France best selling albums ever: In Deep by Tina Arena (1997)

In Deep confirmed the widespread appeal of Tina Arena in her home country Australia a few years after her initial breakthrough with Don’t Ask. This gave her the opportunity to record a couple of French songs and add them on In Deep tracklist in France, a reissue dropped in October 1998, over one year after the first release.

The strategy paid off strongly. Both first English-language singles were hits but failed to generated much album sales. From October 1998 to June 1999 it peaked at #29. First French single, Aller Plus Haut, was then released. The album instantly jumped from 31 to 18 to 7 in September. It remained Top 10 all weeks minus three until April 2000 thanks to Les 3 Cloches taking over the album promotion.

Sales have been very respectable until March 2001, enabling In Deep to hit 900,000 units. It was certified in May but considering it was the first Sony Music audit of the year it surely reached the goal earlier. In fact, in that year it was reported by Billboard as a million seller in France. This success made the singer the most successful Australian solo singer in France, eclipsing Kylie Minogue.

Selling a solid 65,000 units from 2002 to 2007 it has been pretty much forgotten in recent years.

Net shipment as of the end of 2015 is estimated at 1,090,000 copies.

As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!

Sources: SNEP, IFOP, Billboard.