1976 – Barbra Streisand – A Star Is Born

By 1976, Streisand was arguably the most popular female singer in North American since her debut. Her sales abroad were still quite limited though. The soundtrack A Star Is Born confirmed once again her status in her homeland while also opening to her the doors of international stardom.

In the US, this chart topping LP became her top seller album to date with an impressive total of 5 million units sold. In the UK, the album was her first #1 album and also the first selling upwards Platinum status, it came close to a million sales. The story was the same more often than not since it was also by far her biggest album to date in continental Europe, Latin America, Asia and in Australasia. The single Evergreen was a #1 hit, it also figured on various best of albums in later years. With 8 million sales for the original album plus all subsequent packages, this record is comfortably the most successful of a female from 1976 with a massive 15 million equivalent album sales overall.

Challengers

In all fairness, although Diana Ross and Linda Ronstadt got successful records that year again, they do not come close of Streisand‘s effort. The big international story was the ground breaking smash of Swedish band ABBA, with their terrific hits Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money from the album Arrival. Of course, the band isn’t eligible in this female-only listing.