With the introduction of the revolutionary concept Artist Success Rating, we can expect many talks and debates around its results. As usual, female divas will be discussed more than anyone else.
To avoid flooding the introduction of the concept with these comments, here is the list of the top performing females! Please keep in mind that some artists haven’t been studied so far, e.g. divas like Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan and Kylie Minogue.
For all explanations about the concept, please go back to the introduction which details everything. The ASR is a pure rating indicator, it must be interpreted in relative terms. For example, Whitney Houston has been 10% more successful than Mariah Carey.
Why even post charts about artists when all artists haven’t been studied? Some people use these charts as resources for arguments but like likes of Elvis, JLO, Tina turner and basically any country artist have not been factored in…
Hi Tj! We are not responsible of what people do with our content. Each article requires so much work that we are perfectly aware rankings will never be 100% complete. If they happen to be in some years, then the first articles will be outdated and so on. Every minute there is records sold / downloaded / streamed, so having a 100% complete and updated list is an utopy. We feel that it is much better to reflect what has been fully studied rather than mixing valid figures with what’s readable here and there to fill the holes as it… Read more »
Tj,
Don’t think that what this site’s team is doing is easy.
Tell them to wait.
You as well.
Norah Jones’s best-selling album sells better than Shakira’s,that’s true,but think about that Shakira is Latino and lots of her albums are in Spanish OK?BTW,half songs of Laundry Service are in Spanish,only a few songs in this album are in English and that’s her best-selling album!Shakira sold way more singles and had been streamed eay more times.Also her career album sales is higher than Norah Jones.Just by 2001,before Laundry Service released,she had sold over 10 million albums in Latin America alone,according to Billboard.She is the best-selling international artist in Egypt,best-selling international female artist in India,Mexico,Argentina,Spain,etc.She has the best-selling Spainsh single of… Read more »
The views on VEVO are fake. Everybody know that. And Shakira is a good artist but shes not a global artistas, she only have one album that pass 10 million copies.
is nicki minaj studied yet ?
The #QueenOfRap hasn’t been studied yet.
There’s no way Shakira’s less successful than P!nk and Norah Jones,OK?Please update Shakira.
I am not surprised at all with Norah Jones. She sold huge amount of albums, and her debut is far bigger than Shakira. Her second album was almost as big as Shakira biggest album too. Shakira has around the same amount CSPC total than Norah Jones (Slightly bigger). But she does release more albums than Norah Jones. So I wasn’t surprised.
I wanna see a duet between Adele and Norah.
This thread on ATRL (they used your data) is how you should measure success – https://atrl.net/forums/topic/83768-the-biggest-female-sellers-r-u-surprised/
This chart favors artists with tons of Greatest Hits albums. Gaga is sure as hell not as success as Rihanna as you claim. Gaga can’t barely scrapped 700k in the US with Joanne for the love of God lmao
Thank you for that link. I also want to see that kind of list too. But ASR has a better way of showing an artist success overall. You just can’t add album sales and singles like they’re the same. Would you treat a buying a kilo of pork and buying a barbecue as equal?
Hi Denzel!
This thread is the illustration of how much nonsense can be spread on sites like ATRL. A completely rubbish list. As for your example of PF, you claim we said very precisely the opposite that is said by the CSPC.
I think you should stop trying to make CSPC happen. It’s not going to. For example Poker Face is not the 2nd most successful song ever as you claim. Anyway I don’t even know what EDS is. You keep making new things up. Keep it simple.
Rihanna sold (for example), 30 million albums and 200 million singles world wide then just add those up and that’s enough. Claiming she sold 86 or whatever CSPC just devalues her actual success
No CSPC doesn’t devalue actual success. It converts the numbers into equivalent album units. If you want to speak in record sales then you can add everything one for one but it’s misleading. Rih selling 20 mill digital singles isn’t the same as Adele selling 20 million albums.Sorry it just doesn’t hold the same weight
In which world Shakira is less successful than Destiny’s Child, Norah Jones, Cher, P!nk and Gaga?
ASR cancelled!
So how did Whitney beat Mariah again… Despite Mariah selling more singles & albums???
Hi Stephon Jackson!
Please read the article detailing the concept, there is no point re-writing it on comments 😉
Whitney may have a higher ASR but Mariah has reached a networth of more than $500 million. I think Whitney never reached more than $100 million networth.
