France best selling albums ever: Dans Ma Bulle by Diam’s (2006)
Back in 2006, local Rap music wasn’t so strong in France. Inside the official Year End Album Chart top 25, only one such album was there. That album was Dans Ma Bulle by Diam’s, quite simply the #1 album of the year.
Well, at least on official IFOP ranking as GFK ended revealing that the true top seller was La Septième Vague by Laurent Voulzy. Diam’s was already a known when her second major album – and third overall – got released in early 2006. Her song DJ was a notable hit a few years before in 2003, peaking at #2, while its parent album Brut De Femme debuted and peaked at #7. Her popularity was strong among 12 to 20 target audience only though, as she had yet to break over the main audience.
The lead single of Dans Ma Bulle, La Boulette (Génération nan nan) rocketed her into much higher spheres. This 3 weeks #1, 14 weeks top 10 smash was all over the place during 2006 first semester. Soon, Diam’s was regarded as the voice of an entire generation, the one to look at when trying to connect with young guns of the country. The album did wonders on its own topping charts for 3 weeks as well. Then, the #4 second single Jeune Demoiselle was just as iconic as the first. Both together plus all the press around her incredible success supported the February issued LP all year long.
So did the third one, Ma France A Moi, which pushed it up to #2 one year into its chart run. All in all, the record lasted 63 weeks without ever dropping below #17. In terms of physical units, it accumulated 670,000 sales in 2006 and 235,000 in 2007.
With the album out of charts by the end of that latter year, it hasn’t been selling too much since. The 2012 retirement of the singer won’t help from now. Adding catalog sales, the 2CD box with Brut De Femme plus download sales from its first years, it has now reached 1 million still.
- 2006: 670,000 CD + 6,000 DL
- 2007: 235,000 CD + 2,000 DL
- 2008-2009: 30,000
- 2010-2013: 25,000
- 2014-2016: 10,000
- 2CD boxes: 10,000
A grand total of 988,000 copies sold.
Net shipment as of the end of 2016 is estimated at 1,000,000 copies.
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