France Album Sales: Mylène Farmer
Les Mots (2001) Era
The instinctive thinking will make one believe the most studio albums an artist sold the biggest a compilation of them will be. While the appeal of the best of package will clearly make it a contender for strong and enduring catalog sales, huge initial reception upon release isn’t all that likely since most possible buyers already own several of the artist albums.
This is even truer when studio albums sold bucketloads a few years before only, the situation Mylène Farmer was in by 2001.
There is still a solution to avoid the canibalization of a best of by studio albums themselves – containing new hits. Les Mots best of had three news tracks. The title track was a duet with Seal, this #2 hit lasted an impressive 17 weeks inside the Top 10 to become one of the artist biggest hits of her career. Follow up single C’est Une Belle Journée went #5 and was a huge radio hit too. Last new song Pardonne-Moi wasn’t as big but still went #6.
The album was a easy #1 in the Compilation chart for 6 consecutive weeks at the end of 2001 shifting an incredible 670,000 units in that time span. It kept doing wonders in 2002 with a total of nine months inside the Top 10. By the end of that year, it was up to 1,325,000 units, almost as much as the artist two biggest albums.
While a new album could have been expected, Polydor kept exploiting the artist catalog with the release of RemixeS in 2003 fall. The package went #3 at Compilation end, ultimately moving past 100,000 units sold.
Top 3 Most Streamed Tracks on Spotify
- Les Mots – 863,000
- C’est Une Belle Journée – 770,000
- Pardonne-Moi – 111,000