hitmaker like – You’re Still The One and Man! I Feel Like A Woman. What more can be said about the success of this album, other than the fact that 12 out of it’s 16 tracks were released as singles, by the singer and her team – making it’s success last for several years.
1) Whitney Houston – The Bodyguard OST – 48 Million
The absolute best-selling album of all time by a female artist is Whitney Houston’s 1992 released record-shattering soundtrack for The Bodyguard. Houston, who was already a major star by this time – having churned out 3 internationally best-selling albums, and an iconic television performance of American National Anthem at the Super Bowl the year before, turned this into the biggest movie/music moment of the year. Apart from her advent into the the Motion Pictures realm, as Kevin Costner’s leading lady in this romance thriller, this iconic album was helped by the immediate cult-status of possibly the most iconic song ever recorded by a female – ‘I Will Always Love You’, which became her signature hit – and then went on to become the best selling song by a female, also. Other famous hit songs from the album included – ‘I’m Every Woman’, ‘Run To You’ and ‘I Have Nothing’ – which all helped transform it into the best-selling female record of all time, over the years.
It is astonishing that majority of these come from the 90’s, with the exception of Adele’s 21, which goes on to prove how this entire decade was ruled by massively successful female artists and Pop divas.
No wonder it gave life to the careers of some of the most celebrated divas of music that we have ever known.