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Hi MJD,
How do you explain the poor sales of the "Je m'appelle Barbra" album ? I remember reading articles about the exposure she had in french-speaking countries for that album sung in English and French. Do we have any information about its rankings in France, Belgium, Switzerland or Israel ? It was mostly made for those countries (its sales in America are quite huge, considering it wasn't made for the US). I own that record and there is a note from Maurice Chevalier complimenting Barbra's voice. BTW, she also released an LP calles "Barbra Streisand chante en français" only for european countries. She really tried hard lol.
Thank you very much ! 🙂
Hi Rell!
Album sales were still dreadful in France back then, we still preferred EPs instead! A hit album from a foreign artist would have been lucky to sell 25,000 units at that period. Anyway, that album wasn't a hit either, it never charted on unofficial rankings of that time. I saw various French lists for these years, but Barbra was still virtually unknown by 66. She got her first "succès d'estime" a pair of years later with Funny Girl!
Would it be fair to say that Barbra was the first female artist to cross the 100 million threshold? Or did Madonna or Whitney beat her to it?
Will you studied Barbra Streisand Popularity Analysis in France as other Album Sales article
Hi Crispy!
Considering her current CSPC / her Soundscan sales / her share of US sales, it seems safe to say she got there by the end of the 80s, so yes she was most likely the first one!
You missed some Brazil codes:
My name is Barbra, Two... (total 3k)
Guilty (CD+DVD): (total 3k)
The Movie Album (total 5,5k)
What Matters Most (total 4k)
Found here: https://www.ukmix.org/forums/search.php?keywords=barbra&t=33047&sf=msgonly
wasnt JUST FOR THE RECORD sold nearly 500k in US alone?Why here is showing 120k WW
MJD! Can we see the breakdown of sales for Tell Him by Barbra Streisand and Céline Dion? Thank u
Through the years I have listened to everything that is publicly available by Barbra Streisand. The best part is being able to hear her grow throughout the years from being just a girl then into a refined woman. On each and every album that she has recorded there is, at the very least, one astonishing performance.
Also, with such a huge catalog, she has never had anything pulled or gone "out of print"...everything is still available. To me that speaks volumes about her popularity and innate artistry.
Hi MJD. I was just wondering. Will the 80s, 90s Divas catalogue sales drop even further to Barbra's or many other 60s Divas rate of catalogue sales growth in the long future or will they be able to maintain selling around a million EAS per year. Thank you.
Hi Jazz!
They will definitely go down as time passes. Their fans get older and they will get less and less visible, until they pass away obviously but I'm letting this apart as Barbra herself is still with us.
One of the things thay may make them go down at a slower pace is that they are all from the MTV era. They did release music videos, on which they are young. For youngsters, it's difficult to think about Barbra as something else than an old singer, so it's hard to relate to her and hard to get interested into her music. It's different when you can see 80s clips of Madonna or 90s videos from Celine, Mariah and Whitney, then you can better value what they really represented, you can put their music into context and ultimately it's easier to appreciate it more.. although there will be no miracle still as these videos will still look more and more dated through the years. It will just soften the process.
To be more precise, they have different careers and time will thus impact them differently. Whitney has a soul vibe, her popular songs will always be featured on black / R&B playlists a la Etta James or Aretha Franklin, she may age just fine. Mariah's general public perception will focus more and more around her xmas material, she is likely to be seen as Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole in a distant future, her remaining catalog will do next to nothing while AIWFCIY will keep smashing. Madonna always evolved with trends, the problem with that is that once the trend is over, the material sounds dated very quickly, which is why her streams are already weak considering the amount of hits she released. The good point of that yet, is that trends follow circles, they come back, so just like ABBA or the Bee Gees we can expect her catalog to enjoy revivals every 5 to 15 years. Time may be harsher with Celine, adult contemporary singers target an older audience who will pass away sooner than main pop stars, and there are always an influx of new AC singers coming year after year. She will likely be on Barbra's shoes at some point in the future.
Why do you think female artists are way easily forgotten than male ones? like why are artists like the Rolling Stones (which young people can't really relate to at all) have more current popularity than Madonna and Mariah