France Best Selling Albums Ever

Debut Albums

01 Louise Attaque – Louise Attaque (1997) : 2 760 000
02 Era – Era (1997) : 2 180 000
03 Garou – Seul (2000) : 1 970 000
04 Manu Chao – Clandestino (1998) : 1 825 000
05 Manau – Panique Celtique (1998) : 1 780 000
06 Christophe Maé – Mon Paradis (2007) : 1 615 000
07 Patricia Kaas – Mademoiselle Chante… (1988) : 1 490 000
08 Mika – Life In Cartoon Motion (2007) : 1 430 000
09 Fredericks Goldman Jones – Fredericks Goldman Jones (1990) : 1 425 000
10 Carla Bruni – Quelqu’un M’A Dit (2002) : 1 405 000

One element to notice is how recent all those albums are. Only one debut album released before 1988 ever sold 1 million. At the time, each artist had to make his hole before benefitting from majors promotion machines. A second key element is how most of those acts were already known prior those debut albums which highlights even more the difficulty of this feat. Both Garou and Christophe Maé were musicals superstars, Era was a project from famous Eric Lévi, Carla Bruni was a model star, Fredericks Goldman Jones a side project of Jean-Jacques Goldman and Manu Chao had already successfully led Mano Negra band.

Christmas Albums

01 Tino Rossi – C’est La Belle Nuit De Noêl (1973) : 1 085 000

Well, this category is rather empty, but just a small congrats to legendary Tino Rossi for achieving the impossible by selling over 1 million units of a Christmas album in France.