But again, this article isnt about networth. It’s just that when I think of the word “success” and “value”, i think about the networth of artists too.
Mariah having a Net worth of $500 million is completely false. There is no way she is/was worth that much money. She did not make that much from albums sales, and she was not a touring artist.
Do your research first before you say my statement is false. Once you do, tell me if I’m wrong.
The celebrity Net Worth site is a made up site. Its not real. You do your reasearch RLMAAJR? Frobes never had Mariah anywhere near 500 million, and how would she have gotten 500 million? Not from album sales.
Mariah Carey was the co-writer, co-producer and executive producer for ALL of her albums, including singles released from the albums. She definitely made most of her money from album sales. Forbes calculated her net worth to be 220 million back in 2007. It should be around 100 – 200 million by now. She made 30 million in 2012, 29 million in 2013, 30 million in 2014.
I’m sure those celebrity net worth websites are inaccurate for sure.
Mariah certainly isn’t worth $500 million based on music, but you do know that she was married to Tommy Matola and got a divorce, right? Divorce from uber rich guy = HUGE paypay for woman……………same with Shania and divorce from Mutt Lange. On the flipside, Paul Mccartneys wife Linda McCartney died of cancer and had been very successful with her vegan food company adding millions to Paul’s net worth
How much money Whitney or Mariah have or had is completely irrelevant to the subject at hand. Stick to the topic.
You don’t know how much money they made. No one does, except them. And Whitney’s dead, so you’ll probably never know.
The fact is she is more successful than Mariah is. Get over it.
You have to remember that Whitney didn’t release as nearly as many albums as Mariah.
Whitney didn’t release as nearly as many albums as Celine Dion or Madonna either… Yet they’re still over her.
Hi Stephon,
Surely you can understand that Mariah’s lead over Whitney in cumulative sales is lower at 10% than the one of Celine (about 27,5%) and Madonna (59%).
This is absurd.
Hi Mat!
Why would it be? Whitney’s first two massive albums were released when the market was much lower than during Mariah’s peak and she released way less albums, so the fact they are so close in cumulative records’ sales should tell you that Whitney has been the most successful, even without getting into data analytics. This switch of position comes as no surprise.
BTW, Whitney sold 12 million more physical singles than Mariah.
Even though Marsh ‘sold more’ Whitney was always the bigger artist. As MJD stated Mariah had the 90s as well as Tommy Mattolla.
Reader123 Whitney probably did even better than Madonna at her peak.
Whitney Houston had CLIVE DAVIS… your point? I don’t agree with this list tbh. Mariah Carey should be #3 regardless. She has more hits, sold more singles, sold more albums and records than Miss Houston, period. And don’t give me that “Oh Mariah had more album releases” because Celine Dion released more albums than any female artist in the top 4.
Hi Stephon! Several of your claims are simply untrue. Whitney sold more physical singles than Mariah. You state as a fact that she “has more hits”, but that’s untrue too. For sure, she got more US #1s, but the US isn’t the World. In Germany for example, their 1998 duet When You Believe was only the 2nd Top 10 hit of Mariah’s career. She still has only 2 Top 5 hits in her career and that includes AIWFCIY which did it in recent years. The story is the same in most Europe. For sure it sounds quite stannish to count… Read more »
You sound biased. Whitney Houston having top selling albums in the 80’s doesn’t negate the fact that Mariah still outsold her, fair and square. Just because she sold around the same amount with less releases doesn’t mean she’s more successful. If that’s the case, then Whitney Houston should be over Celine Dion as well. Seeing how she didn’t start dominating in sales until the mid – late 90’s, when the market was at an all time high, album sales wise.
Mariah is definitely more successful than Whitney that is why she has higher CSPC. But Whitney was definitely bigger than Mariah at her peak. Lets face it, no female singers had ever receive a bigger career peak than Whitney 1985-1992 (She was like the female Michael Jackson). She only needed 4 albums to sell almost 93 million albums. Madonna needed 9 studio albums to barely beat Whitney and 11 years to accomplish that, and Mariah needed 7 albums to barely beat that total and 9 years to achieve that. Its obvious to me that Whitney has immense popularity at her… Read more »
What matters is Mariah Carey sold more albums and singles than Whitney .
