Forum
Btw, do you know how many copies Brother in Arms sold in Portugal? It was a HUGE sucess, i guess its the best selling international record in Portugal
Hi Lorrane!
Not sure it is needed to bump a message a few hours later only 😉
Nevermind, Dire Straits are indeed massive in Portugal. They got a Gold album way back in 1980 with Communiqué, while the criteria (30k) was very hard to reach. All their 1982-1993 releases topped charts except Alchemy which still sold very well. I'm not sure BIA is the top selling international album there though, quite simply because the market was really weak. It was a true monster - 19 weeks at #1. The biggest album of 1985 ahead of Scorpions' best of. But as I said, sales were low. Only 7 albums (inc. BIA) reached Platinum that year for 60,000 units sold. There is several #1 albums which failed to get there. It is likely that it sold over 100,000 copies in 1985 alone, which would imply a good 200,000 up to date at least giving patterns from remaining countries.
This is enough to put it among the very best sellers for sure, but there is too much data missing: albums like Nevermind, Queen's GH II, Supertramp's Very Best Of, Bon Jovi's Crossroads all sold large quantities at release thanks to a bigger market are remained huge catalog sellers too. But Seriously was the #1 album of the year in 1990 after smashing 1989 too. Bodyguard too was the global #1 seller of a calendar year in 1993 with a (relatively) strong market. Then of course, Pink Floyd are god-like figures there with even relatively weak albums hitting multi-plat status, so who knows how many units the likes DSOTM and The Wall sold. Bocelli's Romanza sold over 200k, the only international album which is confirmed at this level of sales, although I expect most albums I mentioned here to be over that plateau.
Last but not least, if I had to bet a bit of money, I would most likely go with ABBA's Gold. It was 10 weeks #1, 2xP (120k) in a few weeks and one hell of a catalog seller since then.
I just wanted to make a small correction, Romanza is not the only album that has confirmed more than 200,000 copies in Portugal, several Brazilian artists have passed the mark of 200000 there
Yes, I mentioned "international" rather than "foreign" to avoid Brazilian artists. I still remember the absolute madness around Iran Costa back in the day, these are not good memories 😉
Mark Knopfler is still making albums, and he wrote all the Dire Straits songs.
I have rediscovered Dire Straits recently, and starting getting the MFSL SACD's of their albums. Very good group.
"How can they be so high with this context? Well, thanks to sensational success in all other areas like Europe, Brazil and Oceania."
But how many copies did they sell in Brazil?
You are probably not of the same generation as me 🙂
Brothers in Arms collected certifications everywhere: Diamond both in Canada and France, 24x Platinum in New Zealand, 17x in Australia, 14x in U.K., 9x in U.S.A. and a lot of others... Not my favorite album of them, but commercially a great success
