France Album Sales: Madonna
Who’s That Girl (1987) Era
Released while France was in complete Madonna madness, Who’s That Girl debuted at #2, only blocked by… Madonna’s own album True Blue that climbed to the top for the very first time in the bi-weekly chart of August 1987.
The following chart, as the artist performed her monster show in Paris, the ranking went mad. True Blue remained at #1, Who’s That Girl stood at #2, Like A Virgin reentered charts after over a year at #5 and the debut Madonna album made its very first entry at #9. Although the summer competition wasn’t strong, those results were absolutely astonishing. In the single chart her domination was just as impressive as the Who’s That Girl single climbed all the way to #2, replacing her own La Isla Bonita as the runner up to Vanessa Paradis’ hugely hyped debut hit Joe Le Taxi.
The album had an incredible chart run, totaling 10 weeks at #2. The first four of them were behind her own True Blue, the following four topped by the most anticipated album of all-time, Michael Jackson’s follow up to Thriller, Bad. The last two weeks were behind the most successful Jean-Jacques Goldman album, the longest running French album at #1 of the decade in the country.
As if it wasn’t enough, the end of the year saw the release of You Can Dance, a remix album. This record was itself blocked at #2 for four weeks due to the aforementioned Goldman album. During Christmas week, You Can Dance and Who’s That Girl were respectively sitting at #2 and #3 while True Blue was still in the Top 15. By the end of 1987, True Blue had sold over 10 million units outside the US, more than 5 million in the US, while Who’s That Girl and You Can Dance sold 8 million units worldwide combined.
In early 1988, this outstanding era was concluded with The Look Of Love single, which peaked at #23. All three charting albums slowed down during that year’s first quarter, leaving rankings one by one. Madonna was going to come back soon enough in a big way though.
Top 3 Most Streamed Tracks on Spotify
- Who’s That Girl – 3,437,000
- Causing A Commotion – 638,000
- The Look Of Love – 228,000