And to Michael, Celine selling more than 60 million albums in 30 months is a bigger feat than Whitney selling more than 90 million albums (if that is indeed true) in 7 years with 4 albums.
And to add, does Whitney having a bigger peak than Madonna really mean anything when Madonna is ultimately ( almost 90 million EAS ahead of Whitney ) the best-selling female artist of all time?
Also, based on best selling artists per decade, the 80s was still a bigger market than the 90s.
Hi RLAAMJR,
Please do not spread inaccurate claims. The market was much weaker in the 80s than in the 90s. You can’t look at up to date comprehensive CSPC, which includes catalog sales + figures from latter compilations to claim that the market was better before. If we compare album sales from Whitney’s debut year with Celine’s peak, 1985 and 1998:
US
1985 – 529m
1998 – 1009m
UK
1985 – 111m
1998 – 210m
France
1985 – 55m
1998 – 124m
Japan
1985 – 155m
1998 – 326m
Hi MJD, Your methodology is wrong. Whitney’s debut album did not sell 22M in 1985, around 35% of its sales came from the Bodyguard era in 1992-94. It sold 14M in the 80s and the remaining 8M was shipped in bundles with the Bodyguard soundtrack. Same with her sophomore which sold 10M (50%) in bundles with the Bodyguard OST. So the claim that the market was less valuable in Whitney’s peak in the 80s is false because Whitney’s album sales of debut and sophomore multiplied extensively during Bodyguard, when the industry was strong. You need to reconsider the positions of… Read more »
You must be deluded if you think Chartmasters have got it wrong, they are the experts in this field not us, also Madonna has to be way bigger than Whitney. Chartmasters is the most accurate place for music sales, far more trustworthy than most US garbage that is spouted around.
RLAAMJR. You are totally confusing the difference between ASR, EDS and CSPC. First of all Mariah Carey did not sell more singles than Whitney. What is even worse is if you look at their career peak (Whitney 1985-1992, Mariah 1990-1997), Mariah is not even close to selling nearly as much singles as Whitney does. Even Celine Dion did not managed to beat her singles sales anyway. Plus, again we are talking about two different era. Celine peak at a time when the music industry was the biggest in history. In many European countries the market was 3 times bigger than… Read more »
In reality, Mariah, Celine and Madonna sold more than Whitney in their lifetime. Sorry but survival of the fittest. It’s not their fault to live longer and continue to release albums.
Im not going to comment between MJ and Madonna since MJ sold a lot more.
If Whitney was truly at her peak on those years, why was her 1990 album beaten by Mariah’s first album?
So please dont claim all those years to be Whitney’s because The Bodyguard wouldnt sell that much if it wasnt a movie at the same time.
Besides, if Whitney was still alive, Im pretty sure she would release more albums that would sell poorly considering her voice condition.
Everybody will someday have their lowest. Whitney just didnt have that because we know why.
RLAAMJR. Your are so delusional. “If Whitney was truly at her peak on those years, why was her 1990 album beaten by Mariah’s first album?” Its like saying, if Mariah Carey was so big at her peak why would she lose to a pure amateur like Alannis Morissette in 1995/1996 or saying like Avril Lavigne has a bigger career than Britney Spears because her 2002 debut sold a lot more than Britney 2001 album. That is just non sense. And plus, like I have said for a billion times. Mariah Carey, Madonna and Celine are all more successful than Whitney.… Read more »
Which list do you believe more when it comes to who is more successful? ASR or CSPC? I must admit I am wrong with the peak thing but once again, Mariah proved herself to be a successful music artist as she continued to be relevant especially in 2005 and every Christmas. As for Celine, yes she has too for her french albums and Las Vegas shows/tours. As for ASR, Whitney’s rating will continually go up since her music career has stopped unless her music company will release a best/collections album. But for Celine, Madonna and Mariah, they may sell well… Read more »
Hi again Stephon, What’s biased for sure is to act as if French albums are the same as English albums. What’s also biased is to act as if the gap between Mariah and Whitney is the same as the one between Celine and Whitney. What’s biased is to claim someone is biased when he posts figures using exactly the same method just because he doesn’t like the result. The whole irony is that Celine’s ASR is weaker in proportion than Mariah’s ASR (their respective CSPC / EDS ratio is 5,08 for Celine, 4,95 for Mariah, so the EDS is more… Read more »
