2001 – Shakira – Laundry Service
Among all artists who recorded the most successful female album of the year from 1960 to 2017, only one doesn’t come from an English-speaking country: Shakira. Of course, Laundry Service is sang in English, but it still requires an incredible success to climb the ladder from a Colombian city to the top of the World.
She stepped up to a global audience thanks to the smash hit Whenever, Wherever. Laundry Service sold strongly everywhere. Of course, her sales in Latin America were especially big, but she also did wonders in markets as diverse as India and Finland. The album climbed up to 12,7 million units sold plus over 6,5 million singles. With all formats, it produced 16,6 million worth of album sales, the lowest tally for an annual #1 album since 1982 and also just enough to edge out its competitors…
Challengers
P!nk‘s M!ssundaztood, Alicia Keys‘ Songs In A Minor and Britney Spears‘ Britney all sold from 13 to 16 million equivalent album sales. This creates a quartet of very young talents from fully different music genres.
From 5 to 10 million overall units there is a very dense roster which includes Jennifer Lopez‘ J.Lo, Kylie Minogue‘s Fever, Mary J Blige‘s No More Drama, Aaliyah‘s Aaliyah, Janet Jackson‘s All For You, Hikaru Utada‘s Distance, Misia‘s Marvelous and Anastacia‘s Freak of Nature.
Hello, why are there no female band listed?
The article is solely based on solo female albums, female bands are not included…not that many would feature, even if the scope was extended to female acts in general.
i hope you can update the article! doesn’t Blackpink have a chance in 2020?
Britney’s Greatest Hits, My Perogative sold 6 million albums in 2004, that puts her on this list since you include album sellers from 2004 that were only selling 5 M.
Britney had 5 albums in a row that made this list, plus Circus gives her 6, all in less than 1 decade!
Greatest Hits are included in Studio albums as CSPC’s formula. You can check this in Britney’s article.
Can you do a update on Jennifer Lopezs? Since ya last did her she’s had many more certified sales and streams etc
Can you please update this or re post this article (top female albums 2018-2020) please?
yes please. also would you count gaga’s a star is born
Shouldn’t Britney hold the position for 2003 or 04? In the zone had already sold 8 million copies by the end of 2004
Sorry to bump this old topic but isn’t there a chance that Colbie Caillat’s debut Coco has done 5 million CSPC?
It’s double Platinum in the US, Bubbly did well in 2007 and seems to remain relevant on streaming. Realize did decently if I remember well too.
Hi MJD!
If I Counted Right the Stream:
In 2017, Right now Both Reputation , Dua Lipa passed 5 Million EAS By Far, and sitting in the 7-8 million area.
. In 2018 Sweetener Is very close.
In 2019, When We ALL Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, and Thank U,Next Already Got There, While Lover is Pretty Close.
Could you Please Update this Amazing analysis of women?
By the way, I Love This Website It Is So Well Thought and interesting.
Hey,MJD
The Sweet Escape By Gwen Stefani may reach 5m CSPC 2006
The Album Sold at least 3.5m WW I Thought
Digital Song Sales should be around 4m in united states （The Sweet Escape 3m digital downloads in U.S.）
WW Digital song sales at least 6m
And some other formats
5M is enough for it
https://books.google.com/books?id=mQ8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA69&dq=avex+loveppears+2.8+million&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_y4vE083kAhWzyosBHc45BO8Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=avex%20loveppears%202.8%20million&f=false Avex reported LOVEppears by Ayumi Hamasaki shipped 2.8 million copies by June 2000. https://www.nikkansports.com/m/entertainment/news/201909030000739_m.html?mode=all Then, recently, since the 20th anniversary version of LOVEppears is going to release, Avex updated that LOVEppears shipped 3.2 million copies up to date. That is huge improvement at 400k! So, I doubt whether the 400k comes from catalog sales. Maybe the 3.2 million figure also include Southeast Asian sales? LOVEppears actually released in very few countires in Asia, for example, a google book said that all Ayumi Hamasaki’s CDs were only legitimately available since 2004 in Indonesia. I think 400k catalog sales in 19… Read more »