Hi MJD, Prolly, a best-selling albums list (pure) would help. Thanks for clarifying regarding which years/decades have bigger markets. Is it safe to say that we also have to factor in a bigger number/competition between music artists in the 90s? And it doesnt really matter if the market was bigger in the 90s than in the 80s. It still depends on people around the world if they will buy your albums/singles or not. Whitney was still alive and took advantage of it. Everyone was taking advantage of it. It just so happened that people were in love with Celine more.… Read more »
Hi RLAAMJR, You spend the whole message saying that it isn’t because you started on a bigger market that you will sell the most while nobody ever claimed that dumb thing. There is people who did well from every eras. You claim ludicrously that if they had started in the 80s, Celine and Mariah would be closer to Madonna. How do you know that? You don’t. Their current total could actually be lower than their current figures. They would have peaked when sales were half of what they were in the 80s, the standard pace of release was softer by… Read more »
Hi MJD, The first two paragraphs was for you and the rest was for Michael. But it’s ok. My point saying that if Celine and Mariah started in the 80s (let’s say 1980)and they could have sold more is because if let’s say album market was only until 2005, then they would have been able to take advantage of selling more albums for 25years. But since they started in the 1990s, they were only able to take advantage for 15years. And my opinion may not be factual, but has a basis. Check the top 20 best selling artists of all… Read more »
Hi RLAAMJR,
Even if I think you are starting to understand it, let me clarify that: Adele will continue to climb on both CSPC and ASR if she continues to release albums. The ASR is the total of success accumulated, not an average.
But a big slap on the face for Barbra.
Adele eas/cspc = 84,148,000
Barbra eas/cspc = 153,498,000
RLAAMJR. First of all I never said Whitney was more successful. She had bigger peak, Mariah had more consistency and she was more successful. I kept on saying the same thing over and over and over again but somehow you never could understand it.
Michael. Erm sorry but I think you misunderstood both ASR and CSPC. CSPC does NOT show success of an artist but rather their total record sales weighted into album equivalents. It’s just how much they sold. ASR/EDS is about success. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH PEAKS except that it shows how much impact each album had on an artists discography. It shows you who was more successful. Hence why the creator has told us that having a higher CSPC does not mean they are more successful. So Mariah having 167 million units does not mean she was more successful… Read more »
Let the catfight begin 🙂
How is Taylor Swift less successful than Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Pink if she sold more albums and singles than all of them with only 5 studio releases? (The other 3 have 6 or more)
Hi Scott!
Your claims are untrue. She hasn’t sold more albums than P!nk and she sold less singles than Gaga and Beyoncé. She sold less physical singles than them too.
Then, this indicator means exactly that sales aren’t the be-all and end-all of success. Some artists may sell more than others (Metallica vs Bob Marley) but be less successful. For example, P!nk’s sold more albums than Swift’s first 5 in spite of seeing her catalog sales truncated because of a greatest hits compilation, so she is definitely ahead in terms of album sales success.
Hey, Taylor did sold more albums than Pink. Swift’s FIVE first studio albums sold 40 million copies together. Pink’s SIX first studio albums sold 37 million. Add Pink’s compilation and they’re tied (but Taylor with 5 releases and Pink with 7). And let’s not forget that Pink debuted in 2000 while Taylor debuted 6 years later. http://chartmasters.org/2017/10/cspc-taylor-swift-popularity-analysis-2/10/ http://chartmasters.org/2017/10/cspc-pnk-popularity-analysis/10/ And Taylor also sold more digital singles than Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. Here their stats: Taylor Swift – 149,820,000 Beyoncé – 144,200,000 Lady Gaga – 111,200,000 http://chartmasters.org/2018/01/data-collector-biggest-digital-singles-sellers/ And that includes songs that the artist is only a featured artist (which I, personally,… Read more »
Hi Scott! My bad for digital sales, not sure why I had 105m in mind. Beyoncé would most likely be ahead if updated, but she is definitely higher than Gaga. About album sales, you can’t compare studio albums only, it doesn’t make sense. P!nk’s Greatest Hits sold very well and truncated her pure album sales, ignoring it gives a wrong perception of their comprehensive sales. You count it as 1 additional release, but it has cut wings of 6 releases in reality, it is not an extra value. It’s natural to see Taylor performing less well in ASR list. Her… Read more »
Okay, I will try to understand this method. Thanks